The bags are packed and the car is all gassed up for the new Grace Potter album, Mother Road. Out on August 18th via Fantasy, the raspy songstress on Wednesday shared the title track to her fifth studio effort.
“Mother Road” fittingly begins the ten-track trip down the album of the same name. A wandering, swaying bluesy track reminiscent of The Rolling Stones‘ Sticky Fingers, the song lays out the map for the trials and travails that will guide Potter through her journey.
“In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the ‘The Mother of all roads…the road of flight,’” Potter shared in a press release. “As I zeroed out my odometer and started west on my road trip across the US, I hoped that driving the road of flight would give me a bird’s eye view of my life. But it didn’t take long to realize that I was not flying; I was running away. In the solitude, I found myself smashing open the piggy bank of deeply-buried memories. Those gems of my real-life exploits spilled into my creative consciousness and emboldened me to write an album that reaches far beyond what actually happened–launching me down the alternate-reality roads of what could have happened.”
For Mother Road, Potter recorded at RCA‘s famed Studio A in Nashville and Topangadise in Topanga, CA. Joining the ebullient live performer in the studio was an ace backing band that included Heartbreakers co-founder Benmont Tench alongside guitarist Nick Bockrath (Cage The Elephant), bassist Tim Deaux (Kings of Leon), drummer Matt Musty, and pedal steel guitarist Dan Kalisher. An additional traveler on Mother Road is lauded songwriter Natalie Hemby, who co-wrote album centerpiece “Little Hitchhiker”, which reimagines the time a 9-year-old Potter ran away from home, an experience central to Mother Road‘s narrative.
Along with the twangy lead single, Potter shared an accompanying music video. A cross somewhere between Pulp Fiction and Thelma & Louise, the engrossing music video serves as an appetizer for the adventures waiting out on Mother Road.
Check out the title track for the new Grace Potter album Mother Road via the video below or stream it on your preferred platform. The album is available here for pre-order. Scroll down for a full tracklist and artwork. Grace is currently out on the road for a run of Southeast tour dates and will head out west next month for a run of shows including a slot opening for Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. See below for a full list of tour dates and visit her website for tickets.
Grace Potter – “Mother Road” (Official Video)
