The Kaleidoscope Family Series continues in March when Rockefeller Arts Center presents a musical performance by Grammy-nominated duo, Trout Fishing in America.
The performance takes place on Friday, March 11 at 7 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall. The event is being held in this special location due to the ongoing renovation of Rockefeller Arts Center.
Trout Fishing in America is an eclectic folk/rock band best known for family music and kids’ songs.
Songs like “My Hair Had a Party Last Night,” “18 Wheels on a Big Rig,” and “When I Was a Dinosaur” have earned them a place in the hearts of kids and parents everywhere. Their music has won multiple Parents’ Choice and Indie awards and earned four Grammy nominations.
Bass player Keith Grimwood and guitarist Ezra Idlet, together, are Trout Fishing in America. They met in Houston more than three decades ago and have been playing together ever since. Their songwriting workshops have been described as “life changing.”
As individuals, they are about as different as one can imagine. Together, they blend seamlessly in a way that has captured the imagination (and hearts) of audiences of all ages for more than three decades. Idlet, on guitar and banjo, stands 6 feet 8 inches tall while bass player Grimwood “stretches to 5 feet 5 and one-half inches on a humid day.” Idlet is more playful and extroverted while Grimwood is more serious and reserved.
The duo recently released “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.” The CD features tongue twisters, mind-benders, spooky situations and instantly identifiable slices of a kid’s life. Also included in their catalog is a children’s book/CD “Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important” published through Secret Mountain.
The spoken-word tale is followed by 11 original songs relating to the story. Real people and animals in the duo’s lives inspired the characters in the songs.
In 1976, Idlet and Grimwood met as members of the Houston based eclectic folk/rock band St. Elmo’s Fire. They became the best of friends and musical partners. When St. Elmo’s dissolved in 1979, Trout Fishing in America – named for Grimwood’s love of Richard Brautigan’s writing and Idlet’s love of fishing – was officially born.
Trout Fishing in America was in the first wave of artist owned labels (Trout Records) to successfully record and market their own music. In 2008, Performing Songwriter Magazine chose Trout as one of the top 100 most influential independent artists in the past 15 years.
Their infectious mix of folk/pop and family music is the result of their diverse backgrounds as well as growing up in the musical melting pot that is Texas.
In 1992, Trout Fishing in America relocated their families to the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas. Besides being a “lovely place to live and raise a family,” this central location helped to expand their touring territory to all 50 states and several Canadian provinces.
Sharing knowledge and encouraging art has become another musical mission of TFIA. In the past few years, they have developed a variety of songwriting workshops for teachers and students that illustrate how art and music come from the fabric of everyday life.
Their willingness to make fun of our people’s most annoying habits in one song, then turn around and touch hearts with tender and passionate images of family life in the next is what makes the connection between Trout Fishing in America and their audience so real.
The Kaleidoscope Family Series is sponsored by The Observer as part of the Lake Shore Savings Season.
Tickets are available through the Campus Ticket Office in the Williams Center, online at www.fredonia.edu/tickets and by phone at 716-673-3501.
