“I’m backing away from being a ‘blues guitarist’. It’s not what I wanted to be boxed into”: Grace Bowers took the blues world by storm – but she says there’s much more to her playing ready to be unleashed

At the beginning of 2024, a then-17-year-old Grace Bowers couldn’t have imagined she’d drop her uber-vintage, all-conquering debut record, Wine on Venus – and she definitely didn’t think she’d be one of Guitar World’s guitarists of the year.

But here she is, now 18, having accomplished all that (and more). “Oh, man,” Bowers says. “I don’t even want to know who else is on that list because I’m probably not worthy to be listed next to them.”

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Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Bass Player, Guitar Player, Guitarist, and Music Radar. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Morello, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.