Ascending star Grace Bowers brings fresh sound to JAS Labor Day Experience lineup

At 19 years old, Nashville-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Grace Bowers is experiencing a meteoric rise that will bring her to the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience stage at 3 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 31, at Snowmass Town Park.

She will be performing alongside musical powerhouses like Imagine Dragons, Lenny Kravitz, and Luke Combs.

Her first show under her own name took place at the 2023 Newport Folk Festival. It was later that same year that Bowers began seriously writing her own music and forming her band: Grace Bowers & the Hodgepodge. Surprisingly, she is the first musical person in her family. 

“Music was something that I sort of discovered for myself,” she said.

The Hodgepodge features a revolving group of players. At JAS, audiences will see Joshua Blaylock on keys, Moe Hill on bass, Olivia Jones on background vocals, Prince Parker on guitar, and Brandon Combs on drums. The band structure mirrors that of Sly and the Family Stone, one of Bowers’ key influences.

“Sly is one of my biggest inspirations, so I would say yes, for sure,” she said, referring to her decision to create a similar band formation.

Musically, she draws from diverse sources.

“I love everything from punk to R&B. I definitely have a wide range of influences that I try to include in my music. The new stuff I have been playing, I would describe as rock with some punk and pop in it,” she said.

Although Bowers has declared Leslie West of Band Mountain as one of her favorite guitarists, she also puts Eddie Hazel, Santana, and Jimi Hendrix at the top of her list.

Bowers won the 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards and played at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville for the first time on July 30, her 18th birthday.

It was the same year her 2024 debut album, “Wine on Venus,” was produced by John Osborne of Brothers Osborne. 

“I met with a couple of producers before deciding on who it would be. I just felt like John understood my vision, and I loved getting to work with him,” she explained.

She delivered a performance with Coldplay’s Chris Martin during the “In Memoriam” segment at the 2025 Grammy Awards. She has also been named a United States Global Music Ambassador and created a charity called Grace Bowers and Friends to support victims of gun violence through benefit concerts, among her achievements.

Bowers is excited about her upcoming JAS performance.  

“Hopefully, I can see Lenny Kravitz and hang out with my friend Lynn Goldsmith (a rock and roll photographer, creative, and Aspenite) for the short time I am in town!” she said.

Currently on tour intermittently for the rest of the year, which she describes as “really nice,” she has an ambitious schedule ahead: “I am planning to really hit the road next year, hopefully alongside new music.”