Cover photo © 2024 Hannah Laney

Grace Bowers, the Nashville-based teenage guitar wunderkind, initially told her mom that the email announcing her selection as a U.S. Global Music Ambassador was so cool it had to be fake. “Mom, that’s a scam,” Bowers recalled telling her mom, Lisa. “That’s a scam email. They’re scamming you.”

Turns out, of course, that her selection wasn’t a scam. The Global Music Ambassador program is a diplomacy initiative jointly sponsored by the State Department and YouTube. In late June, Bowers went to Washington, D.C. for the appointment ceremony.

“I got to go to the State Department with some other really awesome artists. I never got to do my Washington, D.C. trip in the eighth grade because it was during COVID, so I kind of got a re-do of it.”

For Bowers, this summer has been full of amazing opportunities and experiences. Touring D.C., talking backstage with rock legend Peter Frampton, meeting her first guitar hero, releasing new music, and performing live in new places.

Bowers, who recently turned eighteen, has been on an amazing journey for the past several years. The Northern California native moved to Nashville three years ago, and, since then, her world has been an almost nonstop parade of gigs, jam sessions, guest appearances, and interviews. Lots of interviews. Since December, she’s been interviewed by both Rolling Stone and Fortune magazines, profiled by USA Today, featured on a segment of CBS Mornings, and written about by countless online bloggers and music industry-focused publications.

To say that Grace Bowers is everywhere would be fairly accurate.

“I’m so grateful…very grateful for everything that has been happening to me,” Bowers said.

Her focus, determination (“stubbornness” is the word she uses), and work ethic have definitely paid off for her. As Bowers emphasizes, she has worked her tail off for the past three years “to get these cool opportunities.”

Those opportunities include appearing last year on a Dolly Parton television special, a resonating set of performances at the 2023 Newport Folk Festival, appearing on stage with country star Lainey Wilson for Nashville’s Big Bash New Year’s Eve concert, and, back in early April, performing at the NCAA’s Tip-Off Tailgate party in Phoenix.

Opportunities to perform that are both large and small.

“On New Year’s, I played with Lainey Wilson to 215,000 people, and I couldn’t even see past the crowd. And then, a week after, I went and played a show with my band at a dive bar to 100 people.”

Playing dive bars and small clubs in and around Nashville was how Bowers honed both her guitar skills and her stage presence. But, as she has stated online, she’s covered so much musical ground in such a short amount of time through practice and persistence.

“Lots of practice,” Bowers said. “Lots of cutting teeth. Just stubborn and persistent. Just hard work.”

Along with plenty of hometown supporters who believe in Bowers and her talents.

“I have such a great community in Nashville. When we first moved here and I was fourteen or fifteen, playing dive bars, my parents were obviously a bit uncomfortable with it. But, they let me go out because I have all these people who believe in me and were looking out for me, no matter what.

“That’s something that I think is definitely unique to Nashville…that everyone’s just trying to help each other out. I have a lot of people in my life I really respect and look up to who I can text or call and ask for anything or ask for advice and they’ll always be there. So, that is something I love about living in Nashville—as much as I miss California—I have such a great and strong community here.”

Bowers is everywhere because of her determination and her focus…and her passion for causes and issues that are important to her.

In early June, Bowers completed her second year headlining Grace Bowers and Friends, an Evening of Love, Life, and Music benefiting Voices for a Safer Tennessee and MusiCares, a non-profit that benefits musicians and the music community. The one-night event featured a Who’s Who of Nashville, including Maggie Rose, Tommy Prine, John Osborne, Shane Hawkins, Devon Gilfillian, Meg McRee, Butch Walker, and many others.

The 2023 Grace Bowers and Friends concert raised more than $20,000 for MusiCares and for the families affected by the Covenant School shooting in March of that year. This year’s event raised over $30,000. After last year’s shooting, Bowers was determined to do something to help heal her new home community and to highlight a problem that she strongly believes should never happen.

“I feel regardless of your political standpoint, school shootings should not be happening, period. I just feel that it’s such an important thing to be advocating for safer laws and then also advocating for more education around it. It’s a cause that I really believe in and being seventeen (at that time), I can’t vote. So, I had to find another way to have a voice.”

In addition to hosting and headlining the concert, Bowers organized the event.

“I (had) been working on it for over a month, so it was all curated by me…(so that) night, seeing all this hard work I put into it paying off in the greatest way possible. Nashville just showed up in the biggest way…and I love to see it, and I thought it was a really incredible night.”

Passion, determination, and focus are words used to describe Grace Bowers. Other words would include enthusiastic, curious, and, of course, talented.

When watching Bowers on stage, you realize how locked in she is with her playing and the poise and confidence she brings to every performance. Bowers said she used to get nervous when playing live. Nerves are now a thing of the past.

“Yeah, it took me a good bit to get over that, but now, it’s no problem for me, but I definitely used to get very, very nervous when I first started playing shows.”

Long before she took the stage, Bowers first developed her guitar skills in a uniquely 21st-century way. Confined to home during the pandemic, Bowers live-streamed her practice sessions on Reddit, sometimes to thousands of loyal viewers, and, eventually, picked up an enormous following on Instagram.

She started learning guitar when she was nine years old after watching the music video for “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, featuring Slash and his signature Les Paul guitar. Bowers then became obsessed with “cheesy hair bands” like Winger and Ratt. But Slash (Saul Hudson) became her first guitar hero.

And the first rock song Bowers taught herself to play? “TNT” by AC/DC. In her USA Today interview, Bowers explained that the church-based guitar teacher wouldn’t teach her either “TNT” or “Hells Bells” because of the lyrics.

“So, I went home and taught myself (‘TNT’) from watching the video.”

Anecdotes like that tell the story of a focused and persistent young woman, who cares deeply about her craft and about those guitar heroes who influenced her playing. While Slash and Guns N’ Roses started her guitar journey, it is Leslie West who Bowers says is her favorite guitar player of all time. West, who passed away in 2020, co-founded the group Mountain, best known for the rock classic “Mississippi Queen.”

“It’s funny because I sound nothing like Leslie West.” Bowers laughs and went on to explain what made West’s guitar playing so special to her.

“He’s one of my favorite (guitar) players…not only because of his playing, but also because his tone was so unique and unmatched, and, I mean, he’s written some of the most iconic riffs ever. And I feel like not a lot of people talk about him (West) when mentioning guitar heroes. His name doesn’t get brought up as much as it should. So yeah, I mean, he’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations.”

From Slash to Leslie West, Bowers’ journey of discovery led her to one of the most recognizable guitarists or all time.

“Well, I first heard ‘Sweet Little Angel’ when I was thirteen, sitting in my mom’s car while she ran errands or something. I was flipping through radio stations, and eventually (I hear) ‘Sweet Little Angel’ playing. It was the version off of (B.B. King’s) first album. So, this was old, old B.B. King, not a live version. And that intro (is) iconic. I had never heard anything like that before…and that was the first time that I heard the blues and just kind of fell in love with it after that.”

At the time, Bowers was still in her hair metal phase, listening to crushing guitar solos where, as she explained, the guitarist crams as many notes into one or two seconds. That playing style, called shredding, is still a “guilty pleasure” for Bowers to this day.

“But hearing B.B. start a song with like five notes and those five notes said more than every single hair metal song I’ve ever heard combined. That’s just how powerful his playing is.”

“Sweet Little Angel” started Bowers down another path of discovery, where she initially focused on blues icons of the early to mid-twentieth century. Mississippi John Hurt and T-Bone Walker joined B.B. King on Bower’s blues playlists.

“I like them because they’re all different from each other. (Mississippi) John Hurt, I’d say, is more folk blues, and I still can’t play some of his songs because I can’t get that finger picking down. It’s so unique to him (Hurt), and it just flowed out of him. It seems like it was so easy for him. And his voice, on some of his records, you can hear him breathing, and there’s something chilling about that. It’s so cool.

“T-Bone Walker had a bit of a jazz influence (to his music) and more of a big band thing going on. But those (King, Hurt, and Walker) were my main three when I first discovered the blues. That’s who I was listening to.”

From blues icons to current blues stars—and rising stars—Bowers continues to make the most of the opportunities that have come her way.

In early June, Bowers got the chance to showcase her talents with another rising star, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who was playing a show at The Opera House in Toronto, Canada.

“Yeah, he invited me up to jam on a song with him, and he just blew me away. He’s got four people in his band, that’s it. He put on a two hour show and just—through and through—there was not a bad moment. (Kingfish) truly ‘speaks’ with his guitar…it’s insane. Not to mention, he’s an incredible singer, too. He’s not just a guitar player, he’s a great, great singer.

“We talked for a while after the show, too, and he’s just so, so nice, and he’s an amazing person.”

Bowers also talked about meeting sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe, the American roots rock and blues duo now based in Nashville.

“They’re both the nicest people that you could meet and just so, so supportive. I was actually there for…and met them during Grammy Week (this year) and they won a freaking Grammy (for their album Blood Harmony in the Best Contemporary Blues category).

“So happy for them because they deserve it so much, and they’re both (wonderful) people. We haven’t gotten a chance to jam, yet. But, I’m certain that there will be a jam (session) soon.”

Bowers played at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023, held last September at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The festival has become a must-see for its hosting of incredible live performances and impromptu collaborations from veteran guitarist and those up-and-coming stars like Bowers.

“That was such a cool experience and just to be around that level of ‘insane players’ everywhere was so inspiring to me, and I definitely wish that it was happening this year and not last year. I didn’t have a band at the time, so I was just sitting in with (other) people, and I definitely wish that I could bring the band out (for the next one).”

Bowers will have the chance to highlight both her skills and her new band as she continues touring through the remainder of 2024. Blues fans will have an opportunity to witness Bowers’ powerful performances in-person at Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza on August 3^rd at Mammoth Lakes, California and on September 13^th at Telluride Blues & Brews in Telluride, Colorado, featuring a lineup of incredible blues guitarists, including Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Tab Benoit, Gary Clark, Jr., Samantha Fish, and many others.

Bowers and her bandmates are slated to play other large festivals as well, including Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond 2024, performing alongside Neil Young, Tedeschi Trucks, Dave Matthews, Beck, Black Pumas, and many others.

“I mean, it’s crazy because this is the first year that I’m touring under my own name, (and) that I’m out there with my band and seeing my name on the same posters as Joe Bonamassa or Derek Trucks is kind of crazy.”

On August 5^th in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bowers and her band open for Slash on his S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival tour, promoting the release of Orgy of the Damned, Slash’s latest solo album full of re-imagined blues classics.

“I’m still not over that (opening for Slash). He was the reason that I picked up a guitar when I was nine years old, so it’s just a huge honor for me to be able to open for him.”

Bowers got the chance to meet her first guitar hero in Nashville in late June. She said it was surreal seeing Slash walk into the room and then to talk with him.

“He was so, so nice…(he) and his wife were very nice. Like a dream come true.”

Bowers reiterated that she’s excited to tour, playing to both large and small crowds and the new experiences touring will bring.

“I’m looking forward to playing all these new festivals that I’ve never been to for the first time. Looking forward to traveling to places I’ve never been to. Obviously, we’ll have some new music out there pretty soon with some pretty cool events going on around it (her new music). So, it’s going to be a great rest of the year it seems like.”

That “new music” is Bowers’ first full-length album—Wine on Venus—scheduled to come out in early August.

The album’s title and title track come from a very personal story about Bowers’ grandmother, Nana, who passed away last year at the age of 100. Nana once told Bowers that when she died, she’d be drinking wine on Venus because it’s the brightest star.

The recently released title track is a soulful tribute to her grandmother, whom Bowers said she misses very much. Bowers posted on Facebook that “I always think of Nana when we play this song.”

Bowers talked about the process of writing the songs for Wine on Venus with her lead singer, Esther (Esi) Okai-Tetteh. The two would sit in Bowers’ bedroom hashing out lyrics and melodies.

“That’s pretty much how it went down. It was a lot of me and my singer, Esi…on my bedroom floor writing songs. Some of them were co-written with other people, too.”

Bowers and her bandmates then went into the studio in February to record Wine on Venus with John Osborne of Brothers Osborne fame.

“Working with John Osborne was…I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else because he was just so perfect and understood the sound that I was going for so well. It was just, honestly, so easy, and it kind of flowed right out of everyone. (We) knocked it all out in a week. It was an amazing experience.”

Musically, the new album leans heavily into the funk and soul sounds of the Sixties and Seventies. Those sounds are clearly evident on the album’s first released single, “Tell Me Why U Do That” featuring an underlay of horns and vocals reminiscent of Sly and the Family Stone. One of the album’s nine tracks is a cover of the funk band’s well-known hit, “Dance to the Music.”

“Our biggest inspirations were early Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, (and) The Meters. I mean, obviously, I have a huge blues and rock influence, and I think that shines through in the funkier areas, too. So, it’s a big mix of all of that. Especially with everyone in the band coming from different backgrounds. It’s cool to see how we could all come together and make something unique.”

Her band’s name—The Hodge Podge—came from the members’ “different backgrounds” as Bowers put it—an eclectic mix of musical experiences and tastes.

While those different backgrounds and experiences contributed to the fun and funky groove of Wine on Venus, it’s Bower’s exploration into the music catalogues of yesteryear that shines through in her new songs.

“Well, the first three or four Funkadelic albums are my favorites of all time, especially Maggot Brain. That is in my top three albums of all time. I love that (album). The first time I ever heard George Clinton (and) Parliament-Funkadelic was ‘Hit It and Quit It.’ This is not that long ago, either. This was like a year, year and a half ago.”

Bowers said that prior to discovering George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic universe, she had been in a classic rock phase, falling in love with late Sixties icons such as Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, and T. Rex.

“I still absolutely love all those bands, but I felt I was always digging for something…and hearing ‘Hit It and Quit It’ was like ‘This is what I’ve been looking for’ and everything kind of clicked, and from there I got into more…of this old school funk stuff and really fell in love with it.”

Following the release of Wine on Venus and with tour dates scheduled for the remainder of the year, Bowers says that—right now—she doesn’t want to slow down and wants everything to continue happening at “light speed,” as she called it.

While she’s “not one to look super far into the future,” Bowers has given some thought to a second album and where her journey of discovery might take her.

“I love all different kinds of music. Like I love folk. I love the blues. I love Americana. So, I’m definitely not going to limit myself to a genre. I’m already thinking about making a second album before the first one even comes out. (I’m) always, always going to keep writing, that’s never going to stop. We’ll always have some songs coming. So, yeah, I just think there’s no bounds to it.”

There are also no limits to Bowers’ passion and determination as a talented guitarist and songwriter. In her new role as a Global Music Ambassador, Bowers will soon showcase both her talent and her passion to a worldwide audience. And just like she worked to heal her home community of Nashville, Grace Bowers will use her music “to bring the world together” and help promote peace.

“If I feel strongly about something, everyone else is going to know because I will be very outspoken about it. I mean, to me, it’s important to take a stance. I just think that it’s so important, especially as musicians, (because) a lot of music is about having a voice.”

Find out where Grace is playing and catch a live show by visiting her website at:
www.gracebowers.com