This is Vermont Edition.

I'm Mikeala Lefrak.

Today we are broadcasting in front of a live studio audience of Vermont Public members.

We're in Vermont Public Stetson, Studio One in Colchester with the one the only, Grace Potter.

She's a Grammy nominated musician and songwriter who grew up in Vermont, Mad River Valley.

She released four studio albums with her band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and five solo albums.

The festival she founded, Grand Point North, returns to the Burlington Waterfront just a few days from today.

In late July.

Grace, welcome back to Vermont Edition.

Thank you, Mikayla.

It's so nice to meet you in person.

You as well.

This is an honor.

The last time that you were on the show was in 2017, and at that time you called yourself bicoastal living between Vermont and L.A. and you also said something that stuck out to me.

You said that you didn't really feel like you could fully say that you were from Vermont because you felt like you were sort of from everywhere at that time.

You were traveling so much.

You've been on the road on tour for much of your adult life.

I'm curious if your sense of home has changed in the seven years since that interview.

That's so I think it's apropos of what I've been going through with my songwriting and also the questions that we ask ourselves every day about what what we're doing here and where we came from.

Because I know I came from Vermont, but I do feel like there are certain people who have that migratory bird spirit, and I'm more of a warhorse than a bird, but I think there is definitely an element of belonging or not belonging that I've always felt in every place that I go, and this sort of curiosity to explore where and how I can fit into any local community and feel like a local or learn from the locals, you know.

But no, I mean, I think my my feelings about Vermont have never changed.

I've I love it.

It is my home.

And and things have also changed because I bought a farm here.

So now we are back in my hometown in Faced in Vermont.

And I bought the farm with my husband in 2020.

So finding that stable place and finding a place to come from, no matter where I'm going to, I now have that that place of my own that's not just crashing on my parents couch, you know?

Well, I have some guesses as to why you made a big life decision in 2020, but tell us more.

Why did you decide to buy a farm in Vermont?

I did not decide to buy a farm in Vermont.

My husband decided to buy permanent Vermont because he's from northern California and the grass is always greener and the grass is particularly green.

And I think because he knew me and he'd fallen in love with my family and our community, I think there was a real sense of this is the perfect time to establish, even over the course of a long period of time, because it takes a long time to to build up your dream home.

And we certainly didn't have a lot of idea as to where the future was going to take us.

So it felt like a really stabilizing force to to bring the family back together.

A bunch of my cousins were moving back to Vermont, my aunts and uncles, it was just so many of my tribe, quote unquote, that were finding themselves sort of gravitating to that that centrifugal force of of central Vermont.

But but I was right smack dab in the middle of my tour for my for my record, which was nominated for a Grammy.

And it was like this whole the career path that had sort of stalled out when I had a kid became exciting again right at the moment when everything stopped and it felt really scary for me.

So not to say I wanted to only be in California, I always planned on coming back to Vermont, but it was the timing of it was, I think, based on the fact that we all just felt I was worried about my people.

And Eric, my husband, Eric Valentine, he really wanted to build his his dream studio and be able to fulfill his idea of what the second half of his life was going to look like.

So I supported him in that.

And you two were very closely together.

Very much, yeah.

Yeah.

We love each other and we have so much fun creatively.

It's hard with a six year old, he was he was very helpful yesterday in the studio with the dog and the megaphone on it was very Flaming Lips.

That was like a megaphone that makes your voice sound like a robot.

And he was coming through and we're working on this song and it's very soft and subtle and something we hear like, Max, do not go in the room.

This is bad.

Come with me.

Don't be loud, Max.

You know, just I mean, Beyonce puts her kids on her record totally.

It's different.

They're cute.

Sagan is just loud.

My child is.

I mean, I'm not surprised he's going to end up with a foghorn voice with a mom like.

Like me.

Yeah, I got one of those now.

Well, we're recording this conversation just a couple days before the start of Grand Point North.

Yes.

The festival that you started back in 2011, and it's been on hiatus for a couple of years.

It's back now.

Why the break and why bring it back now?

It was a really challenging thing for me to watch the years sort of tick by that it wasn't happening.

I think the logistics of the waterfront and I'm very I think there's a very sturdy feeling from from me at least, that it needed to happen on the waterfront.

And my partners higher ground were really trying to figure out ways and scrambling to figure out ways to staff it, because so much of the music industry took a huge hit during COVID.

Many of the people who were there in the capacity of site management, you know, the logistics, the security, everything right down to the porta potties.

People were just leaving those positions and going and taking more, more desirable jobs that were going to be more consistent pay.

And I think that's really where it started.

But then after that, it became, okay, well, the city is changing.

The culture in Burlington needs this.

And I felt this urgent pull back to the waterfront, especially this pedestrian atmosphere that I really love about European cities.

I've just always felt like Burlington has the essence of a European city and that getting people on foot down to the waterfront was the most important thing.

And so then comes the respect that we have to have for the neighbors and understanding just what kind of burden it can be on a community when there's a bunch of people flexing into a city after not having that and becoming used to a different life.

So there was a lot of convincing bootstrap pulling up.

I guess we're not supposed to say that anymore, but it really felt like I needed to find all the hands that were still on deck and then find more hands.

And it took a long time.

And I'm grateful to my partners and to the city of Burlington for finally finding a window to to bring us back in.

Well, you have an amazing lineup.

The Flaming Lips are heavy in the head, in the heart, a bunch of local musicians.

You'll be playing two shows and the proceeds from your concerts are going to go towards flood relief efforts.

Yeah, this city 100%.

Yeah.

An issue very, very close to your heart for many reasons, including the fact that your farm, which we were just talking about, recently flooded.

And I'm so sorry to hear that.

Can you tell us what happened?

It was it was different than last year.

Certainly the mad River Valley took a big hit last year.

It was more I think the flooding has been just so unpredictable in the places that it lands.

And the way that our community comes together is the thing that that never changes.

It's amazing how people band together, but it was more on the more town side of things.

More town, Montpelier, Berry, Hardwick and Plainfield obviously really, really got hit.

But our field, which used to be an airport, I think back in the seventies, who knows what they were flying in and out of there, but it was something there was a lot of, I think, a feeling of, okay, well, the field is low, but the barn is high.

Our house is kind of in the middle.

We ended up getting pretty severely flooded.

And the field, the river actually breached and cut through the field and created a new brook through our field and washed out our road.

So we didn't have access to our house for about a week.

And there's just yeah, like 30 trees just, you know, where there once was an airport.

There are now all these incredible trees.

So we, we did get a considerable amount of damage on our property and our basement in our farmhouse was about four and a half feet underwater.

So and all of my wardrobe was in the basement.

So, yeah, I'm going to actually be a lot of it survived and did very well.

We're going to do a, I think a silent auction as well as I'm going to take a lot of that in in the upcycling and recycling world that we live in now.

And I'm going to be either donating it or putting it into the silent auction because a lot of it did really well.

It's fine.

And there's a lot of great rock and roll history in that basement.

So where is it's currently?

Out in the driveway drying off.

And we've got people with this.

I might as well just bring in Stanley Steemer and get it all fixed up.

Yeah.

Well, speaking of upcycling and recycling, we got a number of emails from our listeners ahead of today's show.

One person named Thea wrote in to say that she's building sculptures for your upcoming show, and she said that you tasked her with using plastic bottles to build the sculpture.

She partnered with Lamp Oil, Regional, Solid Waste District, Mooresville Beverage, Redemption and Rascals Redemption to collect close to 6000 plastic bottles in three days to build this sculpture.

And when Thea heard that you were donating your proceeds to flood relief, she decided to do the same.

She's going to be dividing her earnings among three individuals who are affected by the floods.

They're going to receive cash, as well as a week's respite at her sculpture, sculpture park and studio space.

And Thea writes that she has survived and thrived post a traumatic event of her own.

She lost her barn, her studio and half her house to a barn fire seven years ago.

And she writes, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to grant this money and support respite for folks who need it more than I owe.

Thea, I love you, Thea.

Alvin is her full name, by the way, and she is just an incredible talent.

We've collaborated with her before.

She's done the entry way to Greenpoint North for four years, passed.

And and she's I can't wait for folks to see her pieces.

I've been watching it get built and it's just one of the most exciting, compelling visual experiences.

You can have to see someone who's a true master at what they do, implement someone else's hard work and intention and put it into something so beautiful.

I'm not going to over describe it because you have to go there and see it yourself, but it's incredible.

These are very big pieces.

We are we actually are currently going to be picking up a truck to to bring them to site.

And it's a bigger truck than we thought.

I'm really excited about it.

Thea, I love you.

Thank you so much.

That's great news.

Grace, we have asked you to play a couple of songs for us today.

And in just a moment, I'll ask you to play the first one, which is nothing but the water off of your first album.

Yes, at first I want to share one more email from a listener.

Paul in Hinds Berg.

He shared a favorite memory of seeing you perform.

He says it was a Friday night soundcheck for Greenpoint, North On the Waterfront.

On a gorgeous September early evening, we were one of only six boats anchored just offshore, enjoying all of Grace's fine tuning.

After one of her awesome vocals, we were all hooting and hollering and tapping our boat horns.

Grace got out her mike and sweetly said, Thanks, everybody, but this is only my soundcheck.

It didn't matter because we were loving our private concert.

And Paul says his favorite song is your cover of White Rabbit, and he says he blasts it from the Mad River Glenn single chair mid station on a regular basis in the wintertime.

Yes.

Oh, that's amazing.

Paul, thank you for that note.

That's an amazing message.

I love it.

Wow.

I'll hand it over to you.

Yeah, well, it's it's great that this is the first song of this conversation.

And because we are talking about plastic pollution, we're talking about the flood, and we're also talking about just the human impact on our planet.

And I think when I wrote this song, I came at it from a perspective of someone who feels spiritual but not necessarily connected to any one organized religion.

And and in in the past, I've actually gotten letters from people saying that they want to join my church.

So just so everyone's clear, I do not have a church now.

I'm like, now I'm not a politician and I do not have a church.

But I think it is this idea that water is life, and that's a theme that we're going to be carrying through the festival.

The poster I designed for the festival is a huge Vermont farm style faucet that's pouring into Lake Champlain, but it's just like a faucet in the sky.

And I think it really is meant to help us to endeavor to remove that faucet.

We do not need to add.

We need to understand where water is the essence of where we came from evolutionarily.

You know, stories are one piece of it.

But deeper than that, we we can cleanse ourselves and we can start anew when we understand the value of water, especially clean water.

So this is nothing but the water.

I have seen what men can do when the evil lives inside.

Many are weak and the strong are few.

But with the water we'll start a new.

So why don't you take me down to the levee?

Take me down to the stream Take me down to the water.

We're going to wash ourselves clean.

Take me down to the river.

Take me back to the lake.

Yes, we'll all go together.

We're going to do it for the whole state.

I have fun so many times for the devil.

So he's coming right now.

So learn has brought but this fall for us again.

So we want to take men down to the levee take men down to street.

Take me down to where we're going to wash us.

So take me down to the river.

Take me down to me yes.

We'll all go together.

We're going to do it for the whole world.

I'll try my hand at the Bible.

A china handed prayer, but nothing, nothing but the water is going to break my soul tried my hand at the Bible, tried my hand at prayer.

Nothing, nothing.

What is going to bring my son?

Oh, we are live in studio today with Grace Potter.

Coming up, we're going to talk about making music in and for Vermont.

But first, a quick break.

Stay with us.

Welcome back to Vermont Edition.

I'm Mikayla Lefrak.

If you're just joining us, we are broadcasting live from Stetson Studio One here at Vermont Public in Colchester in front of a live studio audience of Vermont public members.

Our guest is the Grammy nominated musician, Grace Potter.

Grace, we got so many emails ahead of this conversation from listeners sharing favorite memories of seeing you perform.

Here's one from Lindsey, who writes In 2011, you teamed up with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to help promote a new line of Fair Trade certified coffee.

This included a four day trip to Colombia to meet with coffee farmers and coffee coffee producer cooperatives.

It was a difficult trip, they write, with early mornings, long drives on bumpy roads and trekking through steep and muddy terrain.

Greece took it all in stride, sharing her infectious smile and good humor.

The trip culminated with Grace honoring her hosts with a solo performance in a remote Highland Village as the sun set over the mountains.

She addressed the crowd of coffee farmers and their families in Spanish and had them singing along with her by the end of the set, which concluded with a rousing version of the song Paris.

I have such fond memories.

They write of the warm and enthusiastic cheers at the end of Grace's performance and the sound of young women singing Ooh la la.

As they walked back to their homes in the twilight.

Thank you, Grace, for this remarkable experience and your support of farming communities.

Rock on.

Yes.

Lindsey Oh, that's so cool.

Oh, man.

What a what a journey that was.

I just remember the kids that night.

There was so many amazing kids, some of whom were in their traditional, you know, their village had a lot of pride around the traditions.

And I just remember feeling very underdressed.

I was in my, like, very utilitarian Vermont, you know, like khakis and, you know, keys, zip off, short zip shorts.

I was the dorky.

Yeah, it was super.

Laura Dern that day.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was, you know, it was great.

Well, you grew up in the Mad River Valley, as you said.

And one of the ways that you got into music is a way that I think a lot of people get it.

Music, which is taking piano lessons.

Yes.

Who is your piano teacher?

My mom.

Oh, yeah.

My mom was a piano teacher after school.

Just to supplement, I think during the recession, artists really took a hit.

My dad is a sign maker, and my mom is also an artisan herself.

She makes hand-painted wooden bowls and my dad does science for the likes of Ben and Jerry's Greenmount Coffee Roasters, lots and lots of ski areas and many places around Vermont that you could recognize.

But I, I realized even at a young age, I wrote it in my journal and it seemed like money was tight and there needed to be some supplemental income.

And I remember just feeling lonely and wanting to have friends over.

So my mom started teaching piano lessons and I ended up making friends with all of these incredible students that were very talented people who could read music and who were listening attentively to teacher Peggy.

And of course, I was a competitive little middle child.

So I would listen to their lessons and then I would by ear copy whatever they had learned.

And I'd sit down with my mom and just watch her fingers or listen to what was being played.

And it was never I never recreated it correctly.

But that's not what music is about.

It's not necessarily about being trained at something.

It's about feeling your way through something and being given an environment in which you can be brave to make mistakes.

And I think that my parents did that in in so many different ways.

For me, I'm just very lucky to have been given the opportunity to explore music while also not following any of the rules.

So I can't say I took piano lessons.

I piano lessons at my mother is a better way of saying it.

Well, you must have an incredible ear to be able to do that.

Yeah, I think that that's what I was born with.

I it's something that moves through me not it's not something I cultivated myself.

So it's always been an interesting relationship with music because I feel so lucky to have it.

But sometimes when you have a gift that you didn't ask for, just like when you're born into a family, you didn't ask to be the way you are.

But it is an unavoidable truth that I am very musical.

But I am also an unavoidably terrible music student, so I've worked it out.

I'm very lucky, but there's so many different ways in you know, you went to Harwood Union High School.

Yeah.

And a listener named Joe in Stowe wrote that their first memory of you performing was at Harwood Union when you played Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

Yes.

Along with an upstart freshman named Sheena.

Yes.

Big cat girl.

That same Sheena is now a Tony Award.

Tony Award winning.

I guess she just won two Tonys, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Yep.

For the musical surface was she wrote.

And Joe here writes, You are a Vermont arts star in our amazing constellation.

Yes.

What do you think was in the water there at Harwood Union?

Shayna was an incredible talent from day one.

I was the oddball on the outside that couldn't figure out whether I wanted to make movies or be a dancer or an artist or a sculptor.

You know, I had all these different ideas of what I wanted to do so I would be on set, doing costumes, not rehearsing.

Shaina would be rehearsing.

I would be doing costumes.

Oh, you know what we should do with the set piece here?

I mean, we paint.

I designed and helped, you know, build a lot of the set pieces.

I liked the process of putting a thing together with a bunch of people and being a part of a bigger thing.

But I was so bad at rehearsing, and I think she really taught me about what it's like to fine tune your instrument, what it is like to recognize what you have to bring to the table and emphasize the story.

Find yourself in a song, but also let the song be the song.

You know, don't, don't make it always just your own.

There is a place for having those bumpers of a creative idea and a message that's important that needs to be conveyed because it's been conveyed before.

And it will be weird if the audience sees the show and suddenly Sally Bowles doesn't have the same color hair or an accent or is doing gymnastics instead of dancing like a burlesque dancer.

There's a lot of there and the entire cast of that, as well as the director Peter Boynton, made such an impact on me.

I've just been looking back through some video of that and it was very bad video but very, very, very special show.

Joe.

Well, I'm searching for it here.

We also got an email from a listener.

Here it is.

Would you ever consider performing with the Harwood Assembly Band?

Oh, yes.

You're kidding me.

Absolutely.

In fact, a lot of the folks that that I came up in in Harwood with, they went on I mean, Stephanie ended up being the choir teacher for many years.

And also doing the musicals and plays there.

And then she put together a band that was playing last year when I was going around the state for the town hall with Bernie Sanders.

And I got to see what Stephanie had made of taking what was formal training and like terrifying talent of someone who could just head on, you know, just like this and then being like, Yeah, but now it's trash at all and just make a rock band with every single type of child that maybe is a little more like me, a little bit more on the outskirts of things.

And that's what she's been pursuing.

And it's really it makes me happy to see that there is a place for all different kinds of artistic expression.

But I really think there was something in the water at that time.

I don't know what was going on there, but it was special.

Parker Cellars is out there doing Marvel movies, and I mean, there's a John Hyde making new Amazon Prime, you know, series.

There's a bunch of folks that I literally was in kindergarten or first grade with, all of whom are making huge impacts in the world of entertainment.

And I think that cultural integrity must come from having all those hippie parents.

It's a a good thing.

Yeah.

Well, I know it's something that you're tried to cultivate as well.

And I want to talk about your new foundation.

But first, let's play one more.

Absolutely.

I believe the next one is some cold medicine.

Yeah.

Tell us about it.

So this is a song this is an interesting moment in my life where a song has come back around full circle for me.

I think as a young person writing music, I was always trying to project myself into the future of some wiser version of me.

And everybody always said like, Oh, you're very, what do they call it?

Not prolific.

But when you when you're kind of wise beyond your years.

And I think that the precocious is the word I was trying to think of, but it was more than that.

It was, I think, a wiser, higher version of myself that was sort of channeling down, giving me some like, this is what's going to go down, babe, because a lot of these songs have ended up being quite prophetic for me.

And this song, Medicine, I started working on a record with T-Bone BURNETT in 2008 that was separate from the Nocturnals, and it was something I really wanted to do because I love T-Bone BURNETT and in the process the band put together some of those same songs and made the record called the eponymous Grace Potter and the Nocturnals album, which was absolutely life changing and a lot of wild great things happened from that record.

But the T-Bone BURNETT record got shelved, and I'm happy to announce that the record called Medicine, based around the song Medicine, is going to be coming out.

Yeah, there's a there's a lot more to that story and you'll hear more about it later.

But I've just been listening back to and opening up the time capsule.

That is some recordings that have never been heard by the world that were produced by T-Bone BURNETT in 2008 and I'm just so entrenched in the feeling of going back to where the song came from and how much of the song feels true and real for me now.

So, so here it is.

This one is called medicine.

Yeah.

Percy woman got ahold of my baby.

Since come around here been the same.

No, she look at him with a dark brown.

I tell him things that could make a grown man cry.

I guess a woman's love from my lover.

Oh, he's been in a haze since the day that he saw her.

She shook her hips and a long black hair.

Now all my baby does is stay That gypsy woman do that boy She makes you feel she got you spinning on that policy wheel.

She's crossing me with her magnetic sand.

She got that man, Hamas, get everybody.

She get the miss the tattoo.

She get the medicine and the everybody she get the sun everybody all right, turn down soon.

And king rolling.

And the time she got up.

Ever want to follow that?

And she's without that rattling bone.

She laid it all down.

I looked her deep in our eyes.

I said, Mom made me cry, got the medicine, the border wall.

She got the medicine and the everybody'll.

She got the medicine.

Everybody got she got the medicine.

Everybody laughed.

I stole a bag of rattling by her fast love and a magic stone.

I swept up her magnetic sand I took her love potion that much I had my heart had the medicine, everybody I got the medicine available I got the medicine the everybody I got the medicine and less medicine I got my sight yeah.

And after my study I got my sight I got the medicine in the everybody who thank you.

That's Grace Potter live in studio with us.

Grace, before we have to take a quick break, what does it feel like to revisit that emotion that first started to bubble up for you more than a decade ago?

Yeah, on that song, it was a weird one, too, to go back to it and realize how different the song was then.

Because I do that song almost every night live now.

Everybody loves it.

But it was a very different iteration of it.

Back in the day when I met with T-Bone, he just said, You know, you have that thing, that thing that is like if you were in a revival tent and you got on the mic, you were the lady that's possessed that can't stop with the tambourine and this energy that just is a lightning rod to something else that isn't just you.

It's it's everyone.

And I remember him saying that and going, Oh, you have no idea, dude I am just faking it, you know?

And the thing is, is that I realize now I'm not faking it.

I was unable to understand what I was doing, but I really am hearing voices and echoes of ancestors and probably people I've never met and never will meet.

But they are speaking through me and I love being the radio station that they can tune into.

And I love being the the the joy box that it comes out of, you know.

Well, we can feel in the room here in Colchester and hopefully everyone here, it's alive with love.

Oh, we got a revival.

Going to get married to that.

Hopefully everybody who's listening could hear that energy as well.

We are with Grace Potter.

We're going to take one more short break, more when we come back.

Stay with us.

Welcome back to Vermont Edition.

I'm Mikayla Lefrak.

Today, we are broadcasting live from Stetson Studio One here at Vermont Public in Colchester in front of a live studio audience.

Our guest is the Grammy nominated musician Grace Potter, who's currently tuning up for another song.

Grace, keep keep on tuning.

I'm going to read a couple of emails that we got from listeners, head of today's show.

Paula writes The most smoldering video duet of all time is Grace Potter and Kenny Chesney's.

You and Tequila Stars is a heartbreaking powerhouse of a torch song.

Thank you, Grace, for your amazing music.

We can't get enough of it.

It makes me so happy.

Amanda from Bath, New Hampshire, writes, I can't wait to hear the interview with Grace Potter.

I enjoy so much of her catalog.

But Starz holds a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to hear what she plays next.

Thank you.

A lot of love for stars.

Yeah, that song really gets people here.

And we have a listener named Ed from Fairlie who writes, I first saw Grace Potter at the Greenwich Town Party in 2012.

I was a barbecue competitor and I got to see some behind the scenes stuff.

I'm sure he did.

I was a fan prior to that, but I am a devotee since that time.

Oh, that makes me so happy.

I wonder what barbecue he was.

Because, I mean, I'm like a pulled pork is sort of my thing.

Like all the way back from Harwood at Harwood, they do the sloppy Joes, you know.

And I know it sounds like a like a Adam Sandler joke, but they they really were the best.

And I was like, yeah, I was like, Beat my lunch, lady.

I dare you.

I dare you.

Good fact.

All right.

All right.

Well, we are going to hear one more song from you.

Before we do, let's talk about the album Mother Road, which came out in 2023.

And you wrote some of the songs I believe are on something of a great journey in Road Trip.

Yes, Journey.

Can you tell us about that time?

Well, do you remember during COVID when you couldn't rent a car like you could reserve a car, you could pay $635 to a company and then go to the counter.

And they just go, I don't know, I don't have them.

There's a headache.

Sorry.

Good luck.

See out there, sailor.

So what I was really feeling was and I didn't know until that moment that so much of my sense of my spirit and the freedom of expression that I enjoy the most is actually being mobile and being individually mobile.

Just ask anybody who tours with me.

I often just need to be in a car by myself.

It's not that I want to isolate.

It's that it's the only place I have to really reflect, internalize and churn back through things that have happened.

Maybe in silence sometimes with music.

But I went to California to go get our car because in 2020 we also bought for the first time ever, a car.

I've never bought a new car.

I like old cars, but just realizing how impossible it was going to be for me to be mobile.

Also coming to Vermont and realizing that you rent a car with a different state plate and that's a problem.

So like a lot of the car rental places were like, Dude, I don't know, you got New York plates.

I'm like, You can't.

I'm here for two months.

I can't be running around with the New York plates the whole time.

You know, there's a very specific Vermont.

I think Vermonters who are hearing this probably understand and relate.

It doesn't mean it's okay.

Every state plate should be allowed and accepted.

But for some reason Vermonters are a bit cagey.

Same goes with when it's not an 802 number calling you.

You know, I personally don't have an 802 number, so I had to actually change my ID to just say Grace Potter so that when I'm calling you, you see that it's me.

Because nobody was picking up when we moved back to Vermont, like none of my contractor friends, you know, Home Depot the guy I needed to come and, you know, dig a ditch when we needed to.

Anyways, the point is, Vermont is a place in which I love nestling in and becoming a part of the borough of love and comfort that I feel here with my family and with my community.

But there's also I need to be able to crash out and just be free and go.

And the panic I felt at not being able to do that was really scary.

So the journey I took was to go get my car so that I could do that.

And I ended up going across the country four times.

I, I primarily stuck to Route 66 or detours and tributaries of Route 66 four times.

Did you forget the car the first time?

No, I.

We returned so we picked up the car.

It turned out to be a lemon.

Then I went to share a Chevrolet.

Now share a Volkswagen over here in Shelburne.

And I've got a better one.

I got a 20, 21 and I had brown leather interior, which now we are in the process of buying that car because I really love it.

But it was a big deal to be given that freedom and to know that my husband and my mom and my dad and my family was going to support me in that journey.

So that was two weeks the first time.

Then another week, the second time.

The third time was actually to drive to Nashville to record the album Mother Road.

And the fourth time was on our way back from finishing Mother Road and having that be a finished product.

And that's the fourth and final time we took Route 66.

My husband and my son were in the car with me, so it's pretty, pretty cool.

Full circle experience and a lot of creative stuff coming through.

Well, let's hear the title track.

Absolutely Love of Mother Road.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I haven't done it this way in a long time.

I haven't decided if I want a finger pick or not.

So if I stop in the middle, you'll know it's because I've decided to take a detour.

We're with you.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

I checked in at the crossroads, met some strange food.

They ran a cheap motel.

I could hear every whisper through the walls of the room.

It felt a little like a prison cell.

I wrote a song about a dream I had.

Then someone rang the dinner bell and they walked.

And they hollered.

When I came in saying, Girl, you're going straight to hell down the road.

Once again, I turned because you know how I feel.

Mom, you've been run over to so cannot lean on your shoulder Just until my feet find the ground.

And wherever I'm headed from don't let me down.

I took a little detour out to the crater with a sky was wild with the rain.

I drove my car like a rocket taking off down that sunset straightaway.

There's an endless ness in the way I feel when I wrap my hands around that wheel.

Only I know just how far I'm going to go down.

Mother, run.

Once again, I turn to you.

You know just how I feel, Momma.

You've been run over to.

Can I lean on your shoulder just until my feet fangirl and wherever I'm headed.

Oh, my love, mama, don't let it be down.

Oh, don't let it be down.

Oh, and I don't really know The day will come When I find that peace within.

But as I roll down this rugged highway, I'm closer than I've ever been in.

And I was coming home, driving too fast.

So my world slowed down and I made my confession to the highway patrol.

I said, Ma'am, I was lost, but now I'm finally found.

She gave me a ticket anyway, but I didn't put up a fight because I that driven a million miles, lived a million lives.

Now, momma's headed home tonight by.

Yeah, I'm headed home down Mother Road once again.

After you show me the way, Momma, just like you always do.

I'm going to find my true north, out west, down south.

And I had a tough day.

I figure it out.

And wherever I'm headed, my mama don't let it be the blues.

Don't let it be down.

Who's who?

Grace Potter.

The song Mother Road.

Grace, we're so glad that road led you back to Vermont.

It makes me cry.

Every time I got to stop, it's like, me, too.

Oh, oh.

I really did get pulled over by a mean, mean officer lady.

She was so not having my stuff.

She was like, I don't care, ma'am.

Oh, well, it would be good to get out of it.

Oklahoma has kind of their own rules.

Yeah.

You have a new foundation?

Yes.

The Grand Point Foundation.

Yeah.

And on the website for this foundation, it taught me a new word.

You say you seek to inspire a culture ovation.

Yeah.

I mean, for all Vermonters, I love it.

What is it?

Well, listen, I grew up in Vermont.

I worked on dairy farms.

I've worked with so many people who truly only understand what it is to cultivate something.

The patience of a gardener.

But the inspiration of a tech mogul.

And I think that's really what we have in Vermont.

And I thought the word cultivation is also an acknowledgment that culture is not something that just shows up and stays.

You have to tend to it.

And as somebody who didn't always find my platform here in Vermont the way that I wanted to, and in fact, I been going back through that struggle again in trying to get Greenpoint North, regenerating the heartbeat of what I believe is an important conversation, an important cultural event for Vermonters, because we don't have a huge amount of that.

And culture is something we need to have the patience of a gardener with as well.

And I think it goes beyond just, you know, making things and selling them.

I think it's about watching humans walk through an expression, feel their way through something uncomfortable, try something new, step out of their comfort zone, find themselves being held accountable because they want to be held accountable.

They want to show up for that event or that group meeting or that amazing, weird beat poetry thing on the street, you know, like it just the more you provide people with a platform to express themselves, the more I think the mental health and economy and, you know, the artistic part of it we already have everyone here is amazing.

But I want to bring some of those weirdos out of the woodwork and allow them to find themselves on a pedestal for no reason other than that they should be.

And they if they don't believe that, then somebody else should help hoist them up and help them understand that weird is good and that's what makes us Vermonters.

Grace Potter, thank you so much for joining us.

It has been an honor talking with you today.

Thank you, Mcaleny.

And says give her a ride.

Love you so much.

The Greenpoint North Festival returns to Burlington, July 25th to the 28th.

You can also learn more about the Grand Point Foundation and on their website.

That is all the time that we have for today.

As always, you can weigh in on Vermont Edition, pitch us ideas by emailing Vermont Edition at Vermont Public Talk.

Our show today was directed by Mary Engisch with special thanks to many folks, including Frank Alwine, Peter Engisch, Brain Stevenson, Joey Palumbo and Riley Cartwright.

I'm Mikayla Lefrak.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll catch up again soon.