"Whenever we come to Maine it's an adventure. At my very first gig, when I played at Bates when I was 18, I ended up ice climbing at 4 o'clock in the morning! For some reason, Maine brings out the adventurer in us!"

So said Grace Potter, keyboardist/guitarist and lead vocalist for the rock group known as Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. That group will be playing at the Skowhegan Opera House on June 27 with The Brew as opening act.

Potter was calling from her home in Waitsfield, Vt., and expressed genuine excitement about heading to the central Maine town that hosted the filming of HBO's "Empire Falls" with Paul Newman.

"This is so cool," she said, "and it's going to be really fun. I've never been to the Opera House but opera houses are always fun. We make the balconies shake a little, but other than that, it's going to be fun!"

Her major label debut CD on Ragged Company/Hollywood Records, "This Is Somewhere," was the next topic of conversation. One wondered how she and the rest of the band (Scott Tournet on guitar, Bryan Dondero on bass and Matt Burr on drums) could ever hope to top the 11 songs that make up the 2007 release.

"I think we'll do it with good will and good music," Potter offered. "I think you just have to keep going and every album that you make, you make mistakes and you learn from them -- and you move on."

She explained this CD was the first one her group had ever made in a "fancy" studio with a producer (Mike Daly with Grace and the band co-producing) and an engineer (Joe Chiccarelli), both of whom were well-versed in their jobs.

"These people had numerous Grammies under their belts -- they were getting their Grammy nominations in the mail while we were in the studio chugging away. There was a serious learning curve to being humbled like that, and I think that next time around, we will know a little bit more about the ins and outs of how that stuff works. The next record, I think, hopefully, will top this one -- I'm not too worried."

Is this album representational of what folks can expect when she and the band hit the stage at the Skowhegan Opera House next Fridy?

"We never have the same show twice, and I think that when we do re-create our music live there's not as many layers, so each layer that you play really has to hold up. We've had to change some of the arrangements a little bit."

Since day one, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals has been known as a live band first and foremost, she explained.

"But what we do now is pretty straight-ahead rock 'n' roll, so I can't say it's all going sound exactly like the record because we're one of those bands that has our persona live and then, when we go to make a record, it's like a science project -- try and figure out how to make us sound like we do on stage."

Lucky Clark is from Sweden, Maine.