Nashville-based songwriter, activist and vocal powerhouse Sarah Potenza will release her second solo album, titled ‘Road To Rome,’ on International Women’s Day, March 8th.
A new track “I Work For Me” premiered yesterday on Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/sarah-potenza-new-song-i-work-for-me-777046/
“I Work For Me” is now available for streaming. You can stream the single and pre-save, pre-add, or pre-order the album here: https://ffm.to/roadtorome.
Signed CDs are available for purchase here: https://bit.ly/2AGGnGB.
Potenza tells RS, “”I Work for Me” is about more than just bossing up and doing for yourself. It’s saying ‘Hey, I work for me, as in, my body, my spirit, my personality, who I am…It all works for me. “I Work for Me” is my dedication to those who told me I wasn’t good enough. What I have come to know, is that what they really meant to say was, ‘How dare you believe that you can, when I don’t dare believe that I can.’ Because confidence scares people. It puts them in the awkward position of facing their own fear of success.”
Known to millions as a semi-finalist on season 8 of The Voice, Sarah went on to release a critically-acclaimed debut solo LP ‘Monster’ in 2016, which prompted Rolling Stone to gush, “Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop: a colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound.”
Three years later, that sound deepens and intensifies with ‘Road to Rome’, an album of self-empowered R&B, swaggering soul, and contemporary blues — with her own declaration of independence.
Co-written by Potenza, her husband Ian Crossman and friend Justin Wiseman, produced by Jordan Brooke Hamlin (Indigo Girls, Lucy Wainwright Roche), and recorded with a female-heavy cast of collaborators, the album isn’t just her own story.
It’s the story of all artists — particularly women, who remain the minority within the male-dominated music industry — who’ve learned to trust their instincts, refusing to let mainstream trends dilute their own artistic statements.
Potenza will be previewing songs off the new record when she launches her tour on January 15 in Nashville.
Sarah will also join artists such as Andrew McMahon and The Wilderness, Matt Nathanson, Plain White T’s and others on The Rock Boat XIX Feb 1-6, and will perform alongside Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole and many more on The Melissa Etheridge Cruise III March 31-April 7.
Upcoming Shows:
Tue, January 15- Nashville, TN- The 5 Spot
Fri, January 18 – Alpharetta, GA – House Show
Sat, January 19 – LaGrange, GA – Pure Life Studios
Tues, January 22 – Atlanta, GA – Eddie’s Attic
Wed, January 23 – Pooler, GA – House Show
Fri, January 25 – Ray Beach, FL – House Show
Sat, January 26 – Deerfield Beach, FL – House Show
Sun, January 27 – Palm City, FL – House Show
Tues, January 29 – Palm Harbor, FL – House Show
Fri, February 1 – The Rock Boat
Sat, February 2 – The Rock Boat
Sun, February 3 – The Rock Boat
Mon, February 4 – The Rock Boat
Tues, February 5 – The Rock Boat
Wed, February 6 – The Rock Boat
Sun, March 31 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Mon, April 1 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Tues, April 2 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Wed, April 3 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Thurs, April 4 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Fri, April 5 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Sat, April 6 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
Sun, April 7 – The Melissa Etheridge Cruise
ABOUT SARAH POTENZA’S ‘ROAD TO ROME’:
Just who is Sarah Potenza? She’s a songwriter. A bold, brassy singer. A businesswoman. A proud, loud-mouthed Italian-American from Providence, Rhode Island, with roots in Nashville and an audience that stretches across the Atlantic.
Filled with messages of self-worth, determination, and drive, Sarah Potenza’s Road to Rome shines new light on the songwriter whose career already includes multiple albums as front-woman of Sarah and the Tall Boys, a game-changing appearance on The Voice, and an acclaimed solo debut titled Monster.
Writing sessions for Road to Rome took place aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean, as well as at her home in East Nashville. It was during the cruise that she first began writing songs with Justin Wiseman, a piano player from Austin, TX. For years, she and her husband, Ian Crossman, had worked together as a duo, splitting their musical duties more or less equally, writing songs with guitar in hand, and merging their very different influences. This was something different, though — something about the piano that allowed Potenza the chance to rediscover her own voice, making an album whose unique approach to soul music was entirely her own. Although Crossman and Wiseman’s contributions as co-writers can be heard throughout Road to Rome’s tracks, the album represents a strong shift in dynamic, with Potenza leading the charge.
When it came time to record Road to Rome at MOXE, Jordan Brooke Hamlin’s Nashville-area studio, Potenza looked to a wide range of musicians for influence. She turned to Whitney Houston. To Lauryn Hill. To Pops Staples, the Dirty Projectors, RL Burnside, Bette Midler, and more. Those artists gave her inspiration not only on a musical level, but on an emotional and thematic level, too. They were artists who spoke with conviction, chasing their own muses into unique, personalized territory. Potenza did the same, turning Road to Rome into an album filled with everything from the torch song balladry of “Earthquake” (a love letter to Crossman, thanking him for years of support ) to the funky fire of “Dickerson and Queen” (where Potenza howls, swoons, and croons over bass grooves and swirling organ, reminding everyone that, “I don’t give a fuck about nothing but the music”). She even makes room for a piano-propelled cover of “Worthy,” originally written by Grammy-nominated icon Mary Gauthier, who personally sent the song to Potenza.
Set for release on International Women’s Day 2019, Road to Rome is the sound of a songwriter taking the wheel and driving toward her own destination. This is Sarah Potenza’s strongest album to date: a battlecry from a soul singer and blues belter, shot through with pop melodies, rock & roll attitude, and absolutely zero fucks.
What others have said about Sarah Potenza:
“Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop: a colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound.”- Rolling Stone
An empowerment anthem can be a beautiful thing, a dramatic transcending of suffering’s isolating power. But what’s glorious about Sarah Potenza’s blistering, riff-propelled personal anthem “Monster” is that it doesn’t seek to transcend the unpleasantness of her reality — the fact that she’s been told countless times in countless ways that the body she inhabits is socially unacceptable. Instead, we hear a woman’s fierce determination to stay present, to stare down those who would shame her, to revel in her corporeality.- NPR (“Song We Love”)
“You won’t find any gimmicks on Monster, just pure unadulterated rock and roll. As such, it should find an audience among Americana/Roots enthusiasts and traditional rock fans. Rolling Stone called her a “rock ‘n soul powerhouse” and Potenza has been rightly compared to commanding divas like Janis Joplin, Etta James even Aretha Franklin. We concur.”- No Depression
“Despite boffo ratings each year, NBC’s The Voice doesn’t have a strong track record of transforming contestants into stars. Hopefully that changes with Sarah Potenza—a casualty during season 8—whose scorching, take-me-as-I-am “Monster,” the title track to her debut album, might be the year’s most spirited girl-power anthem. Potenza cut her teeth singing covers in Chicago blues bars before becoming a fixture in the East Nashville music scene, and she combines a fiery voice and crunchy roots rock with a distinct flair for showmanship.”– Garden & Gun
“Whether you’re new to Potenza or not, you need to hear this voice which has the power not only to move you. She might heal you too.”- Elmore Magazine