The virtues of this 66-track, three-CD compilation might not be immediately evident to all listeners, since none of the Texas-based acts included here ever came close to charting a single anywhere outside of their home communities (and barely then) -- and it does look like Collectables Records threw in everything but the kitchen sink. But between the Beefeaters (from Dallas), the Livin' End, the Chevelle V, the Exotics, the Headstones, Sounds Unlimited, the Outcasts (the San Antonio-based quintet), the Sights and Sounds, the Cavaliers, the Playboys of Edinburg, the Centurys, the Stumbling Blox et al., we're hearing many of the better unknown recording acts of their time, sort of the "Best of the Rest" of Texas once one got past the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, the Moving Sidewalks, Mouse & the Traps et al. The mix of sounds and influences is bracing, including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Leaves, and the Zombies (who would have been thrilled and amazed to know how many of these Lone Star State acts were using their harmonies and instrumental style as a jumping-off point). Any of these three discs would have made one hell of a party record on almost anyone's turntable in 1966-1967, and they're still good listening and lots of fun, the sheer variety and enthusiasm overcoming any lack of invention. Disc one is the strongest of the three, with music that's bracing and interesting from beginning to end, where disc two is laden down just a tiny bit, with one loser track, the Outcasts' earnest rendition of "What Price Victory," a pro-war song about a son joining the Green Berets, and two groups, the Love Flowers and the Penthouse 5, who could be a little too self-consciously heavy -- but even they have their good moments (the Penthouse 5 lots of them). Disc three is built principally around the sounds of the Exotics, whose range encompassed proto-heavy, metal-fuzz-laden guitars and folk-rock-type harmonies, as well as pop-psychedelia -- they sound absolutely elegant on the spaced-out, vaguely folkish "Morning Sun" and turn right around with a virtuoso electric guitar workout on the trippy, psychedelic lament "Hymn to Her." It's all fun and most interesting, although the annotation could use some work, being a bit sketchy even by 1993 standards.