Texas Trilogy: Life In A Small Texas Town Review

Writer Craig Hillis, along with photographer Bruce Jordan, create a nicely done, nostalgic look at life in a small Texas town. The tale is told of the small town of Kopperl, Texas, which is just a minor town in the minor county of Bosque County. (pronounced BOS-key) - about 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

The book is inspired by the classic folk music by Stephen Fromholtz, and a series of songs he recorded in 1969. Like the music, the book captures the bittersweet passage of time as the forces of change pass by quiet backwaters.

It is a history, a narrative, and a portrait of a place and another time. Hillis and Jordan offer their own take on Fromholtz's Texas Trilogy. The book contains over 140 photographs of Bosque County, Texas, which captures the mood and spirit of the places described in the songs.

Fromholtz's famous songs in his Texas Trilogy are Daybreak, Trainride, and Bosque County Romance, which were recorded on the 1969 album From Here To There. [Amazon offers a Fromholz collection CD, Come on Down to Texas for a While: The Anthology 1969-1991]

Lyle Lovett recently recorded the songs on his 1998 album Step Inside This House.

The book includes comments from many local residents, who all speak of life in the small Texas town of Kopperl. Fromholtz and Hillis have been friends since they met in 1969. Hillis, a guitarist, has played the Trilogy with Fromholtz on stage "a million times." Hillis has always seen a lot in Fromholtz's work, and it shows throughout the book. Both enjoy the legend of the Texas cowboy, and nostalgic old stores.

One of the interesting events covered in the book is the "Big Heat", a bizarre heat storm in 1960 that lasted five full hours in a small area of the county. The storm contained strong winds and temperatures of over 140 degrees. The event burned crops and property. The event is still unexplained to this day. Some speculate UFOs or military testing.

Hillis discusses the town's history during the Depression and the impact of FDR's New Deal programs. When the government built Lake Whitney in the 1950's, many residents opposed the project because they lost their land. Hillis presents the stories with archive photographs and personal quotes. Texas Trilogy holds much attention to detail in writing, uses a large number of nice photographs, and is nicely bound in hardcover in an over-sized, rectangular shape. It also contains a digitally remastered CD of the original Texas Trilogy recordings by Steven Fromholtz.

Sit down with this book, and enjoy an interesting trip through one small Texas town.