PIEN HUANG, HOST:
At age 18, Grace Bowers is often called a guitar prodigy. She played on stage with Nashville greats like Dolly Parton and Lainey Wilson, and she debuted at the Grand Ole Opry earlier this year. But that hasn't always been the case. When she first started learning guitar, she says she had no passion for it. And then at age 13, everything changed.
GRACE BOWERS: I was sitting in the car flipping through radio stations while my mom was, like, running errands or something. And I heard B.B. King for the first time. He was playing the song "Sweet Little Angel" off of his first album. And those first, like, five notes he played just, like, struck me.
(SOUNDBITE OF B.B. KING SONG, "SWEET LITTLE ANGEL")
HUANG: Bowers says that moment opened her mind to the emotional possibilities of the guitar.
BOWERS: I was really into really cheesy hair metal. And when I hear B.B. King open up this song with five notes, and he says more with these five notes than any metal shredder could ever imagine.
HUANG: In that moment, she found her passion for the craft. And now Bowers has taken that inspiration, and she's poured it into a new album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MADAME PRESIDENT")
GRACE BOWERS & THE HODGE PODGE: (Singing) Maybe while I'm still alive, we'll see a madame president (ph).
HUANG: That's "Madame President" by her band Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge. It's featured on their debut album "Wine On Venus." When we spoke, I asked her what inspired them to write "Madame President."
BOWERS: Yeah, that song is actually really crazy because it was written months ago with my good friend Maggie Rose, and I feel like we kind of, like, predicted the future with it. But the song itself is not specifically written about, like, just about wanting a female president. It was written about, like, things we want to see change that haven't changed...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MADAME PRESIDENT")
GRACE BOWERS & THE HODGE PODGE: (Singing) Changing, keep on changing.
BOWERS: ...Like not being able to buy a house in your 20s 'cause that's not really something that's attainable for a lot of people right now. And also, I think one of the first lines is, like, about a struggling artist because we're in the thick of it right now. It's hard out there to be an independent musician trying to make it all work out. So that, and then there are some, like, other, like, social issues that we would like to see changed. And that's kind of where the madame president line came from 'cause, you know, we've never had a female president before. So I'm like, I want to see that change soon, and it might now. So it's pretty cool.
HUANG: The vocalist in your group is named Esther Okai-Tetteh, or she goes by AC. And she's featured a lot on this album, and she has some pretty powerful vocals.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ESTHER OKAI-TETTEH: (Singing) I saw her jumpin' out in (inaudible) really belong (ph).
HUANG: I'm wondering how working with singers differs from other musicians for you.
BOWERS: Yeah, she's great. We wrote almost all of the songs on that record, like, late nights, like, sitting on my bedroom floor. That's how a lot of it was written. And we met three years ago when I first moved to Nashville. I had zero friends, and my mom made me do a rock band summer camp. And it just so happened to be at her - the high school she went to. So she was there, too. And we kind of - like, we met, and we just stayed in touch. And then I invited her to come play a show with me, like, maybe a year ago, and we've been doing it ever since.
HUANG: So you guys met just a couple of years ago at a band camp and now you're...
BOWERS: Yeah.
HUANG: ...Got your album out together.
BOWERS: Yeah, it's crazy.
HUANG: That's terrific. So I want to talk about the title track, "Wine On Venus."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WINE ON VENUS")
GRACE BOWERS & THE HODGE PODGE: (Singing) Oh, in the dark (ph), you can find me drinking wine on Venus - every drop till it's dry, even the moon know how I'm feelin'.
HUANG: That's such an evocative phrase, you know, drinking wine on Venus, and I'm wondering, what is the story behind the song?
BOWERS: Yeah, the story behind that - it was written about my nana, who passed away last year at the ripe old age of 100.
HUANG: Wow.
BOWERS: And last year, my family went back to California for Christmas, and it was our first time, like, having all our family at the dinner table without her there. And people were kind of, like, telling stories about her, and my uncle brought up that she told him that when she dies, she'll be drinking wine on Venus because it's the brightest star. And I just thought that was the coolest line I've ever heard. I hung on to that, and I knew I wanted to write a song about it. So when I got back to Nashville, I was in a writing session with Ben Chapman and Meg McRee, and I told them about what she said. And this song, like, it literally just, like, flowed out of us in, like, an hour and a half. It was - it just kind of, like, came out.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRACE BOWERS & THE HODGE PODGE SONG, "WINE ON VENUS")
HUANG: Grace, so much of your music is rooted in blues, and blues tends to draw on some of, like, the deepest currents of human emotion, you know, emotions like loss and yearning and desire. I'm wondering what you draw on when you're riffing. Like, where does your mind go?
BOWERS: It's kind of hard to describe. But you're right. Like, blues is, like, one of the most, like, emotional and, like, most passion-filled thing you can play because blues music was, like - that was people's answer to sadness back then, was the blues.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRACE BOWERS & THE HODGE PODGE SONG, "WINE ON VENUS")
BOWERS: I would say you don't have to be sad to play the blues, but there's definitely a difference between, like - like, I've heard guitar players trying to play a blues solo and they're just spanning licks and trying to show off. And to me, that's not what it's about. It's about, like, you know, expressing yourself and saying something. It's not just about, like, playing necessarily.
HUANG: People often refer to you as a prodigy, and I'm wondering how that moniker sits with you, how you feel about it.
BOWERS: Well, it's definitely not true because if you saw me when I was 9 years old, you would say, that girl sucks.
(LAUGHTER)
BOWERS: I mean, people call me a prodigy a lot, and they always mean well. And I appreciate it, but it's not true. Like, I've put in so many hours of hard work and practice. And, you know, I still do. I still practice every day, and I still have a lot to learn. And hearing other people play is so inspiring because - like, I love hearing people play, like, different genres than me because I love to pull from those and bring it into my own thing. And, like, literally, like, there's just endless possibilities of what you can do on the instrument.
HUANG: That's Grace Bowers. Her band is Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge. Their album "Wine On Venus" is out now. Grace Bowers, thank you so much for joining us.
BOWERS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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