Grace Bowers, Nashville’s Red-Hot Guitar Player, Announces Debut Album ‘Wine on Venus’

Over the last year, guitar prodigy Grace Bowers has been showing up on stages from Nashville to Newport. In May of 2023, she joined Gaslight Anthem onstage at the Ryman Auditorium and delivered one of the highlight sets of last summer’s Newport Folk Festival . Now, the 17-year-old player is releasing her debut album. Wine on Venus arrives Aug. 9 and pairs her with the band the Hodge Podge.

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Produced by Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne, Wine on Venus features Bowers on lead guitar. Esther Okai-Tetteh handles vocals, with Joshua Blaylock on keys, Brandon Combs on the drum kit, Eric Fortaleza playing bass, and Prince Parker adding additional guitar.

The title track , inspired by the way Bowers’ grandmother lived her life, is out now. “My nana was 100 years old when she passed away last year. She would always tell me that when she died, she would be drinking wine on Venus,” Bowers said in a statement. “She was a little eccentric but thought that was just something so cool. When she passed, I wrote a song about it.”

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Bowers will make her debut on the Grand Ole Opry on July 30 — her 18th birthday. Earlier this month, she led an all-star benefit concert in Nashville in support of Voices for a Safer Tennessee and MusiCares that featured Butch Walker, Lukas Nelson, Sierra Hull, and Shane Hawkins (son of the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins). The concert raised $30,000.

Bowers, along with artists like Lainey Wilson and Breland, were announced as U.S. Global Music Ambassadors earlier this week, an initiative overseen by the U.S. Department of State and YouTube. The California native is on tour all summer, opening for Brothers Osborne and Red Clay Strays, and playing festivals like Tennessee’s Pilgrimage.

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