Texan style, workin’ cowboys, melodic and decisive voice, honky tonk and great desire to sing and play his own music. These are the ingredients of an album that is pleasantly surprising because, despite having all the excitement and the ruthlessness of a debut album (even though Todd, despite his young age, has already released a few EP’s), he shows a remarkable artistic maturity. There are 12 tracks,and in some way they affect a great part of the history of great country music. It starts with a remake of one of Eddie Raven’s songs, (I Got Mexico) and then gradually veers between original songs and tributes to Bob Wills (Bob Wills Song) and Chris LeDoux (Cowboy Legacy). The songs written by the pair Fritsch-Deforest, among which stands out the single “Small Town Radio”, along with the covers are pure new-traditionalist style, where the voice matters greatly, as well as the shuffle and where steel and fiddle (played respectively by Robby Springfield and Tim Crouch) bind the melody. Todd sings well and this helps a lot, but also songs have the right pace (neither too Austin nor too Nashville) and the chorus has that singalong effect to it that makes it difficult to forget. Produced by two of our old friends like Doug Deforest and Joe Branhill, “Todd Fritsch” is a CD not to be missed, especially if you love the fresh sound and at the same time the classic one of the likes of Ricky Calmbach or Aaron Watson. Real country singer and real country music.
