Hosea Hargrove
Born between Bastrop and Smithville in the long forgotten farming community of Crafts Prairie, TX, Hosea grew up surrounded by music. A hotbed of blues in the 1930’s and 40’s, Crafts Prairie produced such prominent blues men as Grey Ghost, Son Chase, James Lee Williams, Funny Papa Smith, and Sunny Bo Williams. Before getting his first guitar at age 10, Hosea improvised. “I’d have a cigar box and put me some screen wire on it,“ he recalls, “it wouldn’t work, but I’d try.”
Hosea has played his rootsy style of blues in and around Austin for more than fifty years, schooling such notables as Bill Campbell and Jimmie Vaughan along the way. Don’t look for guitar pyrotechnics at a Hosea show, just a straight from the soul simplicity that is the very definition of the blues.
From hitching a ride on the back of Son Chase’s horse to his first gig - to the age of the iPod, Hosea’s rich legacy of song is something that must be experienced. One of the best of his kind and one of the last of his kind, Hosea is the REAL THING.
Now in his eighties Hosea shows no signs of slowing down, “I’ve been playing blues stuff so long, I don’t know how it would feel not playing, I ain’t got it in mind to retire. I’m thinking to get further, if I can, as far as I can go.” - Hosea Hargrove
