Article Contributed by Doug Deutsch
Published on October 17, 2025
Celebrating the vinyl release of his new album Blues Back Pages, eclectic singer-songwriter and guitarist Fred Hostetler returns to his hometown where his first vinyl record was released in 1967. He’ll perform a special homecoming show at Ignition Music Garage (120 E. Washington Ave.) on Sunday, October 26, from 3–5 PM. Admission is free.
More info: (574) 828-8282 or visit ignitionmusic.net.
The informal solo acoustic set will feature songs from Blues Back Pages, presented alongside stories and reflections from a life of “living and loving the Blues.”
Fred Hostetler is an independent American musician, singer-songwriter, and author who has collaborated with major artists including Johnny Winter, Graham Parker, The Knack, Billy Squier, Jeff Beck, and Grammy Award-winning producer Jack Douglas. Along with Karen Lawrence, he co-founded the acclaimed Southern California blues band Blue By Nature.
While grounded in blues and Americana traditions, Hostetler’s style defies genre boundaries. He received the LA Music Critic Award for Best Singer-Songwriter in 2019, with a nomination that same year for Best Video (“You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”). He currently resides on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest.
A Goshen native, Hostetler was co-captain of the beloved 1963 Goshen basketball team coached by Art Cosgrove. While attending Goshen College, he and Steve Kreider founded The Backdoor Men, the first blues band in Goshen. The band recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago in 1966 and released the 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, despite performing from New York to Los Angeles, Alaska, and India. It’s been a long, hard journey full of adventures and surprises. One of the best surprises is being able to honor it all in the place where it began—my much-loved hometown 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, 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 moment.”
— Take Effect
“I’ve loved the blues since first listening to the 50,000-watt WLAC station in Nashville. Late at night, I’d press my ear to the old radio to hear Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters—sounds that bent my mind and changed my life. I later found my father’s old Stella guitar in the attic and began to play. I’m still playing and still loving it.
After returning from India in 2017, I decided to finish something I started in 1977 when I declined signing to Max’s Kansas City Records. Forty years later, I started again—releasing music for eight straight years. Blues Back Pages gives some of those lost songs a second life. Some have been remastered, others re-recorded. They represent the journey—where things didn’t always go as planned, but some moments shine all the brighter because of it.”
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