BY LESLEY HASTINGS

With his eleventh studio album  “The Version Of Me You Get” released a few weeks ago and another album due out shortly (more about that later) it’s busy times for Texan Wade Bowen. Currently playing a string of dates in the Lone Star State he was kind enough to find time to chat to me about his new music, his charitable work and more.

It was fairly early in the morning his end too, but Wade was a total pleasure to interview and I had to apologise for being ” late to the party” regarding his extensive catalogue ……

“Yeah, I’m doing a run of acoustic shows and it’s very early but I appreciate you doing this. And thank you for joining the party! This is why we play, put new music out, we are always trying to get new people involved so I’m glad you’re listening, thank you!”

I mentioned how this album grabbed me from the start, the opening track “Rain” with its many metaphors (ironically it was absolutely pouring down as we spoke!) made me want to delve deeper into the remaining tracks. And there’s an atmospheric video to that song that’s recently become available ….. does Wade enjoy that part of the creative process or is it something he sees as simply being “necessary” these days?

“Thank you very much. I think videos are really important and I enjoy them. It’s an older model of what we do, everything is built around social media now but it gives the chance to show a different part of a song if you do them right. We take them very seriously and look at what we are trying to do with the particular song. I love doing them”.

I mentioned how much I love the honesty and grittiness throughout the album, artists who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves are my favourites! The songs were written six years ago and were born out of difficult personal times, so were they a way to help Wade understand what was happening and move forward?

“Yes, I always do that. I consider myself an open diary sort of songwriter. Maybe to the fault of those around me, I’m very open and talk about personal stuff. I think it’s really where I’m at my best, being honest with myself, and that in turn has helped me through my career and hopefully some people will relate to it. If it’s difficult to talk about for them it’s difficult for someone else to talk about so it’s important we do talk about it. There’s some heavy issues in this album, it’s hard to relive some of it every night, but it’s important and that’s what music is to me. It’s different for everybody …every fan, every artist…some people want to throw the party some people want to focus more on lyrics and I think there’s happy mediums in between. I think I do a little bit of both, but as a songwriter first it’s very important to be honest and open. I’m not good at trying to fake something, or try to act like someone else. It’s a blessing and a curse I guess!“.

Did the fact that he worked with his close friend, the multi talented Sean McConnell (someone I’ve seen perform several times here in UK) throughout the process and released the album independently make a difference to how he approached this release, and help him feel comfortable showing his more vulnerable side?

“I’ve only released one record on a major label, I’ve always been independent so that’s not really a challenge for me…it goes back to my strengths, being who I am, for better or for worse! Sean has been a great friend throughout this process, as well as a great producer. There was a lot of vulnerable stuff within this album and Sean just welcomed it with open arms and helped me get it out a lot better than I would have done on my own or with another producer. He’s a really good friend and amazing talent, I think a lot of people know him as an artist and a songwriter but I’ve been trying to get people to recognise him as an amazing producer on this record. He’s really good at pulling things out of artists and I’m really proud to have worked with him”.

Sean also wrote “Turpentine“, the only outside cut on the album …it fits in so well too…..how did that come to get included?

“Well one of the beauties about working with such a talented guy as Sean is you have pick of the litter when he’s playing songs to you! We were in the middle of making this project and he was throwing songs out, something that’s very kind of him and he didn’t have to do. ‘Turpentine’ was one of those that he said he thought would be perfect and I was straight away ‘Yes’!!”. 

I moved on to talking a bit more about the writing credits on the album, something I always check out, but unfortunately didn’t have time for a really deep dive as I had a 15 minute  time allocation but mentioned I thought the Aaron Raitiere collab “Better Left Alone” would have fitted perfectly on Ashley McBryde’s “Lindeville”  album, which of course he worked on……do any of you agree??

And I also had to mention in passing  the powerful collab with Dan Tyminski which was just phenomenal ……. Wade said he’d be happy to talk music with me anytime by the way….it’s  hard to shut him up apparently.

But I had a lot of other questions I needed to move on to…..Wade had already touched on the fact that many  themes he covered on the album were personal yet also universal and I wanted to know if any particular songs were resonating with Dans now it’s been out for a few weeks and he’s getting to play them out on the road?

“You know there’s been really good feedback back on the title track, and on ‘People Like Us’ ….. that’s a really relatable song particularly down here in the Southern states where people have massive families like how I grew up. And I’m really happy to see the reaction to ‘Weight of the Levee’ with Dan, I think it’s going to be a good staple of our show for a long time. It’s a different side of me, showing a more edgy, rock side. It’s hard this far into my career to decide what to play every night when you’ve got eleven records to choose from and a lot of collaborations with other friends……it’s a good problem to have! But luckily for us we really love this record and the band and I have really focused on this project and I’m excited to play it, it’s such fun.”

My next question was actually going to be about the album tracks he was enjoying playing out the most….he has a mix of acoustic and full band dates….do some of the songs fit better in each format?

“It’s crazy because the last few records, when I had something new out, I’d probably have a spot in my show for maybe two of the songs, but with this record we are playing five or so every night so I think its a credit to how much we believe in this project. It’s moving into a new era for me as an artist, for Wade Bowen moving forward. All of this record, being a studio record, you never know how it’s going to translate live. You do your best in the studio and then have to figure out how to take it live …..it’s been really fun to watch that transition, and it’s translated really well into our live shows“.

Wade had touched on the importance of family and roots earlier , and I was aware he gives back to his community every year via a fundraising Golf Invitational. What more could he tell me about that (and as an obsessive golfer myself maybe I could get an invitation sometime??!!)

“Yeah, it’s to benefit the Bowen Family Foundation, and we’ve done benefits for a long time, over 20 years. But the actual Foundation started about 8 years ago and we’ve raised over $10million. The golf invitational is a great event, we raised $1.7 a few months ago. It’s something our family takes a lot of pride in, my little sister runs the Foundation for me, Mum and Dad are on the board. Our model is anything involving children and families we are willing to try to help. Last year we were able to give to about 35 different charities, this year it will be almost 50. We spread the wealth as much as we can and give as much as we can to those doing such great work “

It’s 20 years since Wade released the album that he says changed everything for him, “Lost Hotel” and he’s marking the occasion with the release of a special edition of the album next month. I asked for a bit more about all this….

“That record for me wasn’t my first bit but was the one that really got things going for me an artist and songwriter. I was really searching for answers at the time, trying to figure out how to do music. This record really put us on the map and launched everything for us …..it gave us our first song to radio, our first music video. I don’t know if it’s my favourite record but I’m emotionally connected to it for so many reasons! It launched me to my peers, helped me get on shows and opened up my career a lot. I’m really proud of it and it took three years to make so there’s a lot of extra tracks on this anniversary edition, including acoustic tracks….it’s a really cool collection if you’re a long time fan of ours or even if you’re new to the deal. It’s cool to step back in time. The ‘new’ tracks we pulled out of the archives, I didn’t touch the vocals ….it’s almost like a time capsule for me, an intriguing collection of songs and I’m excited about it!”

Will some of those “new” songs get added to the set list at shows?

“Yeah we’re trying to figure that out! I’ve never had that problem before, looking back like this. There’s nine tracks we found that didn’t make the original record….and listening to them I’m like yeah, there’s a reason they didn’t make it (laughs) but I’ve still put them out there and that’s part of me being vulnerable and honest. Hopefully people can relate to that and feel it….I’m not sure how much of that we will play live, even if they will transition well….but I can’t remember having so many extra songs and it was fun to dig through them”.

And with the tour rolling on through early next year Stateside I wanted to know if it would roll over to the UK at any point? I am aware it’s an expensive undertaking…

“It is but it’s worth it! Anytime I go back it’s with the biggest smile on my face, it’s so much fun to play music there, y’all are just so welcoming and warm. The way you listen to music there….it’s such an honour to play music for y’all. I’m trying like hell to get back over as quickly as possible, we’re just so busy with these two releases and trying to get them off the ground…..so maybe the tail end of ’27 or early ’28 we’ll get back over there”.

I said I’d look out for any announcements and would love to meet him in person…

“Yeah, I’d love that too. Thank you so much for your time. I’m always happy to chat!”

Stream ” The Version of Me You Get ” here https://wadebowen.ffm.to/theversionofmeyouget

To stay up-to-date on Wade’s current and upcoming projects, please visit: https://wadebowen.com/ and follow him on Instagram @wadebowen and Facebook.