#445 - Grace Bowers on The Stigma of Being a Female Guitar Player + Why She Doesn’t Like Being Called a Teenage Guitar Prodigy + Working with Brothers Osborne

00:00:06
Speaker 1: The stigma of being a girl playing guitar. I was like setting up my guitar and the sound guy comes up to me and was like, you know, you have to plug your guitar into the amp to get sound of it.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Episode four to forty five Grace Bowers. Yeah, Grace is awesome, crazy guitar player, only seventeen years old. She just like stumbles into guns and roses, which I would think if you're like fourteen or however old. She was maybe younger than that. When she stumbled into guns and roses, you would just be like, who are these old ladies? I mean men, you know, but like seems a lot older when you talk to her, follow her on social media. She's so good that she makes it look easy. So I don't know at times that if you're not someone who either plays or knows people that play, you even understand how like elite that she is. It's like when you watch a marathon runner and it looks like they're running at a normal but they're really going like a five minute mile. Yeah, it's a good point. Or like the Olympics when they're all running super fast. You can't tell the difference. Yeah, it looks normal. She's so good, but again she's so young. We went to my wife's church and we were watching this husband and wife play and I was like, oh, this is different. This is way better than even things that we have in our studio. And my wife honestly was like, oh, I don't know the difference. It just sounds like really good to me. I can't really tell the difference in great and super elite because a lot of the really small small things they do. And I went up to them, I had to tell them after church. I was like, you, guys, that's amazing. It turns out there about super classically trained. They travel the world. And I was like, man, I knew they were so good. And I just hope people don't take Grace and to see how awesome she is and it kind of gets lost because she makes it look so easy, but she's the real deal. She just wrapped up recording her debut album with John Osborne from Brothers Osbourne. She played on the New Year's Eve special on CBS with Lany Wilson and with Dolly Parton as part of her pet Gal That was a cool thing. Her band is Grace Bowers and the Hodgepodge, which sometimes I'll just see her go live and so I hit it and she has that sign. This is great, Bowers. They're all around microphones. She's not singing, she just dominates. It reminded me of Santana. Santana didn't sing. Santana would play the songs, even like the seventies, you know, Black Magic Woman or later on you Maria Maria. Never are Rob Thomas smooth smooth. Santana was so elite he didn't have to sing. That's great, although I think she should. She should sing. I told her that. I was like, you can sing so and she's also we talk about it. We invited her to play at the Million Dollar Show with us coming up at the Ryman next week, tomorrow and tomorrow. In this world, yeah, yeah, she's gonna complain. People are gonna be blown away. Her favorite guitar player is Leslie West of Mountain. You just hear how she learned and why she learned, and it's unlike anybody else that learned because she had no musical influence except that those weird women on the internet. Guns and Roses. All right, here you go. This is episode four to forty five. Follow her Grace underscore Bowers here she has Grace Bowers. Grace. I'm a big fan because I mean, I guess I just would. I'm a big music guy, so I would just see your videos pop up my algorithm. And your hair is physically like you just see your hair and a guitar first, Yeah, it's and as someone who has big curly hair too, I just I just cut mine. But I would be like, oh, look at this who And then you know, once you click into it a little bit and you find out that you're still a teenager like and then so then I started watching some of your practice sessions when you would just start streaming your practice sessions.

00:03:38
Speaker 1: Oh you watched those ideas a long time.

00:03:40
Speaker 2: It wasn't but they were still still up in a few places. Yeah, And so I was curious about that you were letting people watch you practice, which I feel like is a pretty vulnerable place to be because when you're practicing, you're not doing it all. You're not supposed to do it all, right, So who had the idea for you just to stream practice?

00:04:00
Speaker 3: Well?

00:04:01
Speaker 1: I started it during COVID, and I was playing guitar every day because there's nothing else to do, couldn't go outside and I had this was on Reddit, which is kind of a weird place to be, but that's kind of where I got started on social media.

00:04:17
Speaker 2: It's a very weird place to be, by the way, because I've I've been a redditor and it's it's funny and dark and yeah, yes, why Reddit though, Why.

00:04:25
Speaker 1: Because that's just what I use. I didn't have Instagram at the time.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: Uh, it's what I used to doom scroll and doom scrolling.

00:04:35
Speaker 1: I'm bad on that, I'm bad. But so I was playing guitar every day, and this was when Reddit still had the live streaming option, which they've since gotten rid of. But I was like, well, if I'm doing this every day, like I should like be letting other people see so I can get some followers off of it. So I didn't change the thing about what I doing it except that set my phone up right in front of me and people started watching it, like a lot of people.

00:05:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would see even screenshots because there are certain websites that have parts of the videos you practicing. Still, you have a massive, very passionate fan base of music folks, but all ages from like seventy year old dudes to twelve year old girls and everywhere in between because of what you do. It's so universal. But some of the screenshots I would see there were like nineteen thousand people watching you practice.

00:05:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it was crazy. They some of them would get like a million total viewers, which is wild because it was just me with a guitar, just like messing around.

00:05:41
Speaker 2: Would do you look at the amount of viewers while you were practicing or would you just leave it on and practice and go back and look I did.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: That's funny because the way it worked is that you would start out with like twenty maybe one hundred people, and then all of a sudden it would spike to twenty thousand, like there's no in between. So I'd be playing a song and be at like one hundred, and then I'd look at the screen and all of a sudden, there's twenty thousand, and I'm like, oh, crap, I better play a better song. So I would like switch to whatever song that would keep people's attention.

00:06:12
Speaker 2: And are you still in the stage. Because some of my friends are very gifted and they work really hard guitar players both. Some of them are very gifted, and I'll work that hard. Some of them work really hard. They're not that gifted, but I have a few that are both, right, Like, that's it's like professional athletes, Like if you're super genetically blessed and you work really hard, like that's next level, that's it. And they don't practice as much anymore. But when they write or they create, that's kind of they're practicing because they they've all the fundamentals, they've pretty they've mastered. Now they're a lot older than you. Do you ever pull the guitar out and just practice? Or is it you is your practice in creation now?

00:06:51
Speaker 3: Uh?

00:06:51
Speaker 1: No, I definitely still practice because I still have a lot to practice. I don't think i've mastered anything yet. And I also was not genetically gifted. No offense to my mother's sitting here, I don't come from a musical family, and lots of people call me a prodigy, but I'm like, I worked for this for like seven years, like I've been practicing that face.

00:07:18
Speaker 2: Time just gave me that. I get so different. But I just felt you in that face because people will be like, hey, you're talented. I'm like, I'm not that talented. I worked really freaking hard. Yeah, And I almost get insulted when people say you're so talented, and I know they're trying to say something nice to me. And the person who kind of made me feel normal ish about was there's an artist named Breeland. And Breland was like, Hey, when people say that to you, like they mean, well, like you may not take it because I'm like, I feel like i have very little talent, but I feel like I've spent a lot of time working, grinding, being tenacious. And when you made that face when you said some people call me a prodigy, like I just felt. I felt that because yeah, I'm imagining you just lock yourself in a room and you just play. And because a lot of your you're learning too, is from YouTube and self taught, right, yeah, absolutely, And there's nobody there really if you're self taught or YouTube to go, that's not how. You just have to see it and figure it out based on what's showing you. Did you have a favorite YouTube teacher or anybody that you would see play that you learn the most from on YouTube? Maybe that's not a direct teacher.

00:08:22
Speaker 1: I watched in terms in terms of teachers, I watched a lot of Martie Schwartz, who I actually just did.

00:08:28
Speaker 2: A video with, So was it cool to do that with him.

00:08:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like a full circle moment, like, hey, you taught me the pentatonic scale. We're making a video together.

00:08:37
Speaker 2: And how long into your guitar playing did you learn the pentatonic scale. Some of the classically trained people I know learned it very early, but some who just like had a guitar and lived somewhere where there was a lot of resources, they didn't learn like that until way later.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: You know, I literally did not know that until probably three years ago, really, which is crazy. I've been playing for seven almost eight years, and for four years no one told me, hey, you should be doing something other than like learning songs.

00:09:05
Speaker 4: Note for note, why did you decide to Because when you're learning songs, it's cool, but you're memorizing songs, right, Yeah, But when you actually learn why certain things in the mathematical formula is and scar like, then you can almost predict.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: It's it's very it's very math based, or at least for me, it's very number And I don't play like you in any way. I play guitar and play comedy. But for me that is since I know you know Fret Fingers, you know, you just Why did you decide to learn that way if you were already doing well playing songs.

00:09:42
Speaker 1: Well, because playing songs is boring playing what other people.

00:09:46
Speaker 2: When people are celebrating you and you're people are like, look at she's awesome.

00:09:49
Speaker 1: I mean, well, okay, it's one thing to play like a cover song. It's another thing to play someone solo note for note, And that's what I was doing. Like I could play Appetite for Destruction out for note all the way down. I could play every single song and.

00:10:03
Speaker 2: Like Guns and Roads just for all your kids out there.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's that's amazing, Like it was amazing that I could do that. But at the same time, like I didn't know any of the theory behind it. And now, like looking back, when I go back to those sillos, I'm like, oh this, like he's using this scale here, he's using this here. And before that, I was just like it was mindless. It was just I had memorized it and I was playing it back, but like I didn't know why I was, why he was playing this in a certain spot, or I just didn't know anything behind it and kind of learning all these scales and stuff, not even that I like know a lot of music theory or not because I don't. But learning even just a little bit does make you go back and realize, like it unlocks a lot.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, and just generally when I've learned something that's more of a fundamental part of whatever it is, even if it's a comedy, it makes me realize I don't know near as much as I thought. Yeah, and then then I feel really dumb. It's almost like starting over. It's like it's like I go from elementary school to junior high and yeah, I'm better than all the elementary kids now, but now there's all of this that I now have to learn because I didn't even know. I didn't know it. Did you experience that a bit whenever you start to learn why and you know scales?

00:11:24
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, absolutely? I mean I still feel that way sometimes.

00:11:28
Speaker 2: Do you see colors or anything weird? Like I was with John Mayer has done the show before, and I'm a big John Ayra fan, and you know he would talk about how he it's times he assigns it to colors, his brain works different. Yeah, do you when you're playing colors, numbers, anything like that pop into your head?

00:11:48
Speaker 1: I think what's that cold where you see where you hear some of the sea colors. I think that's actually like a thing that people.

00:11:53
Speaker 2: My wife has synaesthesia.

00:11:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what's called. I don't have that, but I do associate music with artwork, especially like like I just had this guy make a picture for me and it was like a picture of me on a stage and then they had him like draw a bunch of color coming out of my guitar, and like that is something that like I can kind of associate with the kind of music that I play.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: So like the like it's kind of hard to like her tone is tone of colored, like let your guitar tone, Like what do you mean to color?

00:12:24
Speaker 4: No?

00:12:24
Speaker 1: Tone? Tone for me is like more of a feeling rather than really Yeah, like I don't I don't know how to describe it.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: And it's almost indescribable because it's such an innate part of you. Yeah, but to you, when you're chasing a tone, a perfect tone and a good tone, whatever it is that you're trying, that sound represents kind of a feeling or an emotion that Yeah, so I don't have Cynasjon kind of idiot when it comes Touff like that. My wife does. But she numbers and days and months and food, like Thursday's a seven. It's weird to how they associate it. She can't explain why, but she's like, Thursday is always a seven, number seven, And I'm like, but why shows I don't know. And there's a perfect math to her. Sinestiesian how she sees things and she can see words like if I said the plane is blue, she can go the plane is blue, and she can see it. She can spell it backward too, because she's looking at the letters. But you guys have something really cool, yourself included, but everybody has that a little bit different. When you said tone is like a feeling, that's exactly what that is. You can't even just can't describe a feeling. Do you like? Because I saw you work with John Osborne, who's like one of my awesome Did you like Brothers Osborne's music before you got to know him as a player or did you Because for me, I kind of knew John before I got into Brothers Osborne, like knowing them, what was that relationship? And did you know the band before you started working with him?

00:13:47
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did, I'd actually seen them they played a sun to amphitheater down here, and I went to that show and I hadn't actually heard John play guitar before that, and.

00:13:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you're right, it's awesome. So do you feel that way about other guitar players?

00:14:03
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah?

00:14:05
Speaker 2: Is it weird when they say that about you? Though?

00:14:07
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:14:09
Speaker 2: Why is it weird when they say it about you?

00:14:12
Speaker 1: I don't know?

00:14:13
Speaker 2: Just is do you feel like you deserve them to say it about you?

00:14:21
Speaker 1: I feel like if I say yes, I'm going to sound it's.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: Not obnoxious or it's not cockey. I mean we're talking art here, right, But you're supposed to feel that way that way about others. But it is always awkward when somebody's like wow, wow, Wow, Well I would.

00:14:33
Speaker 1: I would hope they feel that way about Yeah.

00:14:35
Speaker 2: And who's come to you and said, Chris, you've like blown my mind at your style of playing.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: Honestly, mostly just very nice people I meet who come to my shows.

00:14:48
Speaker 2: Like fans. Yeah, I mean like who though that like you? It's a great guitar player that you've been able to meet And they're like, man, that's you know what you do? That's special?

00:14:58
Speaker 1: Oh? Well, Nancy Wilson actually has from heart. Yeah, from heart. Actually, just today she like left me a comment like, oh gosh, I forgot exactly what she said, but she left one that was like, I hail you with like a heart emoji.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: How do you know these classic rock artists?

00:15:14
Speaker 1: Like?

00:15:14
Speaker 2: Where did that exposure come?

00:15:16
Speaker 1: I don't know. Honestly, I didn't grow up around music. The first time I ever like wanted a guitar was when I was nine years old and I saw Slash.

00:15:30
Speaker 2: Big top Hat the big guitar.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's what made me want to get a guitar.

00:15:36
Speaker 2: How did you see Slash though you're nine?

00:15:38
Speaker 1: I had unrestricted access to YouTube. Yeah, I don't know how I came across it, but it was the Welcome to the Jungle music video that I watched.

00:15:49
Speaker 2: How often do you pull out an acoustic guitar?

00:15:53
Speaker 1: Not as often as I should. I do have. My friend left a nineteen sixty five Gibson twelve string with me that I've been playing every day, so I've been loving that.

00:16:05
Speaker 3: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor, Wow, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: Do you feel that your fingers because there's a difference in playing an acoustic and playing an electric electrical the note a hold longer, obviously, right, But playing a twelve string that's a whole different ballgame when it comes to like pressure, like my finger will bleed immediately and I can't play it. I can't really, There's no difference for me to play two strings or one, so I'll just play one. Yeah, is that different on your hand?

00:16:42
Speaker 1: Definitely? With fingerpicking, it's different. Honestly. I feel like it's just something to get used to and then after a while you won't even like, really think about it anymore. But yeah, it is definitely a little bit harder to fingerpick on.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: You say your parents weren't in the music at the level that a lot of kids who grow up and become great musicians are. Did they just have like a favorite band or radio? Did? What did you know about your parents when you were a young kid in the music they liked?

00:17:10
Speaker 1: Well, my dad likes what I like to call dad rock, which includes uh Steve Miller, Uh, oh crap.

00:17:18
Speaker 2: Who do you play any like? Will you play like or you learn like fly like an eagle? And you'd be like dad, dude, No, I went, I went and give it to him, so He likes a lot of the seventies and eighties in rock, Like he's like the Motley Crueing.

00:17:32
Speaker 1: You know, he wasn't he wasn't that cool. It was it was more like a Steve Miller and the Eagles. He likes country too, more current country. All right, mom my, mom my, mom has good music.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: Take what's your favorite band? You have a lot of you wanted to Why don't you come come sit over here with us. Let's do it. Come sit just sit over here with We'll get your microphone to be Do you care for that's for a few minutes, a few minutes.

00:18:00
Speaker 1: Go ahead, just for a few minutes.

00:18:03
Speaker 2: No, that's okay. I'll kick you out too, that's okay. We're all under the understanding that this is only gonna be a few minutes. Yeah, don't fall backward whatever you do. Okay, So mom, just leaning there, this it'll be it'll be two minutes. Mike need another Mica Favorite bands? Growing up?

00:18:16
Speaker 1: Oh, growing up?

00:18:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, first thing Billie Idola loved when I was younger, Bruce Springsteen about.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: My age, right, wedding, and then BRICEBT. You're born in the USA, obviously, Lenny Kravis Number one still.

00:18:30
Speaker 5: To this day.

00:18:31
Speaker 2: For the first time, like three months ago a game.

00:18:33
Speaker 5: He's great and I was dying when she got to beat him.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: I was like, what about now?

00:18:38
Speaker 5: Now it's a little bit more diverse.

00:18:40
Speaker 1: But black pumas I.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: Knew then from Ratless Yehaw from Colorado, Like I've met these people in these random places where they but it's I'm kind.

00:18:49
Speaker 5: Of all over the place, but not not like super hard rock, but I just I just like good music that you can feel.

00:18:55
Speaker 2: When did she When did her interest turn into only guitar as like a hobby because you know, as a kid, I like to do a lot of things. You like to, you know, play ball, Like when did it turn into I'm really just gonna focus almost all my free time on guitar. What age it was?

00:19:10
Speaker 5: Really when she got it? I always tell people because we had tried everything else. We tried ballet because that's what I did growing up. Definitely not a fit. We tried gymnastics, she got kicked out. We did karate, she got kicked out.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: She did softball.

00:19:22
Speaker 2: I'm saving all the kickout questions for you in a minute, Grace, once she's out of here.

00:19:26
Speaker 5: Softball hated it the only one the sport that she really liked was flag football, and she was the only girl on the team, played with all the boys. But she also has two younger brothers, so and then we were like, god, I mean nothing, you just want your kid to find their passion, right, so nothing was sticking. She asked me to get a guitar and I'm like, great, let's do it.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: And did you think it would come and go like everything?

00:19:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, kind of every kid actually yeah, yeah, yeah, I kind of figured. But then once she got it, I mean the first year was it was definitely like grace, you have to practice, Grace, you have to practice. But I feel like once she got the hang of it, was I very quickly didn't have to ask her to practice anymore.

00:20:02
Speaker 2: Two final questions and we're kicking you out and you're going back to your manager.

00:20:05
Speaker 5: Will kicking me out.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: Because this gives me some great questions to ask her. They used to follow up on, which is awesome for me. So when she during the pandemic is getting this online following and what are you six fifteen, sixteen, fourteen, okay, thirteen, that's yeah, there's thousands thousands of people watching your thirteen or fourteen year old daughter. Right, yes, on Reddit the darkest play. Yeah, was there a conversation that you had where you're super supportive, but it's also like there are a lot of weirdos out there. Oh yeah, absolutely.

00:20:34
Speaker 5: She didn't get an Instagram account till she was what fifteen fifteen.

00:20:38
Speaker 4: And.

00:20:40
Speaker 5: It was under the condition because she had to be public, and it was under the condition that it was on my account and I can see it because there's creepers out there. So yes, it was a little bit scary, but she was good about coming to when there was ever somebody creepy, and now it's like there's so many of them. We just she just knows to block it out and not respond.

00:20:56
Speaker 2: And pretty pretty clear headed, mature kid. Yes, yeah, I feel I don't know where I feel that way too. Yeah, like it's an old soul type thing more than just the music she plays. Yeah, it is just it is the eye contact, just how she you know, manages herself. Last question, and then you were going to kick her out like you were kicked out of karate? Were you ever? Like that's enough guitar where she was so consumed with it still.

00:21:21
Speaker 5: Not always loved found something she loved we've encouraged it, you know, like take I would she was younger, take her to live shows because every time you go to a live show, you.

00:21:31
Speaker 1: Come home with new inspiration.

00:21:32
Speaker 5: So no, we've always been like I've always been all in whatever it is. Finding teachers driving her.

00:21:39
Speaker 2: Places, that's awesome. Okay, you have to go back to your church. I'm sorry, listen you. Hey, why were you getting kicked out of play? I heard a rumor you got kicked out of some stuff. So what was the reason that you would be removed from a structured organization?

00:21:56
Speaker 1: Because I was a little asshole?

00:21:57
Speaker 2: When were you, like, were you super competitive or were you?

00:22:00
Speaker 1: No? I was? I was mean and not well behaved.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: And what were you acting out because you didn't want to do it? Were you? You know, it's not a competitiveness. Why do you think you were mean?

00:22:15
Speaker 1: Well? When I was really little, in like kindergarten, I had an obsession with tigers, specifically white tigers, and I would tell everyone that I was a tiger, and I would go so far as to growl and like scratch kids. And when you're trying to play soccer, that doesn't.

00:22:36
Speaker 2: Really worklay doesn't go oh yeah, yeah, I felt that. Do you ever feel like, all right, that's too much guitar and I need to do something else just so you can have a bit of fresh perspective or is it all when you have freak time, it's you just going to town on it.

00:22:54
Speaker 1: There definitely have been sometimes where I've like been in a rut where I like pick up a guitar and I'm like, I feel like I'm playing the same stuff over and over again.

00:23:02
Speaker 2: So then they'll probably like, do you burn out?

00:23:04
Speaker 1: No, I've I've not yet. I haven't experienced that yet. But I will take like like maybe a day, like I won't touch a.

00:23:13
Speaker 2: Guitar purposefully, Yeah, just to almost cleanse the palate.

00:23:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, which I don't do very often. But if I do it for like longer than three days and I go back and I just feel rusty. So I limit myself to only one day and then I'll go back to it.

00:23:29
Speaker 2: So back to John Osborne for a second. Who you guys work together on your music? Right?

00:23:34
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:23:34
Speaker 2: On the record when you're working with John, because John is such a great player, has such a great ear, it's so proficient. He plays four minute solos on record versions of thing you know he is. He's so good. He's also such a good dude who values mental health and he if like if our your mom, I'd be like. John Osborne is like the guy you want to be around as an influence. But when you're with him, like, what did you want your sound to be? Because there's a difference in being influenced by things and like you said, playing things you memorize, what did you want your sound to be?

00:24:06
Speaker 1: Well, I came into him and I'm like, think like Funkadelics, slan in the Family Stone, and the Meters. I want you to mash those all together. I want that and the songs that we wrote. We're kind of that style too, kind of like funk soul, classic rock. And he totally understood. And I've been getting mixes all week and not be happier with that.

00:24:31
Speaker 2: That's exciting.

00:24:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: And so when you say funk soul, classic rock and you say sli in the Family Stone, I think of Slying the Family Stone a whole lot of people on a stage, all of them being really good individually, Like you could pull any of them off and they would be just so proficient at keys or or drums or just different percussion. Right, but that's that is quite the achievement to want to be like that and then feel like, hey, we kind of accomplished. Where it's heavily influenced by Sly, it's also so seventies, yeah, very and visual. It's kind of your visual vibe to a bit. Yeah, any chance you're like an old dude who died in the seventies and came back to life as like as like a kid and like they like put you in the wrong body because when you said signed the family stone, like even now your vibe now is that? Has that always been like the fashion the era that you liked and felt most comfortable?

00:25:27
Speaker 6: No?

00:25:27
Speaker 1: Actually, well, when I was again, when I heard Slash for the first time, that got me really into hair metal. For three or four years it was only hair metal. It was like Warrant Rat Motley Crew, like the cheesiest stuff you can imagine. I loved it, and so that's what I listened to.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: Why why'd you love it so much?

00:25:48
Speaker 1: You think, honestly, because I still love it. I will still go back and listen to it. Sometimes I was like, I'm not gonna say it's a guilty pleasure because I like it and I'm not guilty about it, but it was kind of all I knew at the time, Like I didn't like, I wasn't around like different kinds of music to like, I wasn't exposed to it. Like I moved out here and I heard bluegrass for the first time because and I had no idea that was even like a thing.

00:26:17
Speaker 2: So when you moved here, you already playing guitar, right, yeah, So but when you hear bluegrass and it's uh bluegrass, is it's very quick, very yeah mandolin. I mean it's in you as a musician, even at a young age. Some people may go, oh, you heard bluegrass any but bluegrass is really complicated.

00:26:38
Speaker 1: It's insane. I can't play a lick of bluegrass.

00:26:42
Speaker 2: When you would hear bluegrass, would that inspire you to try to get better in a certain way or was it like, Man, I don't know, I don't know what how to bluegrass influence you because it's so hard.

00:26:53
Speaker 1: Well, there is a banjo sitting in my room because I thought I was going to learn how to play the banjo after sitting a bluegrass station then and didn't really work out.

00:27:04
Speaker 2: You can get the fake one, the ganjo six stringer.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably what I should have gotten.

00:27:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, some of my friends play that. They're like, I'll play a banjo, and I'm like wow, they're like, not really his six strings, it's just a fake banjo. Do you get a lot of people sending you free guitars now?

00:27:19
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would imagine I.

00:27:20
Speaker 1: Have too many guitars at this point. Yeah.

00:27:23
Speaker 2: I would imagine everybody wants you to play their guitar on social media or something, but then not give you money to actually be the endorsery, just send you the guitars.

00:27:33
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like I'm okay with that. I'll take I'll take free guitars any day.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: You'll take them, but you may not get on Instagram and play them.

00:27:42
Speaker 1: Correct.

00:27:43
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite? What's your favorite guitar? My sixty one is g Now, when you say sixty one, that's nineteen sixty one. How we have we have old Bronco, this from before I was born. We've changed out a lot of the parts in a sixty one SG. I don't know. I'm talking about things I don't know now. Is it all except for the string? Is it original parts? For the most part on mine?

00:28:07
Speaker 1: It is? Yeah, I haven't changed anything about it since, like, oh, I don't want to people like like people will tell me like, oh, it needs a new bridge, it needs to be refretted, and like it still sounds okay, I'm not gonna. I don't want to change it.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: Do you travel with it?

00:28:23
Speaker 1: I do, but I'm gonna Gibson is gonna make like they're gonna like scan it and make a replica of it to bring.

00:28:32
Speaker 2: Out to festivals and yeah, something that precious.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't want to be traveling with.

00:28:37
Speaker 2: It, especially if it's been around since the sixties. It's not like a lot of bumpings and gonna be good for it.

00:28:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:28:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: And if you're flying, I mean you don't ever check your guitars, right never Yeah. You see what they do with luggage, right, Like they just they're just throwing stuff. So you carried on and and Southwest is always really good.

00:28:54
Speaker 1: About Yeah, Southwest has been good.

00:28:57
Speaker 2: Anybody ever wrote your guitar you have a bad experience with try not.

00:29:00
Speaker 1: Yet, not yet, not to jinx it. But I do get some dirty looks every now and then.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: Could you take up a whole.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: One like the flights like filled up and I come on with a big old guitar.

00:29:12
Speaker 2: Do people recognize you if you're just wearing your hair curly more than if you're wearing a hat or you have as a very distinct look.

00:29:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I never wear a hat. I think I look goofy in hats. So I do get recognized quite a bit, because again, I think I'm kind of hard to miss.

00:29:29
Speaker 2: And do they say you're a grace or do some people go, I know you from somewhere, Oh, you're the person that played guitar on my whatever it is, you know, they see it on any formal places. Does that ever happen where they just can't quite place you and they realize here's the girl that plays guitar.

00:29:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it happens all the time.

00:29:43
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you get a lot of older and men especially who are like, ah, you're just a girl. Yeah, until you show them what the freak is up?

00:29:51
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. I just talked to CBS about this. It's like a whole segment on like the stigma of being a girl playing guitar, And I told him the story. It happened at Americana fests down here, and I was like, setting up my guitar and the sound guy comes up to me and was like, you know, you have to plug your guitar into the amp to get sound out of it.

00:30:17
Speaker 2: I'm like, see, that's when you challenge him to a duel, right, then get a guitar, wise guy, and then you do. You're a little clunky with the first you're like man, and then he's like, oh, I got her, and then you just shred him. I bet you there are people's face, like if you're at a festival and they're not familiar with you and you start playing, I bet there's a lot of confusion because again, you're a teenage girl playing traditionally an instrument that older men have played, and it's and rock music itself right now, it's not as if it's the most popular, which is why it makes it so much cooler that you're doing it. It's not the most popular format, which like hip hop is, is massive right now. So when you see a young female doing something that isn't the trendiest it's super trendy, then it's super cool. And do you find people are surprised when they're like, well look at that, Oh wow, she's just a kid.

00:31:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I get a lot of comments like you're only seventeen or like whatever age I was at at the time the video was posted. It happens all the time.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: When did you get your driver's license?

00:31:24
Speaker 4: Uh?

00:31:24
Speaker 1: A year ago?

00:31:25
Speaker 2: You got it when you turned sixteen?

00:31:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, not right when I turned sixteen. I was a little late.

00:31:28
Speaker 2: But it's weird now because some and I have a nephew who's your age, and he didn't even want to get a license.

00:31:35
Speaker 1: I told him, yeah, I've heard that from a lot of people. I was like, my generation isn't as motivated.

00:31:39
Speaker 2: You may have to get to a gig though, like you may have to go to work. Yeah, a bit different. And he was like, why do I I can uber or I was like no, no, no, I'll buy you a car. I'll tell him, like I said, if you whatever money you get, I'll go times three that many money growing up. So I want to help like my nephew and fa And he's like, yeah, I appreciate that, but I'm good, I'll take it exactly. It's like when I was sixteen, I couldn't wait to do it. How many nights a week do you play in front of people, regardless of what it is. If it's a you know, you're going to to a club or a bar, or you're playing a big show. How many nights what you think you get in front of people?

00:32:16
Speaker 1: Well, for a while, I was doing it what felt like almost every night of the week. But I've been trying to kind of scale it back now that I've got my own band and kind of make it a little more special when I do play in Nashville, So I'm not like out every single night, but a lot, a lot.

00:32:38
Speaker 6: The Bobby cast will be right back. This is the Bobby cast.

00:32:52
Speaker 2: When well, before I go out on tour and tell jokes, I will try to find a couple of places to go and sometimes I'll just go to the Bluebird and I won't announce it, and I'll play some comedy stuff just to see if it works. Yeah, you know, to do very small shows, and like the big comedians will go and they'll play little clubs and places just to work material and so, which was leading to that, And you may not do that as much anymore. Do you ever feel like you need to go out and play some stuff, even if it's for like eleven people in a small place, just to kind of kind of get your bearings back or at this point are you just rated to fire on all cylinders.

00:33:22
Speaker 1: I'm doing that tonight actually.

00:33:23
Speaker 2: Really yeah, and this won't be on and so that what you're doing tonight will already have happened probably a week ago.

00:33:29
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I still like post like, hey, I'm going to be here because I don't like playing the empty rooms. But it is a really small room. So like, even if we like pack it out like one hundred hundred and fifty people.

00:33:42
Speaker 2: Max, what's the energy like for a packed two hundred room or a middle middlely filled two thousand person room.

00:33:51
Speaker 1: It's I I would rather play a small dive bar that is absolutely packed than a large venue that's halfway field. Like, I'll take the small venue.

00:34:02
Speaker 2: Anything because of the energy and because of the rabbit. If they're in a packed place, they had there was intention on getting there. Yeah right, what's the last show you've been to I've been to as a fan where you didn't go where they were like this is grace, were like I'm just gonna get tickets. I'm gonna get a ticket and go to the show. Oh now you want your mom? Now, All of a sudden, Mom she's calling you back in.

00:34:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, was it music cares?

00:34:32
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, that's cool. Yeah but did you did you end up getting up and playing at all music heres?

00:34:41
Speaker 1: No?

00:34:41
Speaker 2: Okay, no, no, but that's good. That's what That's what I'm asking, like, when did you just go? And they weren't like, they weren't like great, get up because music care is cool because it's a lot of really good people that they're playing on stage that night. Who did you see? Who were you blown away by? There?

00:34:56
Speaker 1: I mean, Bruce Springsteen got up? That was pretty insane.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird what you appreciate. Yeah, I just don't. Unlike the younger generation of country artists that are like twenty four or twenty five, I feel like that's even lost on them. And the fact that you're not coming from a family that's beating over there with vinyl going you must love Bruce Springsteen, Yet you still found it and you're still passionate about it. I'm convinced there's a little old man living and you who died, and he's like pulling the strings and you're like, I am great, and you still enjoy you still enjoy just playing the guitar.

00:35:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's my favorite thing to do.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: Do you get lost sometimes in a good way if you're just up playing, where you're just able to remove all thought because that's where you're supposed to be.

00:35:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, every single time.

00:35:46
Speaker 2: Favorite guitar solo you've ever learned of someone else's ooh that when you finished it, you were like, that's cool. I know that one.

00:35:56
Speaker 1: Sweet Little Angel by BB King it was like the first blue solo. It was actually it was the first like blue song I had ever heard. Was a Sweet Little Angel, And I remember I used to I learned every single look from it. I've probably forgotten most of them now, but this was back when I still didn't know the panatomic scale, and I would like play these licks in front of people, like to pretend like I did know it.

00:36:20
Speaker 2: Did you add a phase a BB King phase where you know I started off with like I found my through like the you know, Blueberry Hill and you know the thriller's gone.

00:36:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: Did you do that or did you just go into like the B side stuff where like only the greats get to get to live? Did you like the singles the songs that I liked too?

00:36:40
Speaker 1: I listened to a lot of honestly, like like before b B. King, like I got into Mississippi, John Hurt and like Fred McDowell, Elmore James, Yeah, and.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: I see you'd lost me. It's you're so cool that it's hard for me to even connect here because I'm like, I listened to a lot of BB King, but it was always like BB King's greatest hit. Huh where you're listening to like people that influenced him and even his music that you mentioned, I don't even know. And to me, it's just how in the world did you get there? Like what about you? What was in you know, we're all attracted to different things, some of us nature, some of us sports or competition, But to you is music and a music that most people your age don't fall in love with unless they are influenced heavily by someone saying you must fall in love with it, which is really freaking cool. Like you have the power to like change music back in that direction, trying to yeah, because you know you're you're not trying to be them, but you also respect what they were able to do and to be young and just like a kid. Are you ever a kid? Do you ever feel like a kid?

00:37:51
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I'm still a teenager, so you can separate, you can't can't escape that.

00:37:57
Speaker 2: Nineteen years old playing the shows I saw you're playing with Laney. Yeah on the CBS the New Year's Show.

00:38:04
Speaker 1: Yeh.

00:38:05
Speaker 2: Make you nervous to play National TV live? Or is that just what you're meant to do? That specific show I recorded? I used to host it too. Yeah, they recorded a lot of arts. Do they record yours ahead of time? Or did you do that one?

00:38:18
Speaker 1: No? It was love and it was in front of two hundred and fifteen thousand people. That's crazy, which is the biggest crowd I've ever played for. And the entire time I was like waiting for myself to get nervous because I usually do in front of that many people, and I never did. I don't know why.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: I just well, I never got nervous. Why Hodgepodge.

00:38:45
Speaker 1: Because people used to book me and I didn't have a band, so I would have to I still had to put a show together, so I would just like ask a bunch of local musicians that I knew of to like basically be band for one show and then that was it. So it was literally a hodgepodg So that's what I called it, and then eventually I found like people that it worked with and that like aren't an actual band now, but I like the name, so I didn't change it.

00:39:18
Speaker 2: And you can just trade them out too.

00:39:19
Speaker 1: Cares exactly.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, they get a little mouthy out can go hodgepodge. Everybody gets replaced. When you look at videos of your favorite guitar players or guitar players that you just kind of like, but you see stylistically what they do is so different and distinct and you're like, wow, that is example. Maybe I can example it better, they can ask it. But Eddie van Halen plays in a way that nobody else plays, right. You know his tone, you know his style. Even Brad Paisley, you know when his finger it's just different. You can tell it's Brad. With John Mayer, you can.

00:39:50
Speaker 4: You know.

00:39:51
Speaker 2: I'm such a fan. Who was it to you that you saw and you were like, wow, that is so distinct and original on how they play the guitar.

00:39:58
Speaker 1: I haven't seen him live, but definitely Derek Trucks like he was like the first like slide guitar player I'd ever heard of, and I was watching a video of him when he was like thirteen opening for the Alman Brothers and took the most beautiful solo I've ever heard and just blew me away.

00:40:18
Speaker 2: I saw Tedesky Trucks play and you know them to and it was maybe I don't know that I underestimated how good a guitar player he was, but oh, it's unreal. It's unreal. I watch Johnny Lane play when he was young, but before he cut his hair, you know, and that was cool because he was a young, long haired kid blues player. Yeah, And that was super cool because that he was doing a bit of you know, he wasn't trying to put on anything other than what he was. It was just cool that he was a kid and that's what he was drawn to. Do you meet any other not I won't say Reddick, but do you meet any other like young blues influenced or you know, rhythm and blues guitar influence young generation people that sometimes you guys just get together and play.

00:41:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean not.

00:41:08
Speaker 2: I can't imagine who the young I can't imagine you the youngest everywhere you go on you play, No.

00:41:12
Speaker 1: But I usually am. But I haven't really met a lot of kids my age or younger like playing the music that I do. But there's definitely a lot of them online and they're just killing it.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: I would assume you're influencing a bunch of kids to learn to play.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: I hope so.

00:41:29
Speaker 2: And you get videos going, hey, look I'm.

00:41:31
Speaker 1: I do actually sometimes like someone's like someone's parents will message me like I just got my daughter a guitar because of you. That's cool and it makes my holding when I get messages like that.

00:41:41
Speaker 2: Who do you want to meet that you haven't Slash still haven't met him yet.

00:41:47
Speaker 1: I have not met him yet.

00:41:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be cool. I met Lenny Kravitz and you met You met Lenny Kravits.

00:41:54
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:41:55
Speaker 2: How long ago did you meet him?

00:41:57
Speaker 1: A couple of weeks ago? Maybe a month now?

00:42:00
Speaker 2: Were you a Leny Kravitz fan before you met him?

00:42:02
Speaker 1: He was one of the first concerts I ever went to. Really, and then we've been following each other on Instagram for years now and he recognized me like right away with it was awesome.

00:42:13
Speaker 2: Isn't he like the chillest dude?

00:42:14
Speaker 1: He was so nice.

00:42:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was so nice to me too, and he just didn't have to be you know. It wasn't a place where the guy had to put any effort into being kind, but he was like so chill. And he's had different seasons sonically, you know, from when he started and it was like, you know, are you going to go my way? Which is that opening guitar like da like really one of the most famous opening guitar, like of like from my life and to the stuff like it ain't over till it's over. And then he comes back and he does an American woman. He's been able to kind of make his thing. He's changed it, but he's always been distinct and it's always been him. And then that's like an artist that I think is super cool to look up to because I never felt like he was compromising. Yeah, and I think that's really big for an artist who's made. He probably could have just kept doing the same thing and been successful, but he's been able to change, you know, over time. Do you feel yourself at times modifying because you're getting a little more mature, You're like, well let me try some new sound here.

00:43:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely every day, I feel like especially since, like like I said earlier, like I still have so much practicing and learning to do, Like I'm always figuring out new stuff and my sounds changing.

00:43:28
Speaker 2: How many pedals do you play if it's a full show? How many pedals down below you?

00:43:33
Speaker 1: Ooh? I think four or five right now? I like to keep it more stripped back. But because before that, I was like, no pedals, that all straight into the amp. And when you're sitting in with people and you don't know what am they're gonna have on stage, that doesn't that's not a good idea. So it doesn't always work out. So I got a pedal word that originally just had three pedals on it, and it keeps growing because I keep buying more. It's becoming a problem. So I'm gonna try to keep it at five for now.

00:44:05
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, what you do is really cool, And that's the super vague way of just it's just it's just really cool, like who you are, your style, why you learned it? Because why did you learn it? I have no idea. Again, you didn't grow up in a house with a music museum. And I think it's really cool. I'm I'm a big fan, and so I'm super pumped that you came over and I got to meet you. And you know, I fought like whenever you post a new video, and you're playing guitar. And my wife knows when I'm watching a guitar video of you, because she's like, you're watching Grace play guitar. Yeah, yeah, I don't know you. She's like, I'm like, yeah, yeah, so I am. And this is a town of giants where there's a lot of great people, and there's a lot of great guitar players. John is a friend of mine. Charlie Warsham is a really great guitar player, urban good friend of mine. But in a in the land of giants, like you still have found your way to be really tall at only nineteen years old. Seventeen, that's right. Oh, I'm making you older and we sit here, that's right. Well do you drive like a rock and roll Do you drive like a sixty eight Barracuda or anything like that? Oh?

00:45:12
Speaker 1: I wish I have a I do have a really cool jeep out front.

00:45:15
Speaker 2: Though, Oh that's not na. That's a little too trendy and new. We need to fix that. We need to get around like a beat her Mike. We and I'm not sure what your deal is. I do a big show with the Ryman once a year for Saint Jude, which is the hospital. I was in the hospital lot as a kid, and so we work with them directly. We've been able to like twenty seven million dollars or something for the kids there. And Keith's played it before, John him and TJ played it before. If you're in town April third, it's already it's already sold out. But you are, you've played the Rymen, you play Rymand I have yet. Yeah, you should come and play a song or two with us. I would It can be. I don't know if you're don't commit now, because you could just say yes, and I was a home with the idiot. I had to say something no, I don't want that to be what it is. But April third, we're playing in this year. It's like Sam Hunt, it's Ben Recked or Matt Carney. It's a lot of people. I'm gonna don't want to get I'll miss people. But I would love for you to come.

00:46:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love that.

00:46:12
Speaker 2: And well, my band's all session players, Like I'm so bad, I have to get all session play great session players to make up for the fact. And so you can tell us what you want to play. Usually people come out and if you want to do an original song. If yours great, we'll learn it. Usually people do an original song or they and they do a cover. You can do whatever you want. You just let us know. I would love for you to come because I'm such a big fan and it'd be really cool to me to for me to have you out there.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be awesome.

00:46:36
Speaker 2: You're not committing now, mom, she's not committing now. Look at the calendar April third, and it's like a Wednesday. That's why we do it. It's a Wednesday, Morgan. Yes, if we do it midweek because I'm on the road a lot, and every artist is on the road. That's when you pay the bills. Have you already start thinking about moving out?

00:46:55
Speaker 1: Well, if I was making enough money to do so, I would be.

00:47:01
Speaker 2: Like when I was seventeen, I'd ready to go school. You can teach school at this point, you know, are you a junior or senior? Officially? Okay, so this year then next year, but the open road, that's school, you know. I see.

00:47:22
Speaker 1: I mean.

00:47:26
Speaker 2: That sounds like an hour too much. I get her on the get Hey, let's just make some music, you know, give the earth what they demand. Uh, let me know when in the next few days. I'd love for you to come play the show with us. And I'm a big fan. Uh, it's awesome. You're awesome stage and I have to tell you that because like, I'm cooler because I'm doing this interview and Mom, thank you for coming and thanks for sitting Hey, thanks for sitting in with the band for a few minutes too. Yeah, and letting us. Uh, so you're just thinking about Grace. You can follow her Grace Underscore Boers on Instagram and on TikTok Grace Underscore Bowers one. You couldn't get the name on TikTok without the one on it. No, somebody has it.

00:48:04
Speaker 1: Someone took graces.

00:48:06
Speaker 2: Okay, do they use it or do they Just somebody squatted my name and I wouldn't buy it from him, so just say no, no, I haven't checked yet. I'm about to leave it to me. Leave it to me, and then I know. You recorded your album, the debut album with John like is producing it. But when is when? When does that happen where anybody gets to hear anything.

00:48:25
Speaker 1: Well, we're hoping to have the whole thing out sometime during the summer.

00:48:28
Speaker 2: But what about like a song or something, and.

00:48:30
Speaker 1: Then we'll put out a single, hopefully in April.

00:48:34
Speaker 2: That's cool.

00:48:34
Speaker 1: There will be another single after that, which we don't have a date for yet.

00:48:38
Speaker 2: Do you know which one already?

00:48:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. The first single is going to be a song called tell Me Why You Do That? That I actually co wrote with John and Lucy.

00:48:47
Speaker 2: Oh, Lucy's awesome too. Lucy's the greatest len I want to say it awesome. I like Lucy better than John. Lucy went on the road. I went, well, I know that book. Lucy went on the road with me for a while too. Lucy is awesome. Does she play keys? When you wrote? Did she said to the keys? She she did. I like Lucy two times as much as John. Well, we're very excited. Let us know when it's out. We would love to promote it and just be a big part of it. And it's been great to meet you. Grace Underscore Bours. You guys follow her and that's it. Grace. Thanks, that was awesome. Thanks for hopping into that was fun. Yeah, that was awesome. Thanks for listening to a Bobby cast production.