Written by James Killen

Ezra Idlet and Keith Grimwood have been Trout Fishing in America for decades. They met when Keith joined Ezra, Connie Mims and Craig Calvert in the 1970’s folk rock band Wheatfield (later St. Elmo’s Fire). When chronic adulthood set in for the band members, Keith and Ezra continued their music career as Trout Fishing in America, playing folk rock and entertaining children by playing fun tunes written with youngsters in mind. Four of their family music discs have been nominated for Grammys over the years in the children’s music category. At least once a year the duo stops by The Duck for a set of shows, one directed at adults and one with youngsters in mind.

On this Saturday afternoon, the guys opened up their show with “When I Was a Dinosaur” making sound effects with their microphones of roaring, stomping dinosaurs. They followed that up with “The Window”, a song utilizing parts of nursery rhymes and getting all of the audience to participate in a fun and silly refrain. They also performed the ever popular ode to bed head, “My Hair Had a Party Last Night”, followed by a song about Mexican condiments called “Pico De Gallo” (Don’t get it in your eye-o, it’ll make you want to cry-o).

The band played a rousing version of their counting song, “18 Wheels on a Big Rig” (try counting to 18 in Roman Numerals), offered a modern version of the vintage 1907 tune, “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”, followed by “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” performed on an electric banjo. Trout played “Creepy Dead Bug” from their latest family disc, “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers”, which they followed with the tongue twisting “What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee”. Not to ignore the Christmas season, the guys played “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” only to the tune of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”.

Keith and Ezra began to slow the show down, playing the gentle “Lullaby” before launching into the encore of New Orleans favorite “Iko, Iko”, to which the children were encouraged to get up and dance.

The show was pure “un-adult-erated” fun for children of all ages. The humor, while certainly age appropriate for youngsters from two to fourteen, is witty enough to be entertaining for parents (or in my case, grandparents). Ezra and Keith are serious musicians and produce a professional show and the years of experience and development of their talent are apparent. I highly recommend getting the youngsters in your life exposed to Trout Fishing in America early. Their work is a great introduction for children to music.