Creative Corner: Cameron Potts
Creative Corner: Cameron Potts of The Winnie Blues
At JMM, we only hire the best of the best. That means we have some incredible people on staff who do amazing work and whose creative pursuits outside of JMM we want to amplify. In our new Creative Corner series, discover the passions and projects of members of the JMM family. This month, we are speaking with Senior Project Manager and Director Cameron Potts, who is one-half of the country duo, The Winnie Blues.
Growing up in Sydney, Australia, Cameron Potts started playing in different bars and concert halls around the city. As a bass player, Potts would play for many different bands, gaining significant performing experience along the way. Eventually, Potts decided to write his own songs, learned to play guitar, and discovered his love for country music.
Years later, he would start the band, The Winnie Blues with his wife, Alice Beatty.
Named after a common Australian slang for the popular cigarette brand, Winfield Cigarettes, the band's unique folksy rock sound draws inspiration from some of the most influential duos in music history, such as Johnny & June and Emmylou & Gram, to place their unique stamp on the Americana music scene.
While the two share an Australian heritage, they did not meet in Australia. In the Spring of 2016, Potts (who had lived in NYC for some years) was at Rockwood Music Hall to see a Ruby Boots show. Little did he know at the time, he was standing next to Beatty, who had just moved to the city 1 week prior. The pair heard each other’s Australian accents and bonded over a beer. They went their separate ways that evening and did not encounter each other again until a serendipitous meeting 8 months later at Mickey’s Tavern in Nashville, TN. Unbeknownst to either of them, they had both separately moved south and were living in the same neighborhood.
The chance meeting inspired the pair to try their hand at songwriting.
“Writing a song together happened crazily quick. I’ve written songs before with people and sometimes you spark magic but a lot of times it's a long, semi-awkward process, especially if you don’t know the person you are writing with very well,” says Potts.
“Yet, Alice and I wrote a song in 20 minutes. Basically, after two to three hours, we had a demo for a full-length album. It made us both realize we had something very special here.”
After months of figuring out their sound, writing and working together, the two not only had a solid basis for an album, but sparked a romantic relationship as well.
By the end 2019, they had finished tracking their debut album with the grand plans of a 2020 tour through the south-east of the US to promote their album release. However, the global pandemic had other plans.
After eventually releasing their album Half Wide Awake, but Dreaming in 2021, the band made their grand return to the stage, kicking off their first US tour, and playing around 60 different venues around the world.
For Potts, his first night performing on stage has become one of his favorite performances of all time.
“After 18 months away, we finally took the stage again. It was different from any show I had played before that.
Everyone in the audience was quiet and very respectful, it was a little off-putting because we had a couple hundred people in a room and everyone was silent. But it was also so beautiful.
Both Alice and I are looking forward to touring again and experiencing those beautiful moments where people can connect through their love for music.”
At John Marshall Media, Potts uses his experience as a performer to help project manage, edit, and direct award-winning JMM titles. For instance, Potts directed Penguin Random House's most pre-ordered audiobook ever, The Bullet That Missed this past year.
“It’s true that performing myself, bands, and written songs and working to get down to the emotional connectivity of performing a song translates to audiobook narration as well,” he says. “For both, you are telling a story and to tell it well, you must understand the power behind your words.
