Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge
Wine On Venus

LA RECENSIONE

Undoubtedly the most beautiful discovery of this year is Grace Bowers... stumbled upon her by chance on Spotify with her first single "Tell me why you do that" and immediately stunned by the fact that she was 17 years old.

Indeed, in her "Biography" she says she hates being labeled as a 17-year-old who plays guitar well, but in fact, she is, and moreover, she doesn't just play guitar, she's a true prodigy.

But let's put things in order: Grace is a girl (indeed, 17 years old) who started playing guitar on Reddit, live, and was immediately noticed despite her very young age (I think she was 14 years old then). Over time, she grew on social media thanks to videos of her solos until she had the opportunity to play on TV, astonishing everyone because of her age, but above all her skill.

But is she really that phenomenal on the guitar?

If we stop at the objective data, she is officially supported by Gibson (and that should already be enough), otherwise just listen to the Album... and we’ll get to that...

Because we've seen albums by great guitarists in history, Clapton and Hendrix among many, but if you're not one of them, an album with only guitar can become redundant.

Therefore, Grace has a band, the "The hodge podge" (which is long to write so I'll always refer to just Grace).

Together they form a fairly retro ensemble, faithful to funk groove, jazz, blues, and especially swing. The songs of "Wine on Venus" are essentially simple swing and groove tracks, like many heard especially in America, but they have Grace and her guitar, not as a background, but as the absolute protagonist.

In fact, every song you listen to allows you to enjoy the good vibes of the so-called "joyful black music," but you’re really (or at least I am) just waiting for that prodigy with long golden curls to silence everyone and gently place her fingers on the fretboard of her Gibson.

Anyway, you also recognize a good album from the details, like the transition from the opening track "Won no teg" to the second, "Get on now." Surely this thing has a technical term that I don’t know, the fact that two separate tracks are actually a single piece that unfolds in two tracks, like in live albums to be clear. It’s a characteristic I always like a lot and that gives me the idea of a product of excellent quality and refinement.

(Won not teg is get on now backwards... it took me a while to notice that).

We finally arrive at the hot topic... the guitar:

Every track has a solo, and they are all of excellent workmanship, truly beautiful and high-grade. Grace plays her Gibson with both cleanliness and a lot of sound dirt, which personally is what I prefer.

"Get on Now" introduces her sublimely with a great performance, but the best comes in the next track: "Tell me why u do that" (which incidentally was the first track released as a single, the track that made me discover her).

If Ritchie Blackmore ever hears this solo, he will say two things:

1) oh my god, that’s me

2) that’s awesome (with a few more swear words but negligible details).

Here she really reminded me of Deep Purple from Made in Japan (my favorite album), both for the melody resembling "Smoke on the Water" (Not in the very famous main melody but in the final part), and for the dialogue between the two guitars that we can find in both the same track of Deep Purple and Grace. Personally, it gives me goosebumps listening to it.

In the central part of the album, we also find more pop and radio-friendly tracks, also a sign of the artistic intelligence of the group, which to make themselves known cannot rely solely on a groove funk fanbase.

Among these, "Holdin on to something" and "Lucy," in my opinion, the best track of the work as a whole.

It’s a very pleasant and light country ballad that lacks a bit in the solo, but it’s the right compromise.

The central part spills over into a return to origins to close with the title track, "Wine on Venus" which doesn’t excite me much, despite the cute story behind it: Grace's centenarian grandmother always said that upon her death they would find her drinking wine on Venus, and when she passed away, this song was written for her... she must have been quite the character.

In conclusion, "Wine on Venus" is an album that goes down smoothly, fluid and pleasant, with a decidedly instrumental guitar cut but which winks at a slightly wider audience. Nothing spectacular (except "Tell me why you do that").

Let’s not forget it’s the absolute debut album of a very young artist.

I think we’ll have a lot of fun in the future and when she makes it into the top 100 guitarists of all time list by "Rolling Stone," we’ll say we were there from the start.