New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Nashville based singer-songwriter and vocal powerhouse is perhaps most well-known as a semi-finalist on season 8 of The Voice, but since then she's gone 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."
An outspoken and fiercely independent feminist and body positivity activist, many of Sarah's songs deal with female empowerment, self-reliance, self-acceptance, and self-love. Important messages, especially during these times we're living in.
Road To Rome, her second solo LP, will be released on International Women's Day, March 8th.
Pre-save, pre-add, or pre-order 'Road To Rome' here: https://ffm.to/roadtorome.
Signed CDs are available for purchase here: https://bit.ly/2AGGnGB.
Road to Rome' is an album of self-empowered R&B, swaggering soul, and contemporary blues. 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 record 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.
Sarah recently performed alongside acts such as Andrew McMahon and The Wilderness,
Matt Nathanson and
Plain White T's on The Rock Boat XIX and will join Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin,
Paula Cole and many more on The
Melissa Etheridge Cruise III March 31-April 7. She is also scheduled to play in Austin, TX during SXSW. See dates below.
"They can't fuck with girls like me," sings
Sarah Potenza on this full-throated slow-burner from her Road to Rome LP, due out this week. No rough edges on this "Diamond," either, just a loud and proud exultation from the onetime Voice contestant."- Rolling Stone
"With Potenza's triumphant lyrics, a soaring background choir, and diverting percussion breaks, "Diamond" is an anthem of self-acceptance and just the sort of song we all need when we've lost touch with our own shine."- Audiofemme
"Sarah Potenza's powerhouse vocals are not only scorching and soulful, but this song screams of independence and self-respect.- Rock And Blues Muse
"Sarah Potenza's songs may be universal anthems written with inclusivity in mind, but on the lead track off her upcoming album 'Road to Rome', she puts the spotlight squarely on herself....brimming with confidence and boasting production that calls to mind the
Mark Ronson vibe of Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black.'"- Rolling Stone
"Diamond" is currently one of Rolling Stone's '10 Best Country, Americana Songs of the Week': https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/best-country-americana-songs-tenille-townes-jack-ingram-802675/.
Check out "Diamond," yet another new track off
Sarah Potenza's upcoming LP 'Road To Rome.'
Streaming everywhere: https://smarturl.it/sarahpotenza.
Upcoming Shows:
Fri, March 8 McGonigel's Mucky Duck- Houston, TX
*Wed, March 13 -Midwest Takeover @ Shangri-La- Austin, TX Set time: 7:15-7:45pm
*Tue, March 13 -
Pachanga Bandas- Kitty Cohen's SXSW
*Wed, March 14 - Sellers Unofficial Showcase Presented by Sound Dessert SXSW @ Sellers Underground (Free and Open to the Public) Set Time 8-8:40pm
*Fri, March 15 - Party In My Pants @
Little Woodrow's 6th- Austin, TX Set Time: 1:00 - 1:40pm
*Fri, March 15- Rebelle Road Showcase @ Maria's Tacos Express- Austin, TX Set time: 2:20 - 2:40 pm
*Fri, March 15 - New Nashville Riverboat Party- Austin, TX Set Time: 6:00 boat boarding, sets begin at 7:00pm
Sat, March 16 Opening Bell Coffee- Dallas, TX
Sun, March 17 The Stone Church- Tulsa, OK
Sun, March 31 - Sun April 7- The
Melissa Etheridge Cruise
* SXSW Shows
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.
www.facebook.com/sarahpotenzamusic
www.sarahpotenza.net
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.
