Biography
A vocalist, composer, and player of multiple instruments, Linda Hargrove routinely encountered mistimed circumstances across her career. Among the earliest Nashville musicians to merge country textures with contemporary pop and rock gloss during the mid-1970s, she had already stepped away from most industry activity by the moment that same combination rose to chart dominance ten years later.
Tallahassee, Florida, marked her birthplace on February 3, 1949. Hargrove took up piano and guitar before reaching her teens. Country music held little appeal during her youth; she gravitated instead toward pop and R&B, and by the close of the 1960s she was appearing with a regional blue-eyed soul ensemble. Only after Bob Dylan issued Nashville Skyline did she recognize the fresh directions country might allow. When the Florida ensemble After All chose to cut seven of her compositions, she accompanied the group to Nashville in 1970. Sandy Posey cut Hargrove’s “Saw Someone Else Before Me” the following year, drawing the notice of producers Billy Sherrill and Pete Drake. The two secured the emerging artist session work on guitar and as a songwriter.
Leon Russell included a pair of Hargrove numbers on his 1973 country project Hank Wilson Is Back. That same year Pete Drake presented her to former Monkee Michael Nesmith; along with James Miner, the pair wrote “Winonah,” which Nesmith placed on Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Nesmith also placed Hargrove on his brief experimental C&W imprint Countryside. Although she completed an album for the label, it remained unreleased after Elektra/Asylum discontinued the subsidiary. Elektra nevertheless issued her 1973 album Music Is Your Mistress and its 1974 successor Blue Jean Country Queen.
Hargrove signed with Capitol Records in 1975, issuing her lone Top 40 single, “Love Was (Once Around the Dance Floor),” on the album Love, You’re the Teacher. Johnny Rodriguez likewise reached number one that year with her song “Just Get Up and Close the Door.” Two further country albums appeared—1976’s Just Like You and 1977’s Impressions—yet neither achieved notable sales. She soon redirected her efforts toward inspirational material, releasing the Christian album A New Song in 1981 under her married name Linda Bartholomew. After several years away she returned with another gospel collection, Greater Works, in 1987. Health setbacks prompted another withdrawal, but following recovery from leukemia she made cautious attempts in the mid-1990s to reenter country music as a performer.
Tallahassee, Florida, marked her birthplace on February 3, 1949. Hargrove took up piano and guitar before reaching her teens. Country music held little appeal during her youth; she gravitated instead toward pop and R&B, and by the close of the 1960s she was appearing with a regional blue-eyed soul ensemble. Only after Bob Dylan issued Nashville Skyline did she recognize the fresh directions country might allow. When the Florida ensemble After All chose to cut seven of her compositions, she accompanied the group to Nashville in 1970. Sandy Posey cut Hargrove’s “Saw Someone Else Before Me” the following year, drawing the notice of producers Billy Sherrill and Pete Drake. The two secured the emerging artist session work on guitar and as a songwriter.
Leon Russell included a pair of Hargrove numbers on his 1973 country project Hank Wilson Is Back. That same year Pete Drake presented her to former Monkee Michael Nesmith; along with James Miner, the pair wrote “Winonah,” which Nesmith placed on Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Nesmith also placed Hargrove on his brief experimental C&W imprint Countryside. Although she completed an album for the label, it remained unreleased after Elektra/Asylum discontinued the subsidiary. Elektra nevertheless issued her 1973 album Music Is Your Mistress and its 1974 successor Blue Jean Country Queen.
Hargrove signed with Capitol Records in 1975, issuing her lone Top 40 single, “Love Was (Once Around the Dance Floor),” on the album Love, You’re the Teacher. Johnny Rodriguez likewise reached number one that year with her song “Just Get Up and Close the Door.” Two further country albums appeared—1976’s Just Like You and 1977’s Impressions—yet neither achieved notable sales. She soon redirected her efforts toward inspirational material, releasing the Christian album A New Song in 1981 under her married name Linda Bartholomew. After several years away she returned with another gospel collection, Greater Works, in 1987. Health setbacks prompted another withdrawal, but following recovery from leukemia she made cautious attempts in the mid-1990s to reenter country music as a performer.
Albums