UPDATED – Texas Country Legend Steve Fromholz Passes Away
Singer, songwriter, Poet Laureate, and the author of the Texas Trilogy, Steven Fromholz passed away Sunday afternoon (1-19) according to the Texas Music Chart. He was 68.
Fromholz was killed at the Flying B Ranch near Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo while preparing to go on a wild hog hunt. While moving a gun from one vehicle to another, the firearm fell to the ground because the lower portion of its case was unzipped, and the gun discharged, injuring Fromholz who later died at an Eldorado hospital.
Born in Temple, Texas on June 8, 1945, Fromholz rose to become a towering figure of words and music in his home state of Texas, and amongst his famous music friends. He wrote the song “I’d Have To Be Crazy” made popular by Willie Nelson, and also had songs recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, and John Denver amongst others.
Fromholz was also an actor, a playwright, a producer, and a poet; most notably being named the Poet Laureate of the State of Texas in 2007 by the Texas State Legislature. He was the author of several books, and a respected man of letters, leaving behind an indelible legacy of both chronicling and canonizing the unique experience of being a Texan.
Steve Fromholz started out in music after serving in the Navy in the 1960’s. His first band was called Frummox with Dan McCrimmon, and Fromholz also played with Stephen Stills and Rick Roberts before pursuing a solo career. He once worked with Mike Nesmith of the Monkees and his label Countryside Records.
Fromholz was one of the members of The Folk Music Club—an organization founded on the campus of the University of North Texas in Denton, and included other notable members Ray Wylie Hubbard, Michael Martin Murphy, and co-founder of the Armadillo World Headquarters, Eddie Wilson. Fromholz once served as President of the distinguished club that is given credit for inspiring such Texas music institutions as Austin City Limits and South by Southwest.
His hard-to-find, definitive album Here to There is considered a classic of Texas country music, despite it’s out-of-print status. It includes his signature work called “The Texas Trilogy”—a three song opus that went on to define his career. It inspired a book by Craig D. Hillis and Bruce Jordan, and Fromholz penned his own Texas Trilogy book later as well.
Fromholz was heavily featured in Jan Reed’s book on the formation of the Texas music scene, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock. He had the best stories, and was blessed with a knack knack for telling them like nobody else.
Steve Fromholz was an entertainer, a historian, a brilliant orator, and most importantly, a proud and noble Texan.
January 19, 2014 @ 10:28 pm
Lyle Lovett covered Fromholz’s “Texas Trilogy” on his “Step Inside This House” c.d. He also covered “Bears” on the same recording….
January 19, 2014 @ 10:50 pm
Steve Fromholz was a seminal part in the early Poor David’s Pub.
He was the first of many Austin musicians to prove to me that music lovers would pay a fair cover charge for quality live music.
In Feburuary of 1979 he filled the house on a three-day run, the last on saturday
where 175 fans crammed into a 100 seat venue, paying 5$ cover at the original Poor David’s Pub location at 2900 McKinney ave. in Dallas. They sat on the floor and sat on the bar, forming 6 levels of observation so they could be thoroughly entertained by his wit, charm and folky wisdom. He was a master at the ad lib.
He is irreplaceable and his pictures will hang in honor in PDP for as long as it exists.
January 20, 2014 @ 3:47 pm
Thank you, David for posting. Thank you Steve for all you have given to me and others through your artistry.
January 19, 2014 @ 11:10 pm
Lyle Lovett introduced me to “Bears” on Step Into This House, but it is still one of my top ten songs of all time, because Lyle explained that Steve wrote to show how you can write a song about not much and still make a great song. RIP SF and peace be with your family.
January 20, 2014 @ 12:07 am
“Step Inside This House” was written by Guy Clark.
I am heartbroken over Steve’s passing.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:27 am
Step Inside This House is the name of the Lyle Lovett double album on which he covers his favorite Texas songwriters. His versions of Bears and The Texas Trilogy appear on this album.
January 19, 2014 @ 11:22 pm
He also appeared at The Rubaiyat on McKinney Avenue in Dallas during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Truly one of the greatest Texas songwriters. I miss him already…
January 20, 2014 @ 12:47 am
I served on the Board of the Texas Music Association with Steve in the early 1980s. I’ll never forget the meetings after the meetings. Good times. RIP, old friend.
January 20, 2014 @ 1:33 am
Very sad to hear this news. Steve was a fixture at the Hop in Ft Worth in the 70’s and I came to know his music very well as I was managing and booking the Hop around that time. He was a great songwriter and story teller and he could work a live audience nicely with his charm and wit. He was a pleasure to work with from a professional standpoint and just a really nice guy. He will be missed, but his music lives on. I vaguely remember sharing too much of a bottle of Tequila at my house with Steve after one of his shows around 36 years ago. Condolences to his daughter Darcy and the rest of his family and friends. RIP
January 20, 2014 @ 3:31 am
I always referred to the genre as “Cosmic Country”- has this term been deprecated?
It was a glorious scene in Austin those days, and also in Houston, for any who remember Anderson Fair.
January 20, 2014 @ 9:38 am
Don’t forget Liberty Hall or Sweetheart of the Rodeo… The best of times.
January 20, 2014 @ 2:56 pm
Anderson Fair…where I first saw Steve Fromholz and heard Bears. Loved him ever since. My condolences to his family and friends.
January 20, 2014 @ 6:52 am
I met Steve In New York, where I produced the Frummox album. It was one of the most wonderful weeks I have ever spent in a lifetime of recording studio voyages.
I particularly remember us setting up a barroom scene in a New York studio as a backdrop to his great song, The Man With Big Hat.
Steve was a wonderful songwriter, and a colorful personality. Tose of us who knew him will miss him.
Dick Weissman
February 20, 2014 @ 7:47 pm
Dick — Apparently those were good times as Steven would occasionally share old memories with me of those recording sessions — thank you for your comments as Steven definitely recalled those good times too! Angela “Sis” Blair (Steven’s old sister)
January 20, 2014 @ 6:54 am
The late Pat McGuinn introduced me to Fromholtz’s music, and I learned his ‘Song for Steven Stills’ from Pat. Did it for years. Deep but eminently singable, I still do it when the occasion seems right. Rest in peace, Mr. Fromholtz. It hardly seems like forty five years since I learned the song, but it is.
January 20, 2014 @ 7:31 am
RIP Steve,
The legends of Progressive Country are being erased from this world. We’ve lost another one of Texas’s great singer, songwriter, and storyteller. He will be missed.
January 20, 2014 @ 7:37 am
This is just so damn sad. What an amazing writer, storyteller and entertainer. Very few could hold a crowd in the palm of his hand like Steven. He could make you laugh and then play a song that could make you cry. Steve and Rusty are having one hckuva song swap up in heaven. RIP.
January 20, 2014 @ 7:57 am
Trig,
A little off-topic, but T.R. Fehrenbach, the foremost authority on the history of Texas, passed away last month. His book “Lonestar: A History of Texas and Texans” is the authoritative work on Texas. I once heard him give a speech on The Cattle Kings of Texas. It was wonderful.
January 20, 2014 @ 4:03 pm
Thanks MD, I’ll have to check it out.
January 20, 2014 @ 8:31 am
I frankly admit I didn’t knew him. This ‘Texas Trilogy’ is fantastic! Great music and brilliant lyrics. Another example proving that the Lone Star State gave birth to lots of remarkable children… R.I.P. Much respect…
January 20, 2014 @ 8:35 am
If you pass this way you may possibly find me here, staring at God from the top of a hill.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:24 am
I loved Steve and his music. He was a big inspiration for me. I used to buy tickets for his shows for the front table at The Hop on Berry Street on the day that they went on sale when I was a student at TCU. I still have a yellow bandana he gave me at one of those shows. He was the gem of the “Great Progressive Country Scare” of the ’70’s.
He was the quintessential Texas storyteller.
It”™s been years since we spoke, but I”™m glad I got to tell him that he”™s a big reason that I do what I do for a living. Damn. I hate that he”™s gone.
Six o”™clock silence of a new day beginning”¦
God bless, Fromholz.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:30 am
RIP Steve. 🙁
January 20, 2014 @ 10:49 am
Back in the 90’s, we would run into Steve down in Veracruz, Mexico over the Holidays. Spent several New Years Eve sitting around a campfire on the Rio Antigua listening to Steve picking & grinning. He loved river running almost as much as playing music. He was the perfect River Guide, hey it is all about entertaining the clients.. Butch Hancock followed the same path.
January 20, 2014 @ 2:26 pm
On Thursday 27 August 2013, I was humbled and honored that Steven Fromholz took the time to submit a ‘Peer’s Quote’ about fellow Texan Gene Watson, which I included on Gene’s Ireland-based Fan Site.
I would like to offer my sincere condolences to Mr. Fromholz’ family at this sad time.
January 20, 2014 @ 2:28 pm
I forgot to add a direct web link to Steven Fromholz’ ‘Peer’s Quote’ about Gene Watson:
http://www.gene-watson.com/index.php/steven-fromholz.html
January 20, 2014 @ 4:08 pm
I met Steve Fromholz very briefly at South By Southwest a few years ago. It was at the premier of a documentary on Anderson Fair, “For The Sake of the Song”. I would suggest everyone watch it. Though Fromholz’s parts in it are brief, it really captures the essence of what made him a great entertainer and man.
January 20, 2014 @ 7:35 pm
I’m just a fan – I did not know Steve personally but I followed his music during the “outlaw country” or “progressive country” era in the late 70s. I was privileged to hear one of his solo gigs at Anderson Fair. What a fantastic storyteller and entertainer! His influence on the Texas music scene was remarkable and his “Texas Trilogy” is a masterpiece of the genre.
January 21, 2014 @ 7:18 am
A line from a Alan Damron song comes to mind,”Did’nt we have us a ball,? we can now say that we’ve done it all, just came for first set, always stayed till last call,did’nt we have us a ball!” I had the pleasure of working the bar at Poor David’s Pub many times while Fromholz played,always big fun! RIP Steven, miss you.
January 21, 2014 @ 10:39 pm
“and the man with the big hat is buying”
March 4, 2014 @ 9:05 pm
How did I miss this?! My name is BEAR and I LOVE his song BEARS! I heard Lyle’s version first but Steve was just a class act. I am sooo sad I will never get to see him live. I am going to blast that song right now! Thanks Triggerman for respecting all the acts music rowe forgets to commemorate properly.
January 24, 2015 @ 11:54 am
Great piece!
A couple of corrections about Nesmith/The Monkees:
1) They indeed weren’t allowed to play their instruments on their first two albums UNTIL Nesmith punched a hole in the wall at a meeting and told Don Kirshner, “That could have been your face!”. Their next album has all 4 playing everything (Headquarters).
2) Neil Diamond only wrote a couple of their songs. Goffin and King, Harry Nilsson, Boyce and Hart and Nesmith himself wrote them as well.
3) Before they were allowed to play on their records, Nesmith insisted on producing the sessions for his own songs and enlisted folks like James Burton to play on tunes that have been acknowledged as some of the first country rock fusions (Papa Gene’s Blues and Sweet Young Thing from the first Monkees album, 1966).
4) Nesmith recorded an album’s worth of material in Nashville in 1968, while the Monkees were still happening, but only a couple of those songs saw the light of day, until Rhino reissues in the ’90’s-00’s.
5) Here’s a link to a piece I wrote about those sessions and about Nesmith’s brief tenure in The Byrds….http://wheresthatsoundcomingfrom.blogspot.com/2011/05/nez-in-nashville-nez-in-byrdland.html
April 10, 2016 @ 2:06 pm
Indulge me for a little story:
Back in the mid 90’s, I saw Steven play in a book store in Austin. I told him I wished he would play more in Fort Worth (where I live), so I could go see him. He said he just doesn’t get there much, and then out of the blue, he said he could play in my living room for me and my friends. I had never heard of this kind of thing before.
A few days later, I called my friend, who not only is a Fromholz fan, is a very good cook. I told him Steven would play for us in my living room. In disbelief, he said if I got him to play for our small group in my living room, he would cook for everyone.
I called Steven and he asked how many folks I thought I could get into our living room, and how much I thought I should charge, he said he”™d do it for that, and asked what evening I wanted. The whole conversation took less than a minute. Done.
After that show, my wife and I were cleaning up, and decided we could get a few more in the living room, if we moved some furniture. And that, my friends was the first of 25 house concerts we had over the next 12 1/2 years, all thanks to Steven. All I can say is thanks my Fromholz. You will be missed.
Steve