Jimmy Bowen with band at Ridenour Rehearsal Studios. Photo by Wayne Cowan
It’s a slice of The Nashville Network in the ’Boro’s backyard.
“I’ve always wanted to host my own music variety TV show and with the wonderful team we have assembled and the super-talented guests we have for the first season of the show, I know we are starting out right. With a blend of both new artists and seasoned entertainers, I believe there is something for everyone and that viewers will love the show,” says acclaimed singer-songwriter, musician and Screen Actor’s Guild member Jimmy Bowen of his show Jimmy Bowen & Friends.
Featured first-season guests include The Voice season 17 winner Jake Hoot, actor and singer John Schneider, Cody McCarver (known in part for his work with the band Confederate Railroad), up-and-comer Ashlyn Grace, Karen Waldrup, Sonny LeMaire and more. These episodes are now airing and a second season is already well on the way to echoing and amplifying the show’s initial success.
Filming was somewhat of a struggle in the beginning, with corralling artists and getting the OK from everyone during perhaps some of the best and worst of times with COVID. Like show guest’s Sonny LeMaire co-written song of the same name, it was a beautiful mess. But Bowen wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“I so appreciate the artists that we had,” says Bowen. “I enjoyed having every one of them on the show. For this next season we start filming again in January and we have a few more—for lack of a better way of saying it—heavy-hitters lined up. Proud of the first season and looking forward to the second. I’m actually already planning for the third. I’ve had this vision for years and we’re going to keep this train rolling if we can.”
Filmed live at Murfreesboro’s Ridenour Rehearsal Studios’s venue The Alley with executive producer Jeff Moseley at the helm (Nashville Insider and Songs & Stories with John Berry are among his projects for CJM Productions), the series has quickly found a home in households far beyond the ’Boro. An impressive array of TV and streaming services, including Heartland, The Family Channel and The Country Network, have added the 13-episode half hour program to their lineups. Each episode spotlights Bowen with his band and a weekly guest artist.
So, why Murfreesboro?
“There are a lot of factors. The folks over at Ridenour were just super, they are just tremendous people, they welcomed me with open arms to do this television show. They have a great facility. Shane and Shannon, Cheri Cranford, just everyone at Ridenour and our crew, everyone has been a real blessing,” Bowen said of the local production studio. “There were other places we approached that were just not a good fit. And Ridenour has enough room for us to move around the stage area, they have their stage, they have lighting, they have sound—my production team comes in and enhances the sound . . . and it’s a stage area where you’re up maybe three or four feet so it gives the audience a real intimate feel.
“My whole idea was to try to bring back kind of the old shows like you’d see on TNN years ago,” Bowen told the Pulse. “That was one of the biggest motivators in my mind. Not that I’m trying to be the savior of country music. But it was a thing where it’s like, ‘I miss those shows.’ Me personally, I enjoyed those. And I would like to do what I can do to maybe throw a spark to bring some of it back. That was the vision that started it. They had a lot of music variety shows. Everything was about the music [then] and a lot of the shows that I watch now are all about talking and cooking. No one really cares how I like my barbecue,” he says with a laugh.
“[Each episode of] our show is 22 minutes, with about 7, maybe 8 minutes of talking. The rest is focused on the music. I don’t want people to get bored. I want to leave them wanting more.”
Find Jimmy Bowen & Friends on some of these channels and streaming services (take note that some, including Heartland, The Country Network and RightNow, have Roku channels too): Heartland TV – Tuesday, 4 p.m., Sunday, 4 p.m.; The Family Channel – Tuesday, 5:30 p.m., Sunday, 3:30 p.m.; The Country Network – Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Friday, 11:30 a.m., Sunday, 3 p.m.; RightNow TV – Tuesday, 2 and 11 p.m., Friday, 2 and 11 p.m., Saturday, 11 p.m.; StrykTV, Z Living TV and Country TV-New Zealand.
All told, the program is accessible to approximately 160 million homes in the USA, the UK and New Zealand.
“I had the best compliment from a viewer who emailed and said they loved the show. Their words were: ‘very professionally done but relaxing to watch.’ That’s what I want. But I didn’t do this. We did it. I need everybody to make it work,” Bowen said.
“My main point, as an artist, is to bring in an artist variety,” Bowen explains. “Like The Johnny Cash Show, that’s another great example. I just thought that was so creative, to get people from different styles of music when you sit down to watch a show. I came from a bluegrass background and moved to the Americana side. Even though I do what I do as an artist, we try to arrange the shows if we can to where it’s the opposite of what I do. I want Christian music on there. I want the rock. I want reggae, blues, jazz. I want it to be a variety of music, because that’s what I want the show to be: a musical variety show.
“I’m working on [booking] a couple of singer-songwriters that are very, very top artists in Nashville. But they are tremendous writers also. And talking with them about coming on and just doing a singer-songwriter, writers-in-the-round-type thing. They write so many great songs that you might never know they wrote what they wrote for another artist,” he adds. “It’s kind of like making a record. It’s a well-oiled machine so far. The first season was good and I hope the second season will be even better. You always want your next record to be better than the last record. The first season was mostly [solo] artists, and they used my band,” “So we had one of our production meetings. I said ‘I want to incorporate some bands.’”
Some names included among the bands in talks for the next season (still subject to change) are country supergroup Shenandoah (whose new album project Every Road releases this month featuring guest artists ranging from the likes of Lady A and Blake Shelton to Zac Brown Band and beyond), Exile and even possibly 38 Special. Phil Vassar and Pam Tillis are also in talks to tape episodes. Lewis Brice, Jason Crabb, Nu-Blu, Becky Buller and Tori Martin have all confirmed they will appear on Jimmy Bowen & Friends.
As a Screen Actor’s Guild member, Bowen himself appeared in the drama Nashville (among other notable acting projects).
“You’ve seen my look. I get all the murder roles, which is really fun. Bank robber roles, you know—the killer guy. I’ve done some stuff with the ID Channel. I actually taped some stuff where I was cast with Pam Tillis for a show [which was not picked up]. Well, there was a band performance at a prison and I got cast as the band leader for the state penitentiary country band. So we’re in our orange jumpsuits and we got our instruments and they hired the band to come in. Well, Pam was one of the guests. And we had a good time during that.”
Musically speaking, Bowen’s latest single, “Second Hand Smoke,” is available through most streaming platforms and he is working on new music to be released soon.
Keep up to date on Jimmy Bowen & Friends air dates, find photos, videos and more at facebook.com/jimmybowenshow.
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Elsewhere on the screen, a couple of Bowen’s season-one guests, John Schneider and Cody McCarver, are scheduled for a series of drive-in movie screenings and live concerts in stops in Camden, Tullahoma and Sparta, Tennessee. Tullahoma’s date at the Montana Drive-In is Nov. 28 and each night includes a screening of Schneider’s new movie Stand on It as well as a live performance by Schneider and his Stars & Bars Band with McCarver.
