When Clare Bowen first auditioned for Nashville’s Scarlett O’Connor, she thought for sure the role would go to someone else. Little did she know at the time how much that one audition would change her life.
“I knew it would be something very special,” Bowen told CMT.com at the 2018 CMT Music Awards. “I stood there at my agent’s desk, and I read the whole script standing there.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to be so happy for the person that this goes to.’ I walked in with Scarlett’s accent the way it has always been, and my whole life changed within 24 hours. It was nuts.”
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Her role on the show led to her meeting her husband Brandon Robert Young, and the two have decided to make Nashville their home while Bowen continues to work on her music career.
When the Nashville cast toured Europe this spring, Bowen peeled off to headline a successful solo tour in Germany. At one show, she remembers her crowd singing 2017’s“Little By Little” so loudly, she had to give the mic to them.
“It’s exactly what I wanted to do, and so I feel like I accomplished something over there. Now being on Sugarland’s tour with Jennifer Nettles and Brandy Clark, I’m kind of a little bit overwhelmed. It’s so wonderful, and we’re doing another solo tour in the U.K. in September, and there’s more to be announced. We just haven’t gotten there yet.”
Bowen’s latest release as a solo artist is the soul-stirring ballad, “All the Beds I’ve Made,” the first release from an upcoming self-titled album expected later this summer, marking the first time Nashies will get to know Bowen, the artist.
“That’s why it’s taken five years to write,” she added. “There were so many times we could have released it, but it wasn’t finished, and I was so busy shooting the show Nashville that the amount of time that it took was a blessing because I wouldn’t have gotten it right if I had to release it too quickly.
“For me, I had so much growing to do, so much to learn and so many wonderful people to meet who collaborated on the album. So, I feel very blessed to have had that time. I hope people like it. I can’t believe it’s finally finished. It’s a dream come true.”
Young is a co-writer on most of the songs and appears on “All the Beds I’ve Made.” Other contributors include Grammy winners Lori McKenna (“Humble and Kind”) and Amy Wadge (“Thinking Out Loud”).
In the meantime, Bowen sings “When You Came Along” as Scarlett with Jake Etheridge (Sean) on the final Nashville soundtrack (out July 27). She co-wrote the song with Etheridge and her husband as the lead track on the 16-song compilation. Chris Carmack sings “My Turn,” a song co-written by Maren Morris and Chris Gelbuda. The collection ends with an all-sing of the drama’s signature song, “A Life That’s Good,” an original by Ashley Monroe and Sarah Siskind.