Grace Potter has been singing since before she knew how to talk. It should come as no surprise, then, that the 24-year-old Vermont native is able to channel emotional extremes through her vocal cords. In today’s political climate, an emotion that commonly grips her spirit is anger.

“I think you have to get a little angry to say what you mean sometimes,” she said. “A lot of the songs that I’ve written have points of almost terror in them, and I would rather sing it like I’m actually experiencing those words, instead of just putting on a happy face and trying to deliver it gently, because that’s never worked for anybody.”

Singing and playing with emotion has worked out well for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Based in Waitsfield, Vt., a town of less than 2,000 people in the heart of Mad River Valley, the band has swollen from a smalltime regional act to a major national attraction. The group enjoyed an especially bright year in 2007, which was highlighted by the release of its third studio recording, “This Is Somewhere,” and included TV performances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Good Morning America” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” In addition, Nocturnals songs were prominently featured on the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” and an episode of “American Idol.” The group played at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and toured the United States extensively, including a lengthy fall stint in support of Gov’t Mule.

But Potter has not allowed success to skew her sense of reality. The band, which consists of Potter on vocals, Hammond B3 organ and occasional guitar, Scott Tournet on guitar, Bryan Dondero on bass and Matt Burr on drums, remains focused on putting on an invigorating show every night. Potter takes pride in the fact that the Nocturnals have never ridden in a limo. She views the television spots last year as minor sidebars to the group’s musical evolution.

“All those things that happened are really just facilitating more music making. There was never a moment where we were like, ‘Wow, we’ve really made it now,’” she said. “That’s really not the right way to be a musician. If you care a lot about what you’re doing, then those things are just bonuses on the side.”

Potter phoned The Wire shortly after her band’s tour bus jackknifed and slid off the highway during a blustery snowstorm somewhere in Iowa. Fortunately, a passing tow truck tugged them out of the ditch and back onto the road, ensuring that the bus will deliver Potter and company to The Music Hall in Portsmouth in time for their 8 p.m. show on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Playing The Music Hall is a big step up from past Seacoast performances at smaller venues like The Stone Church in Newmarket and the Mill Pond Center in Durham. Potter retains fond memories of playing in the area when the Nocturnals were still an emerging Vermont band. The singer grew up in Waitsfield, which is about 45 minutes south of Burlington and is close to major ski resorts like Mad River Glen and Sugarbush. She came of age at a time when the local music scene was burgeoning under a sudden tidal wave of jam bands.  

“Phish was a huge part of everybody’s life. It was something that was undeniably present in school,” Potter said. “Once they came—I think it was ’94—they came and played on the mountain at Sugarbush and completely clogged the town up with traffic for like four days. It was pretty incredible.”

But the music scene in Vermont has shifted since the Phish days, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have been at the forefront of the state’s new non-jam sound. The band was born in 2002, when Potter met drummer Burr while both were attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. Guitarist Tournet joined the group before the release of their 2004 debut album, “Original Soul,” and bassist Dondero signed on in time for their second self-produced disc, “Nothing but the Water.”    

The band’s Americana-rock sound was born out of a range of influences stemming from the classic rock age of the ’60s and ’70s. Potter said she was first inspired by roots groups like The Band, Little Feat, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and JJ Cale. But, over the last five years, Potter and her mates have increasingly found inspiration in newer acts, such as The White Stripes, Cold War Kids, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Black Angels and The Black Keys. Taking cues from other modern bands has helped the Nocturnals continue to modify their sound.

There is also a potent sense of tradition in the Nocturnals’ style. Potter, who began playing piano when she was about six years old, said she always maintains a strong gospel and delta blues presence in her music. Upholding such rich traditions is more of an honor than an obligation, she said.

“Even if we get really experimental and put out a Pink Floyd type record, there’s gonna be gospel elements to it, no matter what,” Potter said. “When I open my mouth to sing, it tends to be a blues scale. So I don’t think that will ever go away, and I’m glad it won’t, because it’s a huge part of what we do.”

The combination of hanging on to musical traditions and adapting to newer styles has resulted in a sound that Potter describes as “blues-infused rock with an edge.” Potter’s singing style rests somewhere between Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crowe, garnished with a hint of the aforementioned anger.

That anger results largely from frustration over the ongoing war in Iraq and other disheartening current events. Potter has been a part-time activist since her college days and has been arrested more than once at anti-war demonstrations. She handily rattled off the date of her first arrest: Oct. 26, 2002—when the threat of war was looming large on the national horizon. Some 600,000 protesters descended on Washington, clogging the streets and spurring mass arrests. Potter was at the front of the lines.

“We just wouldn’t back down,” she said. “It was unbelievable. That was the most righteous arrest. There were some others that weren’t so cool.”

Potter’s most politically charged material has not yet made it onto any of the band’s albums, although it may find its way into future recordings. Many of the songs on “This is Somewhere” deal with basic trials of love and life. Certain tunes instill a sense of travel and experience, which may spring from the group’s heavy touring over the last few years.

Potter has especially enjoyed playing at Red Rocks in Colorado and at The Fillmore in San Francisco, where she “absolutely felt like there were some ghosts in the room.” On Feb. 21, just two days before the Portsmouth show, the band will join Patti Smith, K.D. Lang and others at New York’s Lincoln Center as part of the “American Songbook Series.”

“I always enjoy being out on the road. It makes me feel like we’re going somewhere ... ’cause we are,” Potter said with a chuckle.

Touring has also allowed the band to get a taste of the stereotypical rock star lifestyle, if only in moderation. Asked if tours consist of wild all-night parties for weeks on end, Potter gave an ambiguous answer.

“Yes and no, actually,” she said. “Usually, the wildest parties are based on us taking psychedelics and watching ‘The Neverending Story.’ It’s not exactly like a dance party and we’re, like, tearing the curtains down in the bus and painting our faces and throwing each other in bathtubs, but that has happened, just not every night.”

Rock on.

The Nocturnals’ show at The Music Hall this weekend represents a triumphant return to the Seacoast after several years of steady expansion. Many New England bands never come close to achieving the exposure that Potter and her group have already gained in their young careers. The key to their success?

“I think getting better has been the best thing,” she said with a laugh. “The quality of music that you produce is what convinces people to come back to your shows again and again.”

Being signed to a big label doesn’t hurt, either. “This is Somewhere” was released on Hollywood Records, which is owned by Disney, which is owned by ABC—offering loads of networking connections in the television industry. The band also contracts Monterey Peninsula Artists, the same booking agency that The Dave Matthews Band uses.

According to Potter, the Nocturnals will likely cultivate a new batch of songs over the next six months and return to the studio to record a new CD this fall. She hopes that her band will stick together through the decades, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, although she also harbors a peculiar dream of one day making a solo country album in Austin, Texas, when she is pregnant.

“Nobody wants a pregnant bitch on the road. So, I’ll probably just sit around in a trailer in Texas and write country songs,” she said. “That’ll happen some day, but not for my own breaking off, Gwen Stefani purposes, but more just because I’m pregnant, probably.”

Meanwhile, Potter continues to live in the moment, writing and performing music to the best of her ability. She is young, talented and sexy, and her creative energy is at its peak.

“I’m 24,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of ideas I’ve got to get out before I turn 25.”
 
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals will be at The Music Hall, along with opener Dusty Rhodes & The River Band, on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25-$29. For reservations, visit www.themusichall.org or call 603-436-2400.