Toward the end of their set, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals collaborate on a climactic group drum solo. Photos by Joseph Gresser

Published October 3, 2007

EAST BURKE — Would-be rock stars rarely get to see a job description. But anyone wanting to pursue that career path could do worse than to check out Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

The band finished a rapturously received set Saturday before about 2,200 fans at the first Burke Mountain Music Festival here. After the show band members were able to spend a few minutes backstage with friends and family. Then it was upstairs for a “meet and greet” at the upstairs lounge at the Sherburne Base Lodge.

A crowd of people, including volunteers, event sponsors, and representatives of the Ginn Company, owners of the ski area, was eager to meet the band.

It was immediately clear that the one person everyone wanted to meet was Ms. Potter. Although she and the group had flown in from Los Angeles only the day before and she was not feeling well, Ms. Potter plunged into the crowd.

Everyone who approached her got a dazzling smile and serious attention. People wearing official event T-shirts lined up to have them signed by the singer. Ms. Potter spent almost an hour in the room before edging off to join her father and one of her uncles whose birthday she had announced from the stage.

The rest of the band stood off to the side watching the scene and accepting occasional congratulations for their performance.

Afterward Scott Tournet, the band’s lead guitarist, took some time to reflect on how the band gained its current popularity and to look toward the future.

Asked about the meet and greet he said, “It’s part of the gig.” Such events, he added, are becoming increasingly common. The band, and especially Ms. Potter, he said, see them as an important part of the job.

Mr. Tournet first met Ms. Potter and the band’s drummer Matthew Burr in 2003, when the two were students at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Mr. Tournet said he’d moved to the upstate New York town after giving up on an earlier attempt at success in rock music.

“For me it was always the dream. I had my own band and worked hard at it,” he said. The band hadn’t worked out, though, and he moved to a secluded place thinking he might teach guitar lessons and record a solo album.

Mr. Tournet said he and his girlfriend started hanging around with Ms. Potter and Mr. Burr. “It was just two couples together,” he said.

The three began playing music together, Mr. Tournet said. “It was loose, small scale, very coffee shop,” he recalled.

Mr. Burr had only been playing drums for a couple of years, but he was very enthusiastic, Mr. Tournet said. He also had a good sense of how to move forward in the business.

“He’s the unsung hero,” Mr. Tournet said. Mr. Burr was the mastermind of the band’s success and its first business manager.

As the school year ended, Mr. Tournet said, Mr. Burr asked him if he would like to tour with the group for the summer and promised that he would make a living playing music.

The band picked up a bass player, and true to Mr. Burr’s promise, spent the summer doing paid performances. Instead of playing bars, as most bands do, they played unusual gigs, such as farmers markets.

“We played a lot of nontraditional venues, not just slogging it in bars,” Mr. Tournet said.

Mr. Burr got the bookings by adopting an alternative persona, Mr. Tournet said. He called himself Kado Burr and presented himself as the band’s manager. He chose the name, Mr. Tournet said, because of his fondness for avocados.

“He knew that people don’t respond if you’re a musician in the group,” Mr. Tournet said. If someone thinks musicians have a professional manager, Mr. Burr realized, they are more likely to take them seriously.

“He was sharp,” Mr. Tournet said.

For the first two years of the band’s existence, Mr. Burr was both drummer and business manager, he said. “He was really good at it.”

In its early days the band’s sound was much quieter that it is now, and Ms. Potter was not yet a powerhouse singer.

“She hadn’t learned to use this,” Mr. Tournet said punching at his midsection.

At the end of the summer the first bass player “decided not to go for the gold,” Mr. Tournet said, explaining that he was still in school and wanted to go back to college. “We’re still good friends,” he added.

When bass player Bryan Dondero joined the band the group’s present lineup was set.

The band put out its first album, the self-produced Original Soul, in 2004. It kept touring, Mr. Tournet said, and began to play bars.

In the louder environment, he said, the band had to toughen its sound a bit and rearranged some of its songs.

“I got to do some rock hero solos,” Mr. Tournet said. “But Grace can’t be topped.” As his solos got stronger, he said, so did Ms. Potter’s singing until she found the strong, smoky voice that has attracted favorable comparison to singers like Bonny Raitt.

The band moved forward opening for bluesman Robert Cray and gospel legend Mavis Staples, and learning from these pros as they went.

A second album, Nothing But the Water, came out in 2005. The band, though, waited until this year to make its big move.

After careful thought they signed a contract with Hollywood Records, part of the Disney Corporation. Mr. Tournet said the band decided, “Now is the time to say, ‘Hey, look at us.’”

Their calculation has proved to be pretty astute. The band has gained a lot of press attention and attracted crowds. “We played the right cards,” Mr. Tournet said. “A lot of that was Matt.”

Mr. Tournet said his dream of success includes a tour bus and the opportunity to play before audiences of 1,000 people for two hours a night.

He admitted that these are modest dreams, but said the bands that the group admires such as Wilco and Neil Young and Crazy Horse were never the hugest groups. Most of the members of the group are pretty low key, he said.

Ms. Potter, though, is different, he said. “She’s a woman and younger and she likes the celebrity and dressing up and being sexy.” Mr. Tournet seemed grateful, amazed, and a little embarrassed at Ms. Potter’s role in the band.

“If she didn’t like doing that stuff, we wouldn’t make her do it,” he said.

At least one of those dreams is about to come true. The band is due to go on the road in its own tour bus as the opening act for Gov’t Mule. This winter they’ll head south.

Mr. Tournet, a Vermont native, acknowledged that he persuaded the group to head for warmer climes during the cold season. “I’m a snow bird,” he confessed.

The band’s dressing room had emptied out by the time Mr. Tournet was done talking. A couple of his old friends waited for him to finish.

Ms. Potter and Mr. Burr were packing up to leave with her parents when she spotted someone she hadn’t spoken with and turned to thank him for coming to the show.

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