Steve Fromholz - Texas Trilogy (from Jus' Playin' Along)

Подписаться 213

Просмотров 24 тыс.

50% 1

I can't recall when I first heard the late Steve Fromholz. It was around '74; either when I picked up the Frummox album (as a cutout!!) or in ZigZag magazine's massive April 74 interview with Michael Nesmith. Or maybe in Jan Reid's Improbable Rise Of Redneck Rock. It was a long time ago; and either way, one of the great discoveries.
From that point I tried to pick up all Steve's releases. I never got the chance to see him play and I know from what I've read online that I've really missed out there! I've been meaning to upload this track for quite a while. It's a remake of his famous Texas Trilogy that first appeared on Frummox's Here To Now in 1969. This version is quite rocking in places and is taken from his sole album for Willie Nelson's Lone Star label, Jus' Playin' Along.
"Texas Trilogy", is set in the town of Kopperl, in Bosque County, Texas". It comprises of three songs, "Daybreak," "Trainride," and "Bosque County Romance," portraying life in rural Texas in the 1950s. This is no work of fiction and is a wonderful, moving piece of work.
As an aside, Steve actually cut his first solo album proper (How Long Is The Road To Kentucky?) for Michael Nesmith's short-lived Countryside label. Michael returned the tapes back to Steve and I have read that Steve sent out a cassette of the album to one particular fan, if not more. Maybe Steve's family may be able to release the album posthumously. I'm sure there would be a lot of interest.

Опубликовано:

20 сен 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 57

@rosssoutherland8118 3 месяца назад

So original! A real writer here!

@scottspradlin6555 4 года назад

Born in 1991 Austin Tx My Dad used to sing this song to/with me on the way to Dallas where we would visit family Ill always Love this song RIP Dad - Tomas Sidney Spradlin I Love you Old Man

@mygoddess1 3 года назад

I'm so sorry for your loss :( You have memories & always he'll always be with you :) Take good care & stay safe...

@adrianvoorhies6854 3 года назад

Also 1991 Austin here. So sorry for your old man’s passing. I can’t even imagine. But he had fantastic taste - but the music, and thusly through him, lives on.

@WindEnergy 8 месяцев назад

I’ve been collecting one-armed snake jokes for forty years. Steven told me the only one I’ve ever heard.

@joecullum8164 2 года назад

Greetings from Kopperl Texas, Mourning Dove Ranch

@standardranchstash221 4 года назад

Just in case anyone here is interested and doesnt know: Michael Martin Murphey has covered Texas Trilogy on his recent (and superb) album, Austionology. It's a great piece of work.

@adrianvoorhies6854 3 года назад

A subdued, more intimate version but still beautiful. I always come back to this version. The superb pedal steel and fiddle performance just drive it home.

@midnightspecial2990 7 месяцев назад

I credit KNON 89.3 Dallas and Ranger Randall for turning me on the the genius of SF around 1984. Got to see him perform at a Humble Radio Show taping at the Freiheit Country Store.

@JamesAutism90526 2 года назад

I live in kopperl. This is crazy!

@donnarion1147 6 месяцев назад

A fantastic song and a wonderful, gone-too-soon man. I got to know him back in the '70s when I lived in Fayetteville, AR and he played regularly at the Swingin' Door. Good times. Thanks for posting.

@jerebusenbarrick5656 29 дней назад

i was there also loved the swingin door and the happy hour with the sound check for the nights band never missed these guys

@itdtv2510 Год назад

My hometown! Go Kopperl Eagles!!!

@tyrannicandqueenmary-oz1lw Год назад

I used to go to kopperl I was there from pre-ka to 5 grade

@itdtv2510 Год назад

@@tyrannicandqueenmary-oz1lw I was there 1st grade through 6th. 1996-2002 I think

@RonaldArrington-x2s Год назад

I have spent some time with Lyle Lovett and he has told me Steve was the best natural songwriter of rural Texas that has even been. Steve was a close friend of my brother and a wonderful man. I miss him greatly.

@user-bn2uw4bx9p 7 месяцев назад

Saw him in Corpus Christi, Texas 😺

@mspinchey 3 года назад

I met him at his school reunion. My husband went to school with him.

@tommietempleton 6 лет назад

Love this for over 35 years. Cant find it. It's America and Texas as life really is.

@waltergreene8811 Год назад

First heard of Steve Fromholz when I was stationed at Fort Hood in 1976-77. Such wonderful poetry.

@bigfuzzydawg 6 лет назад

What a blast from the past. I met Steve in June of 1975 at The Sweetheart of Texas Concert Hall and Saloon in downtown Houston... two weeks after I graduated from high school. Hell, he made me part of the show. I had driven from North Carolina to Texas to visit my grandparents. Hearing this brought back a flood of old memories. I still wonder who that girl was that drove my car back to where I was staying. I wasn't aware that he had passed in 2014. RIP Steve...

@johnlane2511 Год назад

Saw him a couple times at the old Austin Opry House (I think) way back in the mid to late 70's.

@mikerokey2491 8 лет назад

I saw Steve Fromholz (Frummox) at the Checkered Flag in Austin in 1969, I still have the vinyl record "From Here to There" i bought from them. Great memory

@SherrieMorgan-ce4rm 3 месяца назад

Saw him at The Texas Opera House in Houston, have his album

@monteheady4679 3 года назад

Much obliged for Steve Fromholz's music.I first heard him in late 60's for the first time.Great Texas songwriter.

@SteveK77536 3 года назад

Lyle Lovett covered this on his "Step Inside this House" album, a tribute to many Texas singer songwriters. Fromholtz' "Bears" is on there too. I saw Steve at Houston's "Anderson Fair" several times, people would request songs by other songwriters and he would say "They *&%*%& don't do my songs". So after the Lovett album, I asked if he would do one of Lyle's songs. "Fair is fair", I said. He just laughed. One great act in that tiny venue.

@brentboggess3906 6 лет назад

Saw Steve 2 times at The Hop in Ft. Worth, great shows and a great place to listen to music. Loved his song about the animal that was a cross between the wolverine and the armadillo. He called them wolvarillos. I think their food was kitchen and/or bathroom sinks. Great entertainer.

@kurtfortmeyer7675 8 лет назад

I'd love to hear "She's Everybody's Baby But Mine".Steve told me that nobody knows where the master of this album is. "It might be under Willie's bed. Nobody knows."

@JohnSmith-dh4gw 8 месяцев назад

Designated The Poet Laureate of the State of Texas by the Texas State Legislature in 2007.

@ronsamples8789 7 лет назад

The best!

@scj1941 3 года назад

Thanks for posting this. I heard it first on KFAT late 70s-ish -- recorded part of it but ran out of tape before it finished. I've been looking for it ever since.

@paulspudis3714 9 лет назад

Many thanks for this. "Jus' Playin' Along" is Fromholz's best album -- sure wish someone would put out a high-quality CD of it.

@mygoddess1 7 лет назад

BEST EVER FROMHOLZ !!!!!! Still have it on cassette lol I was in El Paso in the 70's & forever grateful got to C him in N.M. :)

@susanmask4635 4 года назад

If they did, I'd listen to it for the rest of my life.

@johnnylastovica6511 Год назад

Nothing bets LP vinyl

@dedmanpatenaude 8 лет назад

Fromholz was a great story teller. Anyone who listened to the "Country Wireless" on WUVT out of Blacksburg, VA circa 1979 remembers Cathy B spinning this tune on Friday nights. Too bad there isn't a digitally processed version of this album. I can hear the stylus peeling off the vinyl layer by layer with every rotation.

@moniquevalentinegarofalo8574 8 лет назад

Thank you for posting this. I originally heard the original Texas Trilogy and it floored me. I only learned that he passed a few days ago-- guess the news didnt make it to NYC. Heres to him and hopefully, more material emerging.

@mackduckworth1597 9 лет назад

I first heard this in the fall of 1974 in a department store in Austin TX at the mall. I was buying a sofa for my apt with my brand new wife, who is now deceased. I asked everyone near me in the store if they new who it was. Finally an older lady in a dress and cowboy boots told me who it was and the album name. I went and bought it that day. This is my all time favorite album and unfortunately when cassette tapes came out I sold it. The cassette got fried and I have been looking for this version of the trilogy ever since. Thank you so much for posting it. You cannot imagine what it means to me. God bless you.

@standardranchstash221 8 лет назад

+Mack Duckworth Thank's Mack. Glad to be able to help. I never tire of hearing it. I love the way the momentum in Bosque County Romance leads to the line "Well the years have come to Mary, she's waitin' for them now". Brings a tear to my eye.

@TMats100 9 лет назад

I got a turn table with USB connection for Christmas and have been moving some of my cherished vinyl collection over into my iPhone to play rolling down the road. Texas Trilogy is one of the first I moved over when I started working on the early wave of Texas Music: Fromholz, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jacky Jack, Gary P Nunn, Waylon Jennings... Great stuff. I was sorry to hear he passed too, what, year-and-a-half ago? TM

@standardranchstash221 9 лет назад

Yeah, totally unexpected and very sad circumstances. I prefer this version to the Frummox one but it's a great piece either way.

@reneestandley1853 4 года назад

He passed away on January 19, 2014. I attended his graveside service; he is buried @ Ft. McKavett Cemetery in West Texas near Eldorado.

@tyrannicandqueenmary-oz1lw Год назад

Its been 2 years since i was at kopperl it has gotten bad there

@rwcjr58 9 лет назад

Thanks for posting this version, it's my favorite. I have it on "8-track" but this one's great.

@bobozard1105 4 года назад

GREAT I HAVE NOT HEARD THIS SINCE THE EARLY 80s

@kenhartman8782 6 лет назад

This is the first time hearing the original. While Lyle Lovett's version is good, it's a little too polished. This is raw, and you can feel the emotion.

@BAMBAMMcDaniel 4 года назад

While raw and enjoyable . .this is NOT the 'original' . . . which was with Dan McCrimmon (Frummox) on the 1969 Here to There album. Here, Steven has added some 'extra' lyrics (about the dead and funerals in Kopperl), which is an incite into his slant on life and people. His sense of humor was a little 'slanted' itself. He's also changed the tune, which is enhanced by the extra instruments. I'm sure he was just tired of doing his song over and over and over again, the same old way . . and wanted to 'jazz it up'. If you want jazz . .try listening to his Cow Jazz cd . . it's great. I heard Steven sing this song a number of times (first one was in 1970 in Austin, Tx, with Dan, at the Checkered Flag) . . but the best version of the Texas Trilogy I ever heard him sing . . was in January, 2003, just a few months before his stroke. The occasion was a raft trip down the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend, Texas, where he had been a river guide for years . . . three of my music pals and I, along with 4 other folks, accompanied Steven and the other guides with Far Flung Adventure on a 2 day 'Music Ride'. Listening to "Six o'clock silence of a new day beginning is heard in a small Texas town..." bouncing off the canyon walls of the Rio Grande is RAW. Only saw him one more time after that, at his first performance after recuperating from his stroke . . it was Kerrville Folk Festival a couple of years later . . he managed to push out a few songs (and singing, sounded great), but the stroke had taken a big toll on him.

@lynnwood7331 2 года назад

Saw. Him in CC in late 70’sgreat😸

@leeveinot 4 года назад

Did you ever find "How Long Is The Road To Kentucky"?

@standardranchstash221 4 года назад

Sadly no. Frustrating as I know that it's out there!

@wd4512 4 года назад

@@standardranchstash221 I asked Steve's sister Angela if the family had the master tape(s) and if they had thought about releasing the album as everything I had heard about it was very good. She replied they had the tape(s) and there were no plans to release them.

@standardranchstash221 4 года назад

@@wd4512 Aww, well that's disappointing but thanks for the reply. I would guess that possibly there's been no offers fto do so. Thanks again!

@davidmorris5449 3 года назад

@@standardranchstash221 A couple of years ago a man was auctioning off an acetate of the album "How Long Is The Road To Kentucky". His starting bid was something like $800. A bit steep for me! But it did sell. In his notes he said that he bought it from Fromholz himself. This was after Steve's massive stroke and Steve was trying to sell things to pay the doctor bills. Nesmith gave it to Fromholz, Fromholz sold it. Somebody out there has it! I've been waiting for bootleg CD's to show up but so far it hasn't.

@standardranchstash221 2 года назад

@@davidmorris5449 Yeah, Michael said that he returned the master tapes, as well.

@darrylbaird8877 5 месяцев назад

Not a great recording of Fromholz. His voice wasn't this dry and coarse, it was far more melodic and resonant. He was a real good old boy songwriter. We saw him at the Rubyiat in Dallas. Great show.