IF YOU LIVED anywhere near Gilroy back in the mid-to-late '70s, you listened to KFAT-FM or you were no friend of mine. KFAT was acid-damaged radio like never before or since – the most wonderful, strangest mix of music and personalities you'd ever hope to find. And since I lived in San Jose at the time, I found it.

I also found, among many other things, the wonderfully bent country singer Larry Hosford, whose single "Salinas" was a KFAT staple. It was a terrific song, on which the singer mused, "Salinas / That's where I'm from / I must be an Okie / Or a Mexican." Or something like that. I haven't heard the tune since 1979, and I've spent some time trying, let me tell you.

Hosford was a lot more than a local guy with a cool, funny song. In the mid-'70s he recorded two albums for Shelter Records, A.K.A. Lorenzo and Crosswords. How fine was Hosford's work? Well, it was so fine that George Harrison and Leon Russell provided accompaniment on the latter album. So fine, in fact, that I knew Hosford was on his way to becoming a household name, a local hero destined for great things. I was wrong.

I Googled his name – hoping he was still alive, that was all I wanted – and came across his e-mail address and eventually got him on the phone. I asked him what he'd been up to, and he deferred in a way that made me not want to know very much.

These days, as Hosford pointed out, a couple of solid albums, a friendship with Harrison – no matter how fleeting – not to mention a night in the studio with some famous cats, are nothing to sneeze at. Nor is a decade-long weekly residency at the Windjammer Lounge in Aptos an uncomfortable way to pass the years. "It's great," Hosford told me. "We get to set and play what we want, work things out, and all among friends."

I made the journey to the Windjammer a couple of years ago – a road trip with Magic Mike McGuirk – and the music was good indeed, although I had a hard time getting settled because it seemed as if I was making the main man tense. Or maybe it was my imagination. Hosford sometimes converses in an imaginative, wordy double-talk, full of sidetracks, puns, and obscure allusions. To check out what I mean, go to www.larryhosford.com and you'll find a far-flung, overly modest Web site that won't tell you everything you want to know but will tell you a thing or two at least. You get Hosford's local history – from the Outsiders to the E-Types to Snail – and travels to the big time and then the long, slow road back.

I asked about that, and his answer fit with his overly modest Web site, where he seems to deflect praise at every chance. "Well," he told me – and believe me, I wanted to know but didn't want to ask – "my work in the studio was one thing, but I was never comfortable leading a band onstage. And I think that hurt me. I'd get up there, nervous, I'd have a drink or two, that never helped, and things just didn't work out."

I didn't pry much beyond that. I've had a few blue periods, and I wasn't about to cough them up, so fair seemed fair. What's real and alive is Hosford's Thursday-night gigs and his intricate, surprising Web site. He's got a newish album out called Windjammin', named after the club that allowed Hosford and friends to work the material out, and promised me a new album before long. "It's in the can," he said, although I didn't necessarily sense when it would emerge from that can. Keep your eyes peeled and you might find one of his old ones too.

Of course, I wanted it to be 1979, I wanted a live broadcast over KFAT, and I wanted to be in my 20s again. That'll never happen, and Hosford will never be the young guy busting out of Santa Cruz with nothing but promise in front of him.

I'll end with this: Hosford played "Long Distance Kisses," from his first Shelter album, by request (mine) when I traveled to Aptos. And damned if it didn't sound as good as ever. "I've got over the stage fright thing, finally," he said, and it showed.

A trip to Aptos is well worth the effort. There you'll find an abundantly talented musician, holding court with a lot of stories, who's seen a lot of bad roads and survived in one piece. No matter what's happened in the past, Hosford is alive and well in the present. You can't ask for more than that.

Larry Hosford Band play Thursdays, 8:30 p.m., Windjammer Lounge, 1 Rancho Del Mar, Aptos. Free. (831) 685-1587.