One of the best lyrics of the 21st century actually came away from awards season with nothing but a handful of nominations.Kenny Chesney's version of "You and Tequila" is pure country poetry.“I remember being a kid and really grating against the idea that I had to listen to Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and Pearl Jam—and that was the only thing you could listen to,” she says via phone on a cold rainy day before Christmas.“Of course, I loved all those bands, but it just bummed me out that what made it cool was ‘so-and-so’ listening to it and that was strange to me.”By the time Potter was 18 she explored a plethora of genres, from traditional Scottish and Irish folk music—even learning how to play the bagpipes—to Mozart and big-band era collections. “I literally shut off pop music for probably a decade,” she confirms. Potter wants to join—perhaps even start—a new conversation about modern-day popular music.She and Valentine scrapped the initial songs and started over again. It frees frustration and sadness of pending realizations.“That’s sort of the bridge to the end-of-the-world feeling with that song, and I really was feeling that at the time,” Potter clarifies, “because my band was really struggling with this music and not feeling it.It was a Nocturnals’ record at the time—and it was really interesting to see how the shift, and acceptance and embracing, ‘OK, Grace is going to go do this thing whether we’re there or not.’”This isn’t Potter’s first solo album. “Midnight” is her long-awaited followup in many ways.
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