On the newest episode of HGTV‘s “Home Town” — premiering on May 5, 2024 — Erin Napier returns to her musical roots, reuniting with high school band members and rocking out like she did years ago in her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.
As she and her husband Ben Napier renovate the bachelor pad of her former high school bandmate, Brad Smith, she reluctantly agrees to dust off her guitar and perform, much to Ben’s delight. In a teaser for the episode, Erin said Ben asks her “weekly” to play her guitar and sing for him and their daughters — Helen, 6, and Mae, almost 3 — insisting that she’s far more talented than she gives herself credit for.
Erin Napier Has Said Music Was Her ‘First Love’
As a teenager, according to a 2021 Instagram post from Erin, she and Smith were part of a band called Sunday’s Maria, named after the Maria referenced in many Counting Crows songs. Erin wrote that her band primarily played Blind Melon, Alanis Morrissette, Ani DiFranco and Barenaked Ladies cover songs.
Though Erin chose to pursue a career in design rather than music, she has returned to playing periodically over the years. She shared on the Laurel Mercantile blog that in 2011, she experimented with performing again that year, for the first time since college. Someone who attended one of her gigs that year posted a YouTube video of her playing “Bobby McGee,” as seen above.
In 2016, the same year “Home Town” debuted on HGTV, Erin posted a video of herself singing and playing “You Are My Sunshine” on the guitar, and wrote about her musical past.
“When I was 14, I started playing music at the coffee house in downtown Laurel to earn my money,” she wrote in the caption. “I did that until I graduated high school, when my interests in art just kind of edged out my interest in music, and @scotsman.co still mourns it, always asking me to sing him a song. It just wasn’t where my heart was anymore. It’s been so long since I played.”
“Music was my first love,” Erin told People in 2022, when she wound up playing her guitar for the Christmas movie she and Ben appeared in. “There was a newspaper story about it, and by the time I graduated high school, there would be a crowd of 150 people in this little courtyard to come watch me play.”
Erin Napier is a Huge Fan of Other Musicians & Shares Playlists of Her Favorites
Erin may not have pursued music as part of her own career path, but she’s still a big music lover with a wide range of musical tastes.
In December 2022, she exchanged tweets with fans about her favorite artists and SiriusXM satellite radio channels. In one tweet, she said she was a “huge fan” of Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins, but in another, she wrote, “i think nirvana was overrated 🙃 (#unpopularopinion).”
Of her favorite satellite radio channels, she wrote, “i dabble in 1st wave. lithium, pop rocks, north americana are my favorites”
SiriusXM describes its Lithium channel as the home of “grunge rock and ’90s alternative,” featuring bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Weezer, and Oasis. PopRocks features the most popular radio hits from the 90s and early 2000s and, per SiriusXM’s website, North Americana is a blend of “today’s Americana and alternative country meets yesterday’s folk, rock & roots; from Alabama Shakes and Blue Rodeo to Brandi Carlile and Neil Young.”
Erin also loves to make her own Spotify playlists to meet whatever mood she’s in, and has made more than 20 of them public. One, called “I’m not a Swiftie,” features 21 Taylor Swift tunes, including the megastar’s new song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” which Erin added to the list on May 5, hours before her band’s reunion on “Home Town” was set to premiere.
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