Ben Crouch was raised outside of the small South Texas town of Mathis. There he and his two brothers provided much of the labor for the family's dairy, beef cattle and farming operations. The only music in the house came from the radio. Then, on a trip to Garner State Park soon after his 13th birthday, he encountered a rodeo cowboy whose guitar strumming and singing seemed to impress the girls. Thinking that this guitar business might be worth pursuing, he soon got his first, a Sears Silvertone, and a little book of chords. Because no one in the family played a musical instrument, he was on his own. Still, he made enough progress in time to convince his folks to help him upgrade to a Harmony Sovereign guitar, which his older brother always called the "high-strung blonde".

By the time he got to Baylor University in 1961, he was playing front rooms, back porches, and hayrides regularly. As the popularity of folk music on college campuses grew, he and two friends formed the University Singers, a Peter, Paul, and Mary knock off, complete with matching madras shirts. The group made the rounds of coffee houses, rush parties, smokers, and banquets.

Over their 38 years of marriage, Nancy has been teacher, university lecturer, local business owner, entrepreneur, College Station city councilwoman, painter, and now is also a first-rate grandmother. But, raising a family while building a career and being married to an active woman often meant that the guitar got less time than it deserved. In the 1970s, during an extensive research project in the Texas prison system, he met and began to pick with a couple of employees. For the next 25 years, being able to play a few times a year with these close friends, coupled with daughters who love to sing, kept him playing regularly.

The mid-1990s brought some changes into Ben's life, all for the good. Most importantly, his grandchildren began to arrive: Kinsey-1996; Kyler-1999; Karis-2002 in Abilene, and Virginia-2008; Thomas-2010 in Houston. They love to hear Papa play the guitar, and the older two have joined him at the local Monday night bluegrass jam to sing their favorite tunes. These children are a great joy to Ben and Nancy. Two other events about this time helped focus his picking, namely a week at Steve Kaufmann's guitar camp in Tennessee, and the inception of the local bluegrass jam. Being around new and traditional music, fine pickers and good friends keeps him motivated him to spend, as Norman Blake would put it, more "time behind the box."

If you wish to email Ben Crouch, click here: Ben Crouch. Ben M. Crouch Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Sociology College of Liberal Arts Texas A&M University 301 Coke 4223 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-4223 phone: 979-845-2141 fax: 979-845-5164