Anyone who's heard Grace Bowers' incendiary debut album, Wine on Venus, can hear there's a bit of an old soul inside the 18-year-old wunderkind electric guitar player from Nashville (by way of her native Bay Area). And the 10 albums she identifies as changing her life display it.
All but two are of late-'60s and early '70s vintage, and five are from acts that performed at the first Woodstock Music and Music and Art Fair.
"I do tend to lean toward the older stuff," says Bowers, who began playing guitar when she was nine but got serious during her early teens, when she also started buying records. "I think what all these albums have in common is how real they are and how they capture the artists' spirit, or their originality. None of them are perfect, but they all have a unique sound. They all have great guitar on them, too, so that's a big draw for me. I can pick things from each record that have specifically influenced me."
The independently released Wine on Venus attests to that, as Bowers crafts songs and arrangements and plays in a manner that's at once retro and contemporary — timeless, as we like to say. It's helped her get plenty of notice, too, from a gamut of TV appearances and sharing stages with Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, Billy Idol and the Allman Betts Family Revival to accolades from the Recording Academy. Bowers played the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on her 18th birthday, joined Dolly Parton on her Pet Gala TV special, performed at the NCAA Men's Final Four Tip-Off Tailgate and ushered in 2025 with Lainey Wilson on CBS's New Year's Eve Live.
So what's next? More touring with her band, the Hodge Podge, including bookings at Bonnaroo, Innings and other festivals, as well as trips to Europe and Japan. "All the while I'm still writing new music," Bowers adds, and she's contemplating a live release as well.
"I'm super happy with how everything's going," she says. "This is everything I wished I was doing a year or two ago, and now it's happening. I love being on the road and getting to see all the different places we're going."
These 10 albums, meanwhile, offer an insightful look at where Bowers comes from.
Maggot Brain — Funkadelic (1971)
"This is probably one of if not my favorite album of all time. I still remember hearing 'Hit It and Quit It' the first time — which, by the way, was just a year or two ago — and just being absolutely blown away. Because I was getting booked to play shows and was doing covers, I was trying to figure out what my sound was going to be. I didn't really have answer to that until I heard Maggot Brain.
"I love everything about it. My favorites are 'Can You Get to That' — which Mavis Staples also did a great version of — 'You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks' and, obviously, 'Hit It and Quit It.' I love everything about it. I definitely pull a lot of inspiration from that record specifically, and Funkadelic and Parliament as a whole."
Awaken, My Love — Childish Gambino (2016)
"This one's super cool, because at the time when he released it, it was different from the albums he had previously put out. It's very experimental and combines a lot of genres, but mainly R&B. Some songs lean kinda funky and some are maybe more rock, but, really, I would say it's an R&B record. And the way it's written and produced, it's so musical and all of the ideas are very unique. There's not a lot of people making music like he does. That's definitely my favorite album of his."
D&B Together — Delaney & Bonnie (1972)
"I think they're one of the most underrated groups of all time. I feel like they don't get brought up in conversation enough but they created some of these great songs that inspired people like Eric Clapton. He's on the album, which his awesome. And Bonnie Bramlett's singing voice and style remind me a lot of Susan Tedeschi.
"A lot of people know 'Comin' Home,' but every single song on the album is so good. When I first heard them I was going through a huge '60s and '70s classic rock phase. A lot of that's kind of hit and miss for me, 'cause it can all sound the same, but I feel like you can put on any song of their and enjoy it. It doesn't get old."
An Evening With Silk Sonic — Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak) (2021)
"You could tell me this was made in the '70s and I would 100 percent believe you. It combines all the best elements of '70s frunk and R&B, and the music videos they made for it definitely drew from that era in music. But at the same time it's not a throwback; it's fresh and original, and it's their own take on it. I wish they would make another one, 'cause it's so good."
Climbing — Mountain (1970)
"Leslie West is probably my favorite guitar player of all time. This was Mountain's first-ever record, after they played Woodstock, and it had 'Theme From an Imaginary Western On It.' The solo that Leslie takes on that is one of the most perfectly crafted guitar solos ever. His tone — not even just on this album, his tone in general — was so good. He's one of those players you can recognize right away. It's that distinct.
"Leslie was just so inventive, and he wasn't a shredder. He didn't play really fast, but when he did play he meant it. He almost played with, like, punctuation if that makes sense — his phrasing was so unique and original. A lot of people try to imitate that now, but I feel like he was the first guy to really play like that. Obviously he drew from a lot of blues players, but he had his own way of doing it."
Fresh — Sly & the Family Stone (1973)
"They'd already been established for a while when they put this out. There's still lots of funk but so many R&B elements, too, especially in the bass playing. What I like about this album is that, while the songs cover a range of styles, they all have the same sound — they must have recorded it in the same room, in the same studio and with the same instruments.
"A lot of records today have many different sounds to them, but this one is consistent through and through. It's got an energy that makes it stand out from the rest of their albums. I wanted to capture a bit of that when I went into the studio, so we used the same instruments on every song, with the same settings and all that."
Rags to Rufus — Rufus (1974)
"This was definitely my favorite work Chaka Khan has ever done. The song 'Rags to Rufus' is a huge inspiration for my use of wah when I play rhythm guitar; it's an instrumental and it kind of stays the same the whole time, which is cool. It reminds me of Billy Preston's 'Outta Space,' but there's still a modern sound to it, like it was ahead of its time.
"And the songwriting on this album is incredible. 'Tell Me Something Good' is on it, but everything is really strong. Chaka Khan was really young — like 19 or 20 — when she recorded this, which is crazy. She has such a range in her voice and so many different sounds she could get, and her vibrato was really unique and something you would definitely pick out: 'Oh, that's Chaka Khan.' She left that mark on everything she recorded."
Santana — Santana (1969)
"This is their very first album, and it came out a couple weeks after they played Woodstock. When I first got it, I was listening to it every single day. I was obsessed with it. I would listen to it top to bottom, every time, in order, because the songs faded into one another. It was meant to be listened to like that. In 1969 you couldn't just go on Spotify and skip around songs. I also love Carlos Santana's guitar playing and the drums and the percussion. He brought so many elements together in rock and gave it a Latin influence that hadn't really been heard before. He changed the game a bit."
Deja Vu — Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)
"An absolute supergroup. I love all of those guys on their own, too, especially Neil Young. But seeing what they could write and what sounds they could get when they all come together was just insane, especially their vocal harmonies. There's nothing else like that. It's kind of haunting in a way. A song like 'Helplessly Hoping' is so beautiful. When you get musicians like that in a room together, it just creates something so special.
"I've heard people shit on Stephen Stills' guitar playing, and Neil's too. But it's the same thing as with Leslie West: When they played something, they meant it, and you can hear that in their playing. Some people say their tone sucked or they didn't know how to play, and maybe they weren't the best guitar players of all time, but that's the beauty of it. If there were mistakes, they left them in. That's what makes it sound so real. On these older records they didn't have the tools to go in and perfect everything so they had to leave the imperfections in, and that's what makes them so special."
Band of Gypsys — Band of Gypsys (1970)
"That has Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums. Buddy Miles is one of my favorites, too, and those three together were crazy. This was Hendrix's first time playing with these two, and it's the only record we have of them. And just to think how much more music we could've gotten if he hadn't passed away so young. Band of Gypsys is like a glimpse into what could have been. Those three meshed so well together, and they had a real chemistry, and that definitely comes out in the playing and the jams they went into.
"This album definitely had a huge influence on my guitar plying. I remember going back and learning all these songs as Hendrix played them and then kind of doing my own thing with it. It gave me a great base to build from. Being able to learn that stuff and see how Hendrix phrases things and how he wrote riffs and the way he structured songs really left a mark on me."
