Grace Bowers: “There’s something about tube amps that digital can’t really capture”
If you think young guitarists are all leaning towards digital set ups, think again – 18-year-old rock ‘n’ roller Grace Bowers feels there’s nothing quite like a real tube amp.
Bowers has already played with the likes of Dolly Parton, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and the Tedeschi Trucks Band to name just a few. Along with her band, The Hodge Podge, she released her debut album Wine On Venus last August.
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The Nashville-based guitarist got her start in the industry by sharing videos of her playing online. And though the social media sphere in guitar is believed to be saturated by shredders with amp modellers and digital FX galore, that’s not always the case.
Speaking to Guitar World for its new print issue, Bowers reveals whether her blues-leaning, rock ‘n’ roll style has made her a tube amp purist: “I don’t know… I’ve never really messed around with stuff like modellers, to be honest,” she states.
“It would probably make life a lot easier not to lug around tube amps. [Laughs] I’d be open to it if it can sound good, but it’s tube amps for now. You can feel tube amps like they’re real. That sounds kind of cheesy, but there’s something about tube amps that digital can’t really capture.”
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Among the ongoing digital versus analogue debate is another point of discussion – is shredding and super speedy playing the way to go, or are we missing artists who make music with a conversational feel?
Earlier this year, Heart’s Nancy Wilson praised Bowers for her emotionally-rooted style: “There’s a whole difference in my mind between just shredding, like wanking-off, as opposed to melodically conversational-type shredding,” she told Total Guitar.
“That’s what the great players do, like I think Grace Bowers is already at [18]. She has a significant voice. I would pick her out in a crowd of shredders, like, “Oh, I know who that is,’ like David Gilmour. You could shred ‘til kingdom come, but it doesn’t stick until there’s a conversation going on.”
Wine On Venus is out now. Find out where you can catch Grace Bowers live next.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
