She said these performances had two different vibes.

“The main stage was cool, and that's definitely a larger audience than we normally get, which was great,” Bowers said. “It was also full band. Then the Jersey Mike's stage was four of us, so we kind of had to change some things around, but I think we definitely dug in a bit more on the improv side of things.”

These were just two of Bowers' many performances over the past few years as she has been performing on the heels of her debut album, “Wine on Venus,” which came out in August.

Music has always been a part of her life. As all kids do, Bowers listened to artists like Taylor Swift and others in the pop world as she grew up. When she started playing the guitar, she dug into “cheesy hair metal” like Ratt, Winger and Poison.

However, she lost touch with the guitar for some time, but when she was 13 years old, she heard B.B. King for the first time. The first few notes of “Sweet Little Angel” made her fall in love with this style of music and, once again, her guitar and she has never looked back. Although her music is defined as rock, she employs elements of blues, soul, funk and even R&B.

“Yeah, it's cool because there's not a whole lot of people in that lane right now,” Bowers said. “Especially I love Sly & The Family Stone, and I kind of want to go in that direction, not copy them.”

She takes inspiration from not just Sly but also Parliament-Funkadelic. She described them as the godfathers of funk music and believes their style of music is still being used and sampled today.

When it comes to the guitar specifically, Bowers is influenced by Leslie West, who she feels is the greatest guitarist of all time.

“He has the most distinct tone I've ever heard, and he plays with, almost, punctuation or something,” Bowers said. “When he plays, he was never a shredder, and he was never flashy, but that's what was cool about his playing is that he was just playing what he felt, and he was able to communicate those feelings through his guitar so perfectly.”

Bowers gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic by posting videos of her guitar playing on social media.

From there, she moved to playing full-time with her band, the Hodge Podge, which, according to the Brooklyn Bowl’s website, “takes its name from a mixed bag of players that Bowers would invite to share the stage with on a given night. Despite now being a solidified group, the name stuck.”

Bower said she has been taking in all her success, allowing her to play with outstanding musicians such as Gary Clark Jr., The Allman Betts Family Revival, The Red Clay Strays and The Roots. Most recently, she performed with Chris Martin of Coldplay during the in-memoriam section of this year's Grammy Awards.

Bowers said playing with Martin was just one of the many memories she made at the awards.

“Yeah, he's a class act,” Bowers said. “He was definitely, hands down, one of the nicest people I've ever met, which is so encouraging. That could have been a very stressful situation, but it wasn't because he made it so easy. All my respect to him for being the kind of person that he is.”

She was also able to take a photo with Taylor Swift, which was a full circle moment for her since she had seen Swift in concert when she was young.

Many young artists today choose pop or country music, but Bowers is in her own lane. She believes that to be unique, you must create music that people will remember.

“I feel like at the end of the day, people are gonna remember a hooky song or a catchy song, and I do feel like there is space for other genres to be explored, and, you know, maybe they'll become mainstream, maybe not,” Bowers said. “There's definitely space for it. And it's definitely, you know, still out there. It's not a dying genre or anything like that, funk, I mean.”

In addition to the catchy songs, improv is a big part of the band's presence. This allows Bowers to play extended guitar solos, giving fans a rendition of the song they won’t hear anywhere else.

“None of it's ever planned, which is the most fun part about it because no one on stage has any idea where it's going to go or it's going to end up, and that's fun for people on stage and people listening just because there's that unknown aspect of it,” Bowers said.

Bowers is known for playing the guitar but not so much singing. Currently, the main singer in the band is Esther Okai-Tetteh, but Bowers said she is working to build up confidence and work on her singing ability, which one day could lead to her singing on a future record.

Innings Festival was not Bowers and her band's last stop in 2025. They have upcoming shows in El Paso, Austin and San Antonio and we may get more funky-fresh Grace Bowers and The Hodge Podge music soon, too.