What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1462578
"We were in Pennsylvania, in the epicenter of the infection, when we heard about covid," Grimwood remembers. "We had a packed house at the show…" "And we thought, 'Well, we won't shake hands or hug anybody,' but we couldn't say no," Idlet picks up the story. "Then we drove home, and that was the end of the tour for the rest of the year," Grimwood continues. "And I immediately got sick, but I couldn't get tested. So we went into serious lockdown mode." "For one month, we didn't even see each other," Idlet goes on. "That was the longest separation in 40-plus years." "It wasn't like a divorce, it was worse," says Grimwood. "It was deeper than just the two of us; it was life itself, the essence of being. It was … jarring." It didn't take long — 37 days, to be exact — before the two families — Grimwood and wife Beth, Idlet and wife Karen and their wrangler and "Girl Friday," Susan Billimek — decided they'd be a pandemic "pod" so they could play music together. "At the end of one month, we decided we could not live without being together, honestly," says Grimwood. But the road had fallen out from under them for the first time in their lives. "I got to watch the trees change, listen to birds, watch spring happen and fade and watch summer and fall and winter," Grimwood says. "Do you know how many oil changes we get on our van every year? I got one oil change in 2020! The world just stopped turning. "Ezra and I had a chance to sit down, breathe and take a break from this whirlwind, madcap career," he goes on. "And we asked ourselves, 'Well, what do you want to do?' We decided to write songs and play music. What do you write about? What you know! So the subject matter changed. We had a chance to dig really deep." "There was a lot of digging," Idlet agrees. "Not only writing from our experiences and finding songs, but also digging into our instruments and learning more deeply the things that we play. On the album, we're playing styles we grew up with but have not necessarily played all the time. Keith was playing fiddle. I was working on guitar and banjo. And as we worked on our instruments, songs came out, inevitably." Then came the question of how to share those songs. The answer came in livestreams — which they both agree are far scarier than playing to a live audience — and a series of "Tackle Boxes" — three songs and a little video released to buyers online. They bought a camera and turned one room of Idlet's recording studio into a television set, and "it kept us in touch with the people who wanted to stay in touch with us," says Grimwood. They also played virtual shows at some of their regular venues and some new ones — and they wrote music. Lots of music. "The model we've existed with www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com 4 WHAT'S UP! MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2022 FYI COVER STORY Trout Continued From Page 3 FYI 'Safe House' Lyrics This is a safe house if the walls don't fall The roof won't leak 'cause it never rains at all The ceiling's high but the rooms are small It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright Yeah, the ceiling's high but the rooms are small This is a safe house if the walls don't fall I'm disappointed but I'm not surprised You make the rules to take the prize It's just so hard to keep it all inside It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright Yeah, the ceiling's high but the rooms are small This is a safe house if the walls don't fall It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright It'll be alright. When it stops hurting, it'll be alright Yeah, the ceiling's high but the rooms are small This is a safe house if the walls don't fall This is a safe house if the walls don't fall — Trout Fishing in America 'Safe House' Preorder Trout Fish- ing in America's new album, "Safe House," for $15 at troutmusic. com. CDs will ship April 22. Can You Reel In A Win? Take the Trout Fishing in America quiz at nwaonline. com/327trout/ and win a copy of their new CD, "Safe House." forever and ever was make an album, tour, write songs, make an album, tour," says Idlet. "There are way more songs we've recorded that didn't make this album. But this was a complete thing, so we're releasing it." There will be some touring following the album release April 22 — stops in Baton Rouge, Monroe, Austin and Houston, then back home for an outdoor show May 4 at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. They've got some old familiar gigs like the Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival scheduled and some new ones like the Moccasin Creek Festival in Effingham, Ill. But they also know some of the things changed by the pandemic won't change back. That's why "Safe House" is also a music video, which they're sending out via YouTube to "see where it goes." If you haven't been a fan for decades, what you'll see in the video seems like a well-crafted home movie with music — images of Beth and Keith reading to their grandchildren; Ezra singing to Bertie Sue, the daughter of his musician daughter Dana and her musician husband; scenes from rural Arkansas — they all live out toward West Fork; and two old friends beaming at each other in the studio. If you have been a fan — and raised your children and maybe your grandchildren to Trout's music — you can read between the lines of the love story and know it's not over yet.