Resurgent 69-year-old singer-songwriter Larry Hosford is winning over a whole new generation of fans.

It’s like finding a Lady Tennant Stradivarius violin in the attic of a house you’ve lived in for decades. 


Salinas native Larry Hosford has been performing and writing raw, dry-humored honky-tonk tunes since the early ’60s. He started out singing songs on the streets of Cannery Row in a voice eerily reminiscent of Willie Nelson’s. He even earned the opportunity to jam with Nelson and scored a record contract on Leon Russell’s Shelter Records label, which resulted in two albums, aka Lorenzo and Crosswords. Four of Hosford’s tracks even made it on the Billboard Country Charts. 


But he went largely unknown, partly because fame was never a priority for the musician: At nearly 70 years old, he’s content living in Salinas, watching Hogan’s Heroes reruns and performing occasionally – when his severe arthritis isn’t acting up.


Luckily for us, local musician/producer Adam Zerbe came across one of Hosford’s old records a year ago and became smitten with his playfully offbeat country style – and knew he wouldn’t be alone. 


Last summer, Zerbe got Hosford and his band to record Momentarily Yours – 16 tracks of unreleased material – at his 4th Street Records in Carmel Valley. The session was Hosford’s first in so long he has no clue when the last time that he recorded was.


“I don’t really know but it’s been a while,” he says.


“Cocaine and Liquor” – Hosford’s favorite track on the LP – is a yodeling, lap steel-charged tale of a modern-day Minnie the Moocher. Meanwhile, the ironic sunny ballad “That Lived In Look” could be mistaken for a track off Nelson’s The Sound in Your Mind.


After a lifetime that’s included moments like being sought out by renowned Los Angeles producer Dino Airali and making a fan out of Russell, traveling two hours up a dirt road in Big Sur this past summer to perform at the Nacarubi Festival is one of Hosford’s career highlights. And Zerbe’s instincts were on: The younger generation was ready for him.


“They bought right in to what I was doing,” Hosford says. “It was like we were rock stars. I was treated like royalty.”


Hosford expects his CD release party on Saturday at the Golden State Theatre to encounter similar energy.


“I’ve been out in the world but I say, ‘Why go anywhere when it’s so cool here,’” he says. 


Popular old-timey country outfit The Good Sams, a revelation itself, opens with finger-picking-and-washboard action that should set up Hosford’s sound nicely. 


LARRY HOSFORD’s CD Release Party with The Good Sams happens at 9pm, Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $10/ advance; $12/door. 297-2472.