Exclusive Interview: Wade Bowen Calls 'Solid Ground' The Best Album of His Career

Wade Bowen's latest studio album, Solid Ground, was a labor of love for the singer. The record, produced by renowned Keith Gattis, took Bowen almost two years to make, calling it "the Texas album of his career."

"I've been playing almost 20 years now," Bowen tells PopCulture.com. "I think I've had glimpses of this sound throughout the records obviously, because that's where I was born and raised, and still live in Texas. But with this one, I really had a mission to make this sound what I feel like Texas sounds like, because Texas to me is George Strait, but it's also Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top. It's rock. It's country. It's Americana. It's blues. It's Tejano. It's all of that, mixed into one awesome boiling pot. And so I really wanted that to come across."

The 11-track project includes a who's-who list of co-writers, including Jack Ingram, Angaleena Presley, Lucie Silvas and Charlie Worsham, among others, covering everything from longing to nostalgia to celebration. But asked to narrow down his favorite track, Bowen reluctantly chooses "So Long 6th Street," in part because of his guest collaborators on the track.

"It's hard to write songs that you feel people will just sing along, anthem-style," explains Bowen. "I really feel ['So Long 6th Street'] will be that for us. And having Miranda Lambert and Jack Ingram as a part of that song as well, how it all came together with that, without it even really being planned. I love singing it. It's a really uplifting song for me."

Bowen's first album, Try Not to Listen, was released in 2002. Since then, Bowen's growth – as a songwriter, an artist, and a person – can be traced through each of his subsequent records, including with Solid Ground.

"I've gotten obviously a lot smarter with how to write songs and how to make records and go out and play them," shares Bowen. "We play 150 shows a year at minimum. And so, I feel like I'm a very intense and very emotional songwriter, and a very emotional artist. I think, just being older and wiser now, I know how to get that across a lot better than I did when I was younger. And I don't worry as much, like I did. I stressed out so much, and now it seems I know how to handle it a lot better, everything in this career.

"And I feel, coming out of this record especially, just feeling like I just made the best record I could ever make, best record of my career, in my opinion," he continues. "I feel like for the next five or ten years or so, I feel like it's going to be the best part of my career, because of that. I think open diary kind of songwriters like me, we get better with time, because we learn how to craft it a lot better, and open up a lot more."

With his hard work in Solid Ground now completed and released, it's logical to ask Bowen what's next. And for Bowen, the sky is the limit.

"This album's really opened up a lot of floodgates," he concedes. "I was really lost going into it, coming out of a major label, and all kinds of stuff, that it had just kind of gone sideways. Keith really helped pull me out of that funk, and put me on track again. I really feel that it opened up the floodgates to all kinds of ideas that I want to do; collaborations, album ideas that I have, and things that I really want to accomplish.

"I just really learned from this record, 'Don't settle. Don't just write some songs and go in the studio and find someone to make them sound good,'" he concludes. "As with everything I've done in my career, and will continue to do, have a point to it. And I want it to mean something to not only myself but anybody that listens."

Purchase Solid Ground on iTunes and Amazon.

Photo Credit: Sunshine Sachs