PRESS COVERAGE
The Advocate Jan. 2018
How This Musician’s Kids Made Her Follow the Dream
“Before I was a parent, I had plans to record an album,” explains Potulsky. But when life’s circumstances kept interfering with the making of it, she says she eventually gave up and “decided that music was an unreasonable dream. I got a steady job and tried to move on.”
"Nikole Potulsky has a voice for stadiums and the heart for dive bars. You Want to Know About Me is a triumphant debut album that is authentic to the bone. "
"Nikole’s powerful voice and vivid lyrics shine inside a chorus of Portland musical talent who were given one simple instruction: “Listen to the stories and play what feels right.” What emerged is a rich soundscape of emotion that moves deftly between toe tapping songs of home to the heartbreaking songs of loss. Nikole says, “This is an album about power: how we find it, how we lose it, how we give it away, and what we must do to get it back."
"Storyteller Nikole Potulsky bridges the gap between the songwriter and the essayist on her latest release, You Want to Know About Me. Her work as a lyricist recalls the same call to arms style of writing highlighted in her essays featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Portland Mercury, and the essays accompanying her album contextualize her songwriting even deeper. In this way, Potulsky’s record feels like a mixed media experience as a reader and a listener that’s confidently delivered. That confidence makes You Want to Know About Me feel not only timeless as a folk record companioned with a collection of essays, but literary in its composition."
"Stained with plangent guitar and weeping steel, 'Get Out' is a powerful, number veined with menace that stems from memories of being trapped in a house on fire but would seem to suggest other readings in its lines "You hear them come up the stairs. You're still screaming and nobody hears … Can't go home. Can't go on. Can't tell anyone", vocally and musically soaring as she hits the chorus refrain of "Kick and scream punch and shout, Get out. Get out. Get out."
"What literary character or story do you most relate to? Punky Brewster, a hard luck kid who stood up to the establishment and insisted on radical self-expression. Yes, I know she’s not a literary character but, like my chosen protagonist, it’s challenging for me to follow the rules."
Her honesty is unparallelled, and that speaks to audiences like nothing else can. The stories she tells freely, both in song and speech, are overwhelmingly moving. When I spoke to people at Al’s Den about Nikole, people simply could not say enough about how much she inspired them. It is not within her to hold anything back, and Portland loves when a skilled artist just opens up and reveals themselves completely. Nikole does that without hesitation. The woman has no fear because she is protected by genuinely pure intent.