Wade Bowen Blends Love Of 80s & 90s Country On New Album

For nearly two decades, Texas-native Wade Bowen has charted his own course in country music. The singer/songwriter built a strong following at home, charting dozens of radio hits on Texas radio, while building a national following with some 255-million streams of his music.

Over the past four years he suffered some personal challenges including a potential career-ending issue with his vocal cords, followed by the COVID pandemic shutdown.

But now he’s back with a new album featuring 12 songs that draw on his deep love of country-style songwriting, his stronger-than-ever voice, and a renewed excitement for creating and performing.

“Musically I feel like a kid again,” he says, “and I can’t wait for people to hear this album.”

Bowen not only co-wrote all of the songs on Somewhere Between The Secret And The Truth (along with a talented group of Nashville songwriters), he produced it. He says he took a simplistic approach, allowing the lyrics and the melody to stand on their own.

“I feel these songs are simple in a good way. I didn’t try to be quirky, I didn’t throw in a bunch of moody, intense chords here. These are ‘simply written songs’ that give the band room to breathe, and the lyrics room to breathe.”

One of the clearest examples of that may be “A Guitar, A Singer and a Song,” his duet with Vince Gill.

“Speaking of simplicity,” Bowen explains, “I just wanted to have acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and I think I added an electric solo in there.”

Having Vince Gill on the song came as a surprise gift from his manager who told Bowen that Gill had agreed to sing harmony. But then Bowen, in his role as producer, decided to reach out to Gill to see if he might agree to play a guitar solo or perhaps even sing a verse of the song.

“I sent Vince an email saying, ‘You’re one of my biggest heroes and biggest musical influences, and I feel you’re at the top of the pecking order when it comes to guitar players and singer/songwriters. So, if you want to sing a verse or take a solo, I’d love to have you do it.’”

Bowen says he couldn’t quite believe it when Gill responded.

“He did everything. He sang a verse, then he played a solo – the acoustic solo is Vince, and then he sang the entire song’s harmonies. I was blown away.”

With six studio albums under his belt, this is the first time Bowen filled the role of producer. It follows a bit of a rough patch for the singer/songwriter. In 2018, he began having problems with his vocal cords and what made it especially troubling at first, he says, was no one could figure out what was wrong. The answers came once he had surgery.

“I had a fantastic doctor who got in there, got a closer look, figured everything out, and fixed me up. He literally saved my career. So, that happened in 2018, then the shutdown in 2020, so several years there were pretty miserable.”

Initially, the pandemic was very difficult for Bowen. But he soon realized it gave him a break from the road he didn’t realize he needed, while allowing him to reflect on where he wanted to take his music in the future, re-energize. It also gave him a deep appreciation for his fans.

“I took a big creative hit when we got shut down. Like everybody else in the world I was shell-shocked. So, I started doing the livestream thing and started seeing how our fans needed that as much as we did. And I still think back to that time at how people were sending money and buying merchandise and keeping us afloat. It makes me tear up almost every time I think about it. Because we make a living by people coming to our live shows and supporting our music. And I just can’t believe the support we had during that time.”

He continued writing songs and came out “on the other side,” more grateful that ever before – for the opportunity to make music.

He’s also ready to focus on the positive aspects of life and encourage others to do the same. His song “A Beautiful World” portrays some of how he feels about that. It features singer and co-writer Lori McKenna (who also wrote Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind).

“I think “A Beautiful World” is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” Bowen says. “I just think with so much negativity going on in our country and our world, that song needs to be heard.”

Others to highlight on the album include “Honky Tonk Roll,” which Bowen believes will be “an absolute banger for us,” and the melodic, “Everything Has Your Memory.” Then there’s the title track “Somewhere Between The Secret And The Truth.”

“The entire time it sounds like your typical cheating country song, then there’s the twist at the end where it brings the person back and they actually make a good decision,” he says. He laughs, then goes on to add, “You don’t hear that much in country music.

Bowen is excited about the album’s full release set for tomorrow (Friday, August 12^th). Then on Saturday night (August 13^th), he’ll perform at the Grand Ole Opry. He’s also currently on tour. He says he can’t wait for people to hear the new music.

“I feel like there’s truly magical moments I’m really proud of within this record, as a producer, an artist, a songwriter, and a singer. And I just don’t feel like I can do any better. I’ve been doing this a long time and you don’t always feel that way. It feels really good to say that with this one.”