Celebrating the vinyl release of his new album Blues Back Pages, eclectic singer-songwriter-guitarist Fred Hostetler returns to his hometown where his first vinyl record was released in 1967, performing at Ignition Music Garage, 120 E. Washington Ave., Sunday, October 26. Show: 3pm-5pm. Free Admission. Info: (574) 8282 or visit ignitionmusic.net.
The free, informal solo acoustic set features a compilation of blues-based songs from Blues Back Pages, presented with explanations and stories, coinciding with a life of “living and loving the Blues”.
Fred Hostetler is an indie artist, American musician, singer/songwriter, and author who has worked with major artists including Johnny Winters, Graham Parker, The Knack, Billy Squier, Jeff Beck, and Grammy award-winning producer, Jack Douglas. Along with Karen Lawrence, Hostetler founded the highly-acclaimed Southern California blues band, Blue By Nature. His style, while grounded in blues and Americana traditions, cannot be defined by a single genre. Fred won the LA Music Critic Award for Best Singer Songwriter in 2019 and was nominated for Best Video that same year for ‘You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know’. Hostetler currently resides on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest.
Hostetler, a Goshen native, was Co-Captain of the greatly-loved basketball team coached by Art Cosgrove that brought name and fame to Goshen in 1963. Fred attended Goshen College and, along with Steve Kreider, established the first blues band in Goshen, the Backdoor Men — who recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago in 1966 and released a single, ‘Corinna, Corinna’ b/w ‘Evil’.
“Fifty years ago I played at a coffee house behind the National Bank on the corner of Main and Lincoln,” recalls Hostetler. “For many decades I never played in Goshen again, in spite of playing from New York to Los Angeles, and all the way to Alaska and then on to India. I never stopped writing and playing. It has been a long hard journey full of adventures and surprises. One of the best surprises is being able to honor it all at the place where the music began, my much-loved home town of Goshen.”
“Your Mind Is On Vacation – Eclectic musician Fred Hostetler has kicked off 2025 with one of the most prescient songs around…and turned it into a blues rock classic” John Porter, Substack
“On Blues Back Pages I enjoyed ‘Hey Corporate Vandals’ and ‘Shelter From The Storm’ particularly; the standout has to be the epic ‘Taming The Wolf’, an autobiographical piece about Hostetler’s own relationship with the Blues. There isn’t a weak track here.” Music-news.com
“Orphan Blues, I love that thang…that is a tune you can feel. It reaches down inside you. ..reaching in and pulling the heart out of you…that is what soul is all about.” The David Bowers Awards
“Deep Deep Well is one of my favorite tracks on the release with Hostetler on acoustic slide showing some real clean riffs and super blues feel…BMan’s Blues Report
“Rain On My Window Pane” flows with a poetic quality, where intricate playing and eloquent singing meet at a very memorable…Take Effect
Some Biographical Notes From Fred
“I have loved the blues since first listening to the 50,000 watt Clear Channel giant WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee. WLAC would announce itself as “the nighttime station for half the nation” and woke me up to what was about to happen, the emergence of the Rock n’ Roll era. I was a young boy who knew nothing about what ‘Silky Straight’ meant and was clueless about Royal Crown hairdressing and pomade. These products sponsored regular blues hours: Randy’s Record Mart with “the Hossman” and Ernie’s Record Mart with John R.
At night after going to bed, I would put my ear up to the old wooden box radio so my parents would not know I was listening to the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and other ‘race music’. It was fascinating stuff that bent my mind. I had never heard such emotion and feeling in the singing and playing. The earthy lyrics were colorful, catchy, and strange; they described a life of which I was totally unaware. According to Wikipedia, radio historians say that although the music was intended for the Deep South, a few white teenagers were also attracted to the music. Though not near my teen years, I was one of them.
Not long after that, I found my father’s old Stella guitar in the attic, picked it up and began to play. I am still playing and enjoying it. Blues is heart and soul. It has powered my musical sojourn. After returning from India in 2017 I was determined to finish something I started in 1977 when I declined signing to Max’s Kansas City records as a solo artist. Now, forty years later, I have started over again with eight years of continuous releases.
A few people became aware of my songs. I felt that some of my earlier work, especially the blues songs, were lost and had gone unheard but deserved to be heard in a more focused blues setting. This materialized as Blues Back Pages. Some songs have been remastered or partly rerecorded. I think the listener gets a chance to see that in spite of the best of intentions, some things just don’t turn out as well as expected while others shine. It’s all part of the journey.”
(Goshen, IN) – dougdeutschPR