‘They’ll take me seriously after they hear me play:’ 18-year old guitar phenom performs on celebrated stage
Grace Bowers and her band released their debut album on Aug. 9.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - For nearly 100 years, one place has shaped the sound of music more than any other stage, but the Grand Ole Opry was one of the few venues in Nashville one guitarist hadn’t played.
Just days ago, teenaged guitar hero, Grace Bowers, made her Opry debut. The timing was fortuitous, as it fell on her 18th birthday.
“[Playing the Opry] has always been top of my bucket list to do it,” says Bowers who arrived before her concert to find balloons and flowers wishing her a happy birthday.
She headlined the July 30 performance with her band, The Hodge Podge, which released their debut album Wine on Venus Aug. 9.
“Every every night I went to bed I would be dreaming of doing what I’m doing right now which was playing my own music on stages across the country,” says Bowers.
The early days
Bowers picked up a guitar at the age of 9 after she was kicked out of gymnastics and failed at soccer, softball, baseball and football.
“I was scrolling YouTube and I saw the music video for ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns and Roses, and I saw Slash and I thought he looked really cool, so I asked my mom to get me a guitar.”
Within six months, practicing guitar was all Grace wanted to do, according to her mother Lisa Bowers.
“I just knew,” says Lisa, who serves as her full-time manager and stylist.
Grace practiced steadily over the next few years until, at age 13, she heard a decades-old song that changed everything.
“I was scrolling through radio stations in my mom’s car and B.B. King came on and he was playing Sweet Little Angel. That is the moment that I realized I can have my own voice in this instrument and I fell in love with it,” recalls Grace.
"Making It"
In the early days of COVID at age 13, Grace began live-streaming her practice sessions on Reddit. To her surprise, large numbers of people tuned in.
“I can remember the very first time I did it, I had like 10,000 people watching and that was a shock,” exclaims Grace.
Her budding skills captured the attention of Gibson Guitars, which offered her a coveted placement within Gibson Generation Group, known as G3. Gibson describes the program as a two-year mentorship that encourages young players to pursue a career in music by providing mentorships, instrument loans, collaborative promotions, and performance opportunities.
Grace’s first major gig was at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, at the age of 14. It served as a turning point for her parents, who saw a spark in Grace.
“That night was life-changing for both me and my husband seeing how the audience reacted to her and also for us seeing her on stage,” recalls Lisa. “She just like came out of her shell and came alive and we were both like ‘who is this?’”
A fortuitous family move from California to Nashville in 2021 meant 14-year old Grace could take her performances from online to on-stage.
“I was out playing clubs every single night, hustling and meeting people and just playing with whoever I could.”
Sometimes her age presented a problem at clubs with age requirements for entry. There were times Grace was asked to wait outside before she played. She recalls another instance of being kicked out during a set, all because she was too young to be inside.
As a newly minted 18-year old, Grace is starting her senior year of online homeschool. She calls her age both an ‘advantage’ and a ‘disadvantage.’
“I get undermined a lot and people don’t take me seriously. They’ll take me seriously after they hear me play.”
Remaining unsigned
To Grace, maintaining her originality and ownership of her music is the top priority. She has turned down record labels, choosing instead to retain ownership of her masters, which means she owns the copyright to the original recordings and maintains legal control over any financial gains from it.
“I’m a very stubborn person and I will have a say in everything and I don’t like people telling me what to do and I just don’t want that,” says Grace. “I want to do it my own way; they’re my songs and I love playing them and that’s really all that matters to me.”
When asked what a successful career would look like to Grace, she responds by saying “Making it to me is just loving what [I] do, that’s all that matters.”
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