[.ca] Come on Down to Texas for Awhile: The Anthology 1969-1991

Worth the $ just for Texas Trilogy:
As a Texan in self-imposed exile, I missed the music of my youth (Willis Alan Ramsey, Michael Murphey, Steven Fromholz, B.W. Stevenson) and all the "progressive country" that was around in the early '70s. I've found Ramsey's sole CD, got a great Australian import with a lot of early Murphey, and Collectables has done a decent "best of" on B.W., but I always yearned for some good ol' Fromholz. This collection meets that desire -- and then some. The CD opens with the Frummox classic, "Texas Trilogy," and just flows as gentle as the Rio Grande from there. I would recommend this CD solely for "Trilogy," one of THE great songs (along with Murphey's "Alleys of Austin") to come out of the progressive country movement. A lot of the later tunes on the CD were new to me, but they were uniformly excellent. The audio quality of this CD is top-notch. It's just a great CD from beginning to end. HIGHLY recommended!

Long Overdue:
This album contains the best of Steve's work from the first album until today. It includes rare cuts like 'Texas Trilogy' from the Frummox album. For those of us who grew up on Steve's albums, this is a homecoming. For those that missed the Texas music scene in the 70's, this will be a treat. The only thing that's missing is 'Dear Darcy', written for his daughter.

If Your Main Interest is Texas Trilogy...:
This is a nice collection of Fromholz's work, but the sound quality is barely ok. If you are primarily interested in "Texas Trilogy," which has become something of a legend, I would recommend going for the book "Texas Trilogy : Life in a Small Texas Town" by Craig Hillis and photographer Bruce Jordan, which is a fine book in its own right and includes a CD of the song digitally re-mastered from the original tapes. And yup, I own both, and the version that comes with the book sounds much better.

Disappointment:
I don't know enough about this album's genre to be as insightful as some of the other reviews, so I will just lay it on the line: I was really disappointed by these songs. I thought they sounded quite dated, almost cheesey and kitschy. I bought the album because it was compared to that of Willis Alan Ramsey whose cd I have darn near worn out from overplay. It was also compared to Guy Clark who I really enjoy. But I find their songs' lyrics have made the journey over the past 30 years intact. Fromholz's by comparison seem gimmicky. Songs such as "Everybody's Goin' on the Road" and "Sweet Janey" are more silly than insightful. One positive thing I can say about the album is that you get to trace some of the influences of modern acts such as Lyle Lovett through the song "Bears."

A Damn Shame...:
...that I had to order a CD all the way from Australia in order to get a great collection of Steve Fromholz music. The man was born and raised not 20 minutes from the house I grew up in and now I live in Austin TX. There are CDs available a little closer to home, but this is a great collection of one of the best singer/songwriters ever to come from TX, and definitely the best to ever reside in Bosque County. Texas Trilogy is the best song ever written about TX.

• Texas Trilogy: Daybreak
• Texas Trilogy: Trainride
• Texas Trilogy: Bosque Country Romance
• Man With the Big Hat
• Song for Stephen Stills (High Country Caravan)
• Ain't It Nice to Be Alone
• Blue Lines on White Linen
• Bears
• Everybody's Goin' on the Road
• Little More Holy
• Hawkeye
• Sweet Janey
• Where Are They All Now?
• Everybody's Baby But Mine
• Yellow Cat
• Fools Gold
• Late Nite Neon Shadows
• Angel
• Porter Makes the Train
• Last Livin' Outlaw
• Come on Down to Texas
• I'd Have to Be Crazy \o*\c