A year ago at Joe’s Bar in Chicago, much of the cast of ABC’s drama “Nashville” gathered for the first of four tour dates touting the show’s soundtrack. It wasn’t until that night that Clare Bowen, who plays meek chanteuse Scarlett O’Connor, realized how far they’d come.
“I was singing ‘Black Roses,’ and I got to the chorus and I thought there was [sound] interference. I really thought my monitors were messing up,” she says. “[But then] I realized the interference was actually the whole audience singing along.”
She can expect more of that passionate energy on the show’s expanded sophomore tour, which begins Wednesday with two nights at the Beacon Theatre. Alongside Bowen, much of the “Nashville” supporting cast — Chip Esten, Aubrey Peeples, Sam Palladio, Chris Carmack and sisters Lennon and Maisy Stella — will bring the show’s signature tunes to the stage. But fans may also be in for a surprise or two, as some of the actors are likely to perform a taste of their own original work.
As “Nashville” wraps up its third season, more and more of its stars are venturing into music beyond the confines of their characters. While show matriarch Connie Britton — who, along with Hayden Panettiere, sits out the tours — told The Post last year that she’s “an actor who is playing a country music star” with no “aspirations to be an actual country music star,” her on-screen cohorts feel differently.
Take Chip Esten, who plays Britton’s star-crossed lover Deacon Claybourne and who co-wrote a song on the most recent season. He says being on the show has inspired him to pursue his long-ago dream of a music career.
“I wouldn’t say it revived my interest — it revived my faith in it,” he says with a laugh.
Sam Palladio, who portrays Gunnar Scott, is also reportedly working on an album, as is Bowen, who has teamed up with former “Nashville” music supervisor T Bone Burnett, producer of songs for Roy Orbison and Elton John, for her debut. Bowen is hesitant to label her own sound as country, though.
“I’m not Scarlett,” she says. “I just make her walk around and we sound kind of the same.”
Aubrey Peeples, who plays Layla Grant, will soon lead a pop-filled “Jem and the Holograms” film adaptation, produced by Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun. But Peeples, who is classically trained and wrote a song that inspired Layla’s “Blind,” says the music she’s writing is more blues-rock.
“I can only write what I write,” she explains. “But at the same time, Layla’s music this season has come a lot closer to music that I write.”
Luckily, as Esten puts it, with Season 4 a possibility, the cast doesn’t need to decide on their future aspirations just yet.
“When people ask, ‘Would you rather be an actor or a musician?’ I say, ‘Well, the good news is that, at least for a while now, I don’t have to answer that,’ ” says Esten. “I get to have my cake and eat it too.”