Mary McCaslin's Roundup
September
7, 2007
Sometime around 1979 my agent was contacted by a country singer from the Santa Cruz area named Larry Hosford, who was doing a recording project in Hollywood. He wanted me to sing a harmony vocal on a song called "The Timber Wolf." The album was being recorded for Warner Bros, but for some reason it was never released.
At the time of that recording session I was living in southern California. We met a few times afterwards when I played in Santa Cruz, but who knew that someday Larry and I would become practically neighbors when I moved here in 1990. It was then that I discovered his songwriting mastery and soulful singing.
Larry began his music career playing folk music on Monterey's Cannery Row in the early 1960s. He worked in various bands, most notably the Santa Cruz band Snail, through the `60s and `70s. Guitarist Ken Kraft, was a member of Snail and plays these days in the Larry Hosford Band, along with the White Album Ensemble. Other band members are Jeff Cruse, on guitar, Charlie Wallace on pedal steel, lap steel, and dobro , "Harpin' Jonny" Troutner on harmonica, Jerry Bradley on bass and Mike Pupo on drums.
Larry's new CD, "High On Livin'" was recorded at the MARS studio in Aptos, in 1987 and `88. As Larry says in the liner notes, "I thereupon took the tapes home and shelved them in a cool, dry climate. Then, this, that…first thing you know it's 2007." In a phone conversation he told me that his reason for not attempting to release the album was that the time was not right for "Indie" recordings. Of course the Internet has changed everything. He is selling this CD, his 2000 release "Windjammin'" CD and bootleg CD copies of his two Shelter LPs, "aka Lorenzo" and "Crosswords, on his website, www.larryhosford.com. In a recent conversation with former Shelter Records owner and recording artist, Leon Russell, Larry mentioned his bootlegging activities, to which Leon replied, "By the time they find out, it'll be too late." Those recordings contain Hosford's classics, "Long Distance Kisses," "Ode to a Broken Coleus," "Why I Spend So Much Time in the Bars," and his four "Crossword Puzzle" segments. Russell and George Harrison play on two of the songs on "Crosswords" - "Direct Me" and "Wishing I Could."
Aside from showcasing a selection of Larry's clever and haunting songs, "High On Livin'" also features two longtime favorites, "Hitchhiking in Guyana" and "Salinas," which were released on a single in 1979. "Salinas" is probably his most requested song, and as he marveled, "People all over the world know about the song about the Okies and the Mexicans in Salinas (thanks to KPIG's Web Streaming.)"
Larry is an Okie whose family is not from Oklahoma. His parents and one of his sisters were born in Rushville, Illinois. Larry and his other sister were born in Salinas, where Larry has lived nearly his whole life. The "High On Livin'" CD is a hometown project with all local players. The front photo was taken at New Brighton Beach, and as Larry says, "When California falls into the ocean I've got a front row seat."
Larry celebrates the "High On Livin'" CD release tonight with an 8 pm concert at Don Quixote's in Felton. For details, call 603-2294.
AND ALSO…
On Friday, September 21st, the Harmony Sisters, a fabulous folk-trio, will
perform a reunion house concert in Santa Cruz. These three multi-talented
women are: Alice Gerrard, Jeanie McLerie and Irene Herrmann. Call (831) 459-9432.
Email Mary McCaslin at roundup@marymccaslin.com.