5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Grace Potter

Name  Grace Potter

More from Spin:

• Alan Sparhawk Lets Go on With Trampled By Turtles
• The Budos Band Take Seven Steps to Heaven
• Bruce Springsteen Boosts Mexican ‘Soldaderas’ On ‘Adelita’

Best known for  Showing up in musical collaborations that make zero sense except that it’s happening and it’s too late to think about it so just ENJOY. 3-time Grammy-Nominated recording artist, 2-time Doctor of Fine Arts…1 time Porn Filmmaker.

Current city  Topanga, CA.

Really want to be in  Where else? Topanga! (answering this questionnaire.)

Excited about  My new record Medicine, Chris Stapleton tour this summer.

Our current music collection has a lot of ’60s cocktail music and ’70s smut movie soundtracks.

And a little bit of  Classical and Jazz.

Preferred format  Streaming when I’m lazy. Vinyl when I’m curious. CDs when I’m in my Fiat because the radio is broken and there’s no USB jack.

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday’s story is so heartbreaking. I read a lot about her when I first discovered her in high school—and I ended up writing a biopic script in my first semester of film school. I listened to her entire catalogue on a continuous loop, but this album is the one I always come back to. She was just so punk rock—and yet her vulnerability shone through best in this collection of songs. They’re recorded with such subtlety.

2

The Staple Singers, The Staple Singers

This is the album that taught me how soul, blues, gospel, and truth are one and the same. Before I heard this record, I was under the impression that I knew what church music sounded like. Having grown up in predominantly protestant Vermont, I thought praise music was a one-trick pony. Then I heard this album. It made me want to sing from the bottom of my soul, live a more purposeful life, and live like a pirate all at once—just so I could flip the record and beg forgiveness all over again.

3

This is Dean Martin, Dean Martin

This album sends me. No matter what is happening in my life, when this album begins, it feels like Dean is right there in the room with me, elbowing me out of whatever dumb wormhole I’m stuck in. His voice and the strings hit me like a steaming cup of coffee being handed to me when I’m still in bed…this album embodies the world I want to live in.

4

So Excited!, The Pointer Sisters

This album reminds me of endless afternoons at my family’s little cottage in Vermont…it was just a rickety lakeside shack called “Dunrovin.” My mom would wrap me up in an apron, tie my hair up with a rag, and we’d put on So Excited! and dance and clean that place top to bottom. I can literally smell the Murphy’s Oil [Soap]…fresh basil wafting in from the garden….a pot of boiling lake water on the old stove….some might call it child labor, but I call it my happy place. Sadly, “Dunrovin” was repossessed by the landowners and bulldozed to make way for luxury condos years ago, but when I listen to So Excited! I’m right back there.

5

Link Wray, Link Wray

This record sounds like a campfire. Technically speaking, it’s a hot mess. It sounds like it just fell together while the recording engineer was out in the field re-parking people’s cars to make room for the “real band”…who never show up. Shit’s outta tune, people are singing when they’re not supposed to… nobody seems to particularly care about lyrics… It perfectly captures the soothing effect of spontaneous chaos.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

Link to the source article – https://www.spin.com/2025/05/5-albums-i-cant-live-without-grace-potter/