After a spring and summer spent recording and playing festival dates, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are hitting the road in a new configuration. Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Hem) is the band’s new bass player, replacing Bryan Dondero, while their friend and fellow Vermonter Benny Yurco, who also plays in Blues & Lasers, guitarist Scott Tournet’s experimental rock project, will be added as rhythm guitarist on all tour dates.

Writer/singer/keyboard player Potter, guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr had planned on holding extensive auditions for the vacant bass slot in New York and L.A., but they first checked out Popper on a recommendation. “She came in, plugged in and played with us,” Grace recalls, “and by the end of the first song we knew she was absolutely, positively the perfect person for us. She completely understood the direction we wanted to go in.”

After Yurco sat in with the band, including Popper, during their performance for a special VH1”School of Rock” 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival (they played “White Rabbit,” “Woodstock,” Janis Joplin’s “Try” and one original, “Nothing But The Water”), “We all had that new-band buzz,” Grace recalls. “We thought that if were making a lineup change, why not make it a whole new experience? Because we couldn’t really replace Bryan—he’d been with us too long for that. So having five members has made it a positive transition for all of us.”

This is Somewhere, the band’s preceding album, generated glowing reviews. Rolling Stone’s David Fricke raved, “Potter…is poised for bigger things… And she’s no pushover as lyricist.” The Austin Chronicle praised her “breakout, star-making” performance, while Paste asserted that Grace “has the potential for greatness.”