GPN aficionados and other hardcore fans will be delighted to learn that Grace and the band have prepared a special limited-edition piece for Record Store Day. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals: Live From The Legendary Sun Studio, which will be available on vinyl and CD, contains seven original songs recorded in 2008 and 2009. “Night Rolls On,” “Outta My Tree,” “Sugar,” and “Put Your Head Down” (which comprise Side One of the vinyl release) were recorded in January 2008 for the Live From Sun Studio TV show that airs nationally on PBS. GPN was the very first band to be featured on that program. “One Short Night,” “Can’t See Through,” and “Fooling Myself” were cut in June 2009. Except “One Short Night” and “Fooling Myself,” these songs have not been previously released, though the band has broken out some of the others on occasion in concert.
“We wanted the songs to be unfamiliar,” Grace explains. “We didn’t want to give people different versions of songs they already knew. So we went with a bunch of B-sides and forgotten tunes. I wanted to call the record Bastard Songs From Sun Studio, but that got shot down, not surprisingly.”
GPN made a pilgrimage to Sun when they played Memphis during their very first tour outside the Northeast. “I was obsessed with the place, so I paid the 30 bucks to go into the vocal booth and sing ‘Love Me Tender,’” Grace recalls. “It was only two or three years later that they called us to ask if we wanted to come in and record—we were the first band invited to perform there for the PBS series. When we got there, the guy behind the counter recognized me. He said, ‘This is crazy, because I was telling everyone about this girl that came in and sang a crazy-good “Love Me Tender”!’ So Sun has a lot of history for us.”
