Bears

Lyle Lovett and about half of his Large Band

One evening in 1994, having given no previous hint of my intention, I told my wife that we were going to attend a concert by Lyle Lovett that was happening in the forthcoming week. Having no previous familiarity with Lovett's music, or knowing much about him besides his brief marriage to actress Julia Roberts, which for quite a while was all that most folks knew him for, she cautiously said OK, knowing that if nothing else, it would entail a nice evening out at the theater. I was fairly new to his work as well, and liked what I'd heard, but truly, neither of us knew what was coming.

And so, the day arrived and we got to the theater and found our seats. The lights went down and the band made their way onstage. After a brief acoustic intro, Lyle began his set with a dark, quiet song called "She's Already Made Up Her Mind". We were both hooked instantly. There are few better musical experiences one can enjoy than having good seats at an old theater that was built to have good sound, with an engaging performer fronting a highly skilled band whose music encourages active listening. My wife and I have attended 2 more Lyle shows since, and last year, got to meet with him and several of his band members following the show, which made for a very memorable evening.

Lyle Lovett. A man and his Collings guitar.

Know this about Lyle Lovett and his music. If you attend one of his concerts, you will experience the following. 1: A group of top flight, tightly rehearsed, world class musicians, including the likes of Viktor Krauss, Russ Kunkel and cellist John Hagen. Lyle always brings the best. 2: A higher standard of excellence in quality concert audio. Lyle obviously employs sound technicians who enjoy their work and aren't happy until things sound, as Bob Weir put it, "just exactly right". And 3: a collection of songs that can be lyrically quirky, but are often musically gorgeous at the same time. As a songwriter, Lovett has a strong gift for populating his songs with characters that have an engaging tale to tell. Now more than a quarter century into his recording career, it’s difficult to remember that he was once considered just another 'Country' artist. Sure, there’s an element of Country music in nearly everything he plays, but Blues and Jazz are also prominent, and ample doses of Folk, Gospel, and even Swing are very much in evidence as well. So don't get hung up on genre. Whether he’s playing with his Acoustic Group or his Large Band, just consider Lyle Lovett to be a musical category all to himself. And, to top it all off, he's a gentleman and a class act.

As consistently great as Lovett's original material is, his 1998 double album, "Step Inside This House", is all covers. The album is an homage to his favorite Texas songwriters. You may recognize such names as Michael Murphey, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Walter Hyatt, Willis Alan Ramsey, Robert Earl Keen, Eric Taylor, and Steven Fromholz, who has no fewer than 4 of his songs featured on the album.

Here is Lyle Lovett's recording of the Steven Fromholz tune "Bears", which kicks off "Step Inside This House". While Lovett is well capable of having written many of these songs, I feel that "Bears" is one that hits closest to some of Lovett's own material. It's a great fit of song to artist, and that just makes me smile. Listen well to the sweet riffage played in the instrumental break!

Steven Fromholz

If the city of Austin, Texas is revered for helping birth the Country outlaw movement, it remains equally responsible for an attendant generation of raconteurs like Steven Fromholz, whose craft and catalog might not arrive as celebrated as those of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guy Clark or Townes Van Zandt, but which carved out the songwriting mythology of Texas just as much as the likes of Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver.

Another marker of success that not many musicians can claim is a legacy. Fromholz spent decades toiling away in Texas cafes and bars, and in his songwriting notebooks, and his work made an impression on a younger generation of songwriters. Between albums that didn't get released, albums that did get released but didn't go anywhere, and a tour with Stephen Stills that soured him, Fromholz nonetheless managed to write a classic or three. At least one of them has been widely heard by the public. Willie Nelson took "I'd Have To Be Crazy" to #2 on the Country charts in 1976 and kept it there for several weeks. The others are classics to students of Texas songwriting, hungrily absorbed by a young Lyle Lovett, among others.

Fromholz and Lovett in 1998

Fromholz discussed those times in a 1998 interview related to "Step Inside This House". "While we were banging and booming in the mid-'70's; when we were all on the road all the time, and everybody was making lots of money and doing crazy things, Lyle and Robert Earl Keen and that age group of people were listening to what we were doing and paying attention and learning their craft and their trade as songwriters and entertainers, just as I learned mine from watching Tom Paxton and The Kingston Trio and all that stuff when I was a kid. Those were the songs I learned."

"The songs Robert Earl and Lyle learned were my songs, and Guy Clark songs and Townes Van Zandt songs and Michael Murphey songs; the songs that Lyle has now recorded. It's a very logical progression for singer-songwriters of our ilk, and I think they learned a lot from us, as we learned from the guys who preceded us."

"Lyle told me when he came to town in May to have our picture taken for the album's artwork, he says, 'Steven, I didn't have to learn any of these songs for this album. I've been doing them since I began to learn to play.' I knew he was doing 'Bears' on the road in his show some time ago. Then I started hearing rumors that Lyle had also cut 'Texas Trilogy.'" Indeed, Lovett had recorded Steven's locally legendary 10 minute suite for "Step Inside This House", along with "Bears", as a tribute to the songwriting treasures he felt that Fromholz had bestowed upon Texas, and its musical legacy.

From the 1976 Capitol album, "A Rumor In My Own Time", here's the original version of "Bears".

Happy Trails, Cowboy!

In addition to singing and songwriting, Steven Fromholz dabbled in acting, playwriting, poetry, record producing, narrating, jingle writing, and whitewater river guiding. Fromholz suffered a stroke in 2003, but had largely recovered by 2007, when he was named Poet Laureate of the State of Texas by the Texas State Legislature.

On January 19, 2014, Steven Fromholz died from an accident with an unsecured firearm. A brief statement from his family said: "The accident involved the unexpected discharge of his shotgun when it fell from its case and struck the ground as he prepared for an afternoon hunt to address a feral hog infestation that had been menacing the goat population in Schleicher County. Steven died being a rancher, an avocation he heartily embraced." Steven Fromholz was 68.

As is often true when it comes to Americana and Roots music, it's difficult to find releases of any quality stateside, if at all, but the import labels are all over it. For about $25, you can get this fine Australian anthology of the music of Steven Fromholz, on the Raven label. Most, if not all of Fromholz' recordings are long out of print. I would advise trying to find them outside the state of Texas, unless you want ready availability and aren't concerned with price.

All of the fine recordings made by Lyle Lovett are available online, or at an emporium of musical entertainment near you. I would recommend any of them to anyone, including his 1986 debut album which, despite being the victim of dated production, has some fabulous songs on it. It's clear they had no idea of what to do with him yet. As of this writing, today's featured album, "Step Inside This House" may well be going out of print, as online pricing for a new copy seems high, but it is available used for a much more reasonable fee. Oddly, there is a near-total absence of Lyle's music on vinyl, with the exception of his most recent album, "Release Me". Mobile Fidelity, are you listening?

Most any of Lyle's recordings are of a level of quality that make them very suitable to bring along with you, should you find yourself in the market for high-end stereo equipment, like speakers. Yes, they're that good. And again, should you find that he is playing a concert in your town, then by all means, attend, and prepare to be mesmerized.