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Rocker Grace Potter has played in the Vail Valley several times, but it is fitting for the Vermont native with a ski racing background to take the stage in Beaver Creek during the women’s Birds of Prey World Cup alpine ski races this weekend.

“I was a ski racer, and I was fast,” Potter said.

No surprise there when you consider how the multiple Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and instrumentalist approaches her career and musical prowess fearlessly.

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“I was a competitive downhill skier until I realized I that the only reason I wanted to do it was so that I could wear the David Bowie jumpsuit from the Ziggy Stardust era because my GS suit was red and had a big, ol’ white lightning bolt on it,” Potter said. “I also had a suit that was white and had a red lightning bolt on it.”

Fashion aside, Potter said the joy of skiing ran out when she realized she didn’t love the competitive nature of it.

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“I think it turned me off because it was a competition. I think the joy of skiing is so important to me and I think that a great competitor, like the folks at the races in Beaver Creek, they’re the ones who have figured out how to straddle the line between ‘I have to’ and ‘I want to,'” Potter said. When asked if she liked Bode Miller’s style while he was racing, Potter quickly said, “yes.”

“He was a complete punk rock, bohemian, weirdo, hippie bead, yoga bead-wearing kind of athlete and I really connected with that,” Potter said.

Potter credits her love for skiing and the lifestyle to her parents and especially her father.

“I have a history with Vail that spans longer than my shows here because my dad has been doing signs for all the ski areas since the 1980s. So, I’ve been coming here not as a ski kid but as a service entrance kid that comes in with the sign-maker dad,” Potter said. “My family has always been a little bit migratory and in the winter all my dad cared about was how to figure out a work situation where he could still ski as much as possible.”

Potter realizes that skiing and the culture that surrounds it is something not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy. She also has comparisons of East Coast and Western U.S. ski areas.

“To me, Vail is the ‘Mad River Valley’ of the West, it feels very familiar. I call Telluride the ‘Stowe of the West,’ and Vail is the ‘Mad River Valley.’ The mountains are bigger and there’s a bit more altitude here, but I love that I’ve grown up surrounded by ski culture, it’s definitely second nature to me,” Potter said.

It doesn’t take Potter long to feel at home in any setting. During the pandemic, she traveled across the country a few times, mostly solo, and made stops in unfamiliar places that soon became familiar. That experience led to the songs and the title of her latest album, “Mother Road.”

“That road trip did a number on me, and I think now a lot of people have connected with it because I think I wasn’t the only one that headed out on the road when people don’t know that to do next, I think COVID certainly created that for people,” Potter said.

Potter said she felt like after all those roads the tour bus had zoomed by for the last 15 years of her life, now was the time to visit them. Potter recalls meeting all kinds of people and how they welcomed her with open arms.

“There’s a lot of things that happen when you need to find your place. It’s not to say you need to live there forever, but you just need to find people who are transient in the same way that you might feel when you are unsettled, and that is where it is at,” Potter said. “And that’s what the whole record has been.”

“Mother Road” is the fifth solo album by Potter and she and her band will be playing plenty of tracks off the record on Saturday at the Vilar Performing Arts Center along with other nuggets. Although tickets are being sold for reserved seating, the Vilar Center’s website already mentioned that the orchestra pit will be open for dancing, so get ready to rock and roll with this fearless lady.

“I’ve done this for a long time, and it’s just really freeing. I know what I need from the tour, and I know what I need from the crowd. And I also now have room to give things back,” Potter said. “I think this journey with “Mother Road” was about finding not just places, but the people who make it feel like home. And wherever I go, I feel like there’s a village that moves with me and it’s the greatest gift I could have given myself.”

For more information on the Grace Potter performance other free and ticketed musical offerings during the Birds of Prey World Cup races, go to .