What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1462578
MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 3 Trout Fishing in America builds a 'Safe House' BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette S afe House" — the song, the CD, the concept — is a love story. It involves two musicians, two intertwined families that have expanded over the decades to include three grandchildren, 45 years of collaboration, thousands of fans — and a forced separation that proved that Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet are nowhere near the end of the road. "We have not arrived," Grimwood paraphrases, referring to another song on the 13-track CD being released April 22. It's the 25th album for the Trout Fishing in America duo, but it's the first they have released since the pandemic changed not only their lives but the way music is made and delivered. They freely admit they have no idea what they're doing, but they know "what it's like to ache to make music." They know what it's like to focus on their craft without the rigors of the road. And they know that playing for a "cold camera lens" doesn't fill their hearts like eye contact and hugs and fan photos and everything else that makes a Trout show a family experience. Grimwood, a classically trained bass player, and Idlet, a basketball player who left college with little but a guitar to pursue his true passion, met in Houston in 1976. Idlet played in a band called St. Elmo's Fire; Grimwood was a fan. Then a symphony union lockout left Grimwood in need of a job, he joined the band, and the rest is oft-reported history. When St. Elmo's Fire dissolved in 1979, the two founded Trout Fishing in America, playing everywhere from music festivals to street corners. Since the beginning, Idlet and Grimwood have written songs about "what we know." When they were each newly married and raising babies, lyrics were about dinosaurs and daycare blues, lullabies and car keys lost in a toddler's diaper. Four decades later, they had morphed into the middle-aged challenges of Sudoku, silliness in the grocery store, smiles across a dance floor and car keys lost because they're in the ignition of the car. Their work has earned them four Grammy nominations; they've played in all 50 states, for crowds as big as 44,000; and they've put half-a-million miles on at least two vehicles. And then, in March 2020, the music stopped — literally. On stage, Keith Grimwood plays upright bass, electric bass and fiddle (on occasion) and Ezra Idlet plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, electric banjo and electric bouzouki. Off stage, Grimwood plays piano and some guitar, and Idlet plays a variety of percussion instruments, some of which are featured on Trout Fishing in American's new album, "Safe House." (Courtesy Photo) COVER STORY See Trout Page 4 Back In The Swim