Bowen, Lambert to reunite at Whitewater
There is some peril any time Wade Bowen plays with his longtime pal Miranda Lambert.
“The only problem with her is that I laugh too dang hard and my jaw hurts from laughing so much, because we have so much fun around each other,” Bowen said in a telephone interview from a tour stop in Salt Lake City.
A little jaw pain is worth it to play with Lambert. So the Texas music star is joining her for her Memorial Day weekend shows at Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels.
It’s a bit of a full circle situation. Lambert opened for Bowen at his Texas shows when she was a teenager, and she would sometimes go onstage to sing with him.
She’s looking forward to this weekend’s reunion.
“Any time I share the stage with Wade, I know it’s going to be a fun night of great music,” she said in a statement. “He’s one of my favorite Texans, artists and friends. These shows at Whitewater feel like a homecoming, and there’s no one I’d rather do them with.”
Another plus of playing Whitewater for Bowen is that he lives in New Braunfels, so he’ll actually get to sleep in his own bed for a few nights.
“To me, this is the perfect gig,” Bowen said. “I love Whitewater as a venue. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. The people that work there, they’re so kind and they know what they’re doing, and I think the crowds really enjoy being there. And being there with Miranda is just a huge bonus as well. I think her show is one of the best shows there is.”
Bowen feels pretty good about the show that he and his band put on, too, especially these days. They’re playing a lot of songs from “Flyin,” his newly released 10th studio album.
“There’s an energy to this album that I think we’ve never had, and so that’s really helpful as we take these songs and go play them live,” he said. “I think it’s really helped our our show to become the best show that we’ve ever had.”
He got a little help from Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman for one of the tracks, which describes life in a small Texas town. “Friday Night” opens with a play-by-play from Aikman for a high school football game.
“I had his posters on my wall as a kid, and now he’s on a record of mine,” said Bowen, who grew up in Waco and played football in his youth. “Every time I listen to that, I’m like, I cannot believe Troy Aikman’s on that part. It just couldn’t fit any better.”
Bowen and Aikman have done some charity work together over the years and have become buddies. Aikman is into country music and immediately said yes when Bowen asked if he’d do the voice-over.
It’s not the only distinctive part of the song. It ends with percussion from a marching band, which Bowen recorded while watching his son play football.
“The drums at the end of the track were actually recorded off my iphone,” he said. “I just sat by them in the stands on a Friday night and literally recorded
Jason Koerner/getty Images it.”
The album ends with “Hidin Behind This Microphone,” an introspective song about the loneliness that can be a component of performing.
He originally started working on it for “Hold My Beer,” a side project he does with Randy Rogers, but couldn’t quite finish it then.
“It just seemed to fit as the final track for this project,” he said. “It really shows a side that I think people really need to hear.”