from Bassics Magazine

IN 1976, Keith Grimwood was playing in the bass section of the Houston Symphony, a fan of music who, after symphony concerts, would “hang up the tux,” he says, and check out a five-piece rock band called St. Elmo’s Fire. A serendipitous turn about a year later put him and his acoustic bass on the streets of Santa Cruz, California, with St. Elmo’s guitarist Ezra Idlet, playing for tips.

“That was more or less the birth of Trout Fishing in America,” says Grimwood, who together with Idlet has formed a musical partnership that has endured for more than two decades and an audience which, like Grimwood and Idlet, appreciate the fact that TFIA speaks in a language not only of love songs but of parent- and childhood.

Two singers, acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, Trout Fishing in America make it look easy only because they’ve worked hard at it for 20-plus years. Their insistence on keeping everything self-contained, so to speak, has sparked each man’s musicianship and allowed them to make the kind of records they want to make without outside interference.

It’s paid off, too. Trout Records (P.O. Box 914, Prairie Grove, AR 72753-0914; 888-439-8342; troutmusic.wpengine.com) has sold close to 200,000 copies of the Trouts’ eight releases over the past eight years. Their most recent work, Family Music Party, was also filmed for video release at the TV studio where the PBS show Austin City Limits is filmed. Many PBS stations, in fact, showed Family Music Party during spring fundraising programming.

“I started playing bass when I was 11,” says Grimwood, on a break from recording in Nashville. “I seem to have gotten into some kind of trouble my first day or two at junior high school. I wanted out of this one class pretty bad, and they needed volunteers for the school orchestra. I was assigned to play the string bass. I was a little kid, too, around 4-foot-7 at the time. I started playing bass, and I just loved it. Absolutely loved it.”

So much for the assumption that it takes a big man to be able to handle such a massive instrument. Grimwood and Idlet spoke with me from the air-conditioned comfort of their van, which recently replaced pickup truck that had taken them a half-million miles. Grimwood, perked up by a cup of coffee, and Idlet, stoked from having bought several old Nat King Cole albums he found in a bin at a hardware store, were also buoyed by the news that their 1996 release My World had just won an Indie Award as Best Children’s album over releases by such stalwarts as NRBQ and Arlo & Woody Guthrie.

The Kerrville Folk Festival has honored both their adult music (Over the Limit, Who Are These People? and others) as well as their children’s music. Kerrville enshrined the duo into the festival’s Hall of Fame in 1996. “I have always admired his playing,” says Idlet, speaking of the days when Grimwood joined St. Elmo’s Fire. “Besides having symphonic chops, he had good rock, jazz and pop chops. But the thing that was really cool was when he joined our band, he had a Bogen amplifier. He paid a dollar a watt for it. His motto at that point was, “If you can’t play it on a Bogen, you can’t play it!”

“Equipment wasn’t real important to the time,” Grimwood interjects.”We were playing some bar in Corpus Christi, and this kid came up with a big grin on his face. He said he’d bought a Bogen so he could sound like Keith! And Keith said, ‘I’ve got to do something about this. I cannot play with a Bogen and inspire people to play them-they’re awful!'” Idlet laughs loudly at the memory.

“I was more interested in the notes than the equipment,” Grimwood says, growing slightly more serious. “Still am, actually. Lyrics, notes, songs, form. I like that stuff.”

In addition to his upright playing, Grimwood also knows his way around a Fender Jazz. The Trouts do a live cover of Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” on their CD Reel Life, and the energy put forth by the duo-especially Grimwood’s solo-embodies the spirit of Little Feat’s original. “That’s one thing to be said about the duo: When you’ve got two people and it’s time for a solo, it’s either the guitar or the bass, Grimwood says. “You’re going to find more bass solos at a Trout show, because the format requires it.” Not that the audience (especially bass players) seems to mind.

Grimwood travels with a 1950’s-ear Kay upright (with a vintage Barcus-Berry pickup), a Fender Jazz and a Clevinger upright electric. His primary bass is a German bass from the 1870’s, played with a French bow. “Our real strength is ensemble playing,” says Idlet. “I wouldn’t put us on any upper echelon in the world of soloists, but in the world of ensemble I think we’re really strong. All these years of playing together, we’ve developed a major sound. With two people, we can play a rock club as well as a folk club and provide all that’s necessary to move an audience musically.”

“The solo on “Dixie Chicken,” it’s OK, but it’s with what’s backing it up at the same time,” adds Grimwood. “If you listen to it with that in mind, I think it’ll click right away.”

All the classical training isn’t lost on Grimwood. “I’ve got tons of sheet music at home,” he says. “I get up, I read, and I go through my exercises.” Lots of people play upright; not many have the chops or the taste for a proper arco solo that Grimwood does.

“Ezra listens to music constantly. He just surrounds himself with it,” Grimwood adds. “His record collection is so diverse, it’s unbelievable. And I listen, too, but not like he does. He’s obsessive. I need more silence in my life. I need silence for thoughts to form.”

One of the best examples of Grimwood’s supportive playing is in the song “Lullaby” from Family Music Party. Like many of TFIA’s songs written for children, the wellspring of emotion touches all generations. Grimwood’s solo flows beautifully and unobtrusively.

“Adults recognize similar things that they’ve experience,” Grimwood says. “I think that’s why we appeal to a lot of generations. I’ve got a picture in my bag of a family. A woman was celebrating her 98th birthday, and five generations of her family were there. Five generations, and they were all digging it for different reasons.”

from Guitar Player magazine

Those familiar with the acoustic duo Trout Fishing in America appreciate their uncanny ability to create a full-bodied ensemble sound. It helps that both members sing and that bassist Keith Grimwood is an experienced and adroit player. But it’s the innovative guitar work of Ezra Idlet that really rounds out the pair’s sound.

Idlet’s approach is a variation on the traditional bluegrass flat-picking style-the key difference being that, in Idlet’s case, all six strings are constantly strummed. “By maintaining a steady eighth-note pattern with my right hand,” he explains, “I can selectively mute strings with my left hand or right palm and let specific strings ring.” Using this technique, Idlet can simultaneously produce a chunka-chunka percussive feel and play chords and melody lines. He’s particularly fond of playing a melody line over droning strings. “Letting certain strings ring can imply another rhythm guitar part,” he says.

In addition, Idlet fattens his acoustic/electric sound with chorus and, occasionally, delay. He suggests players set a delay with approximately 320rms with one slapback. If timed correctly-especially on reggae or Bo Diddley-style patterns-the delay creates a faux percussion part. Limiting the delay to one slapback prevents the sound from going sour when you change chords.

On paper, these techniques sound simple. In reality, they require solid timing and a great deal of precision. If mastered, however, they can add a dimension to the acoustic guitar that goes beyond strumming chords. “Anyone can fill out their sound with a little ingenuity and a few simple tools,” promises Idlet.

from Acoustic Guitar magazine

Guitarist Ezra Idlet and Bassist Keith Grimwood have played together as the duo Trout Fishing in America for 22 years. They’re an anachronism in many ways. They play contemporary, acoustic-based music, but they are a throwback to buskers, vaudeville, and even old-fashioned medicine shows. Their material ranges from introspective folk and country-tinged songs, to wildly energetic rock tunes, to Stan Freberg-style comedy. “It’s a balance,” says Grimwood. “We do play a lot of funny songs, but you’re not funny all the time in life; there are serious thoughts that go on.”

The duo’s roots are as varied as its set lists. “We come from different backgrounds,” says Grimwood. “In 1976, Ezra was in a band called St. Elmo’s Fire, and I was in a group called the Houston Symphony.” That year, the symphony went on strike, and Grimwood joined St. Elmo’s Fire. “Ezra and I were immediate friends,” he recalls. “A tour of California [in 1977] just fell to pieces,” Idlet says, “and we had the reality of trying to feed ourselves. We started performing on the street in Santa Cruz. We learned a valuable lesson. People will stop if they’re entertained, but if you’re singing these sad introspective songs, people will walk away as fast as they can.”

Although Trout Fishing in America at times works as a four- and five-piece band, Grimwood and Idlet continue to base their sounds-and all but a few of their live shows-on the acoustic guitar and bass. “The acoustic guitar is a very percussive instrument, especially the way Ezra plays it,” says Grimwood.

Idlet switched from drums to guitar at the age of 14. “Drums are really boring to practice by yourself,” he says, “so guitar was a really good thing for me.” He taught himself to play and in a few months landed a job as a strolling musician at a Houston dinner theater. “From early on, I’ve known what I wanted to do. I had a basketball scholarship to college, but I gave it up when I was offered a job in the Virgin Islands playing music.”

While he doesn’t go for “guitar heroes” per se, Idlet does admire the aggressive playing of Stephen Stills and the all-around supportive playing of John Leventhal (Shawn Colvin, Rosanne Cash). His Gordon Lightfoot/James Taylor/style fingerpicking on slower songs provides a nice contrast to the duo’s frenetic rock numbers.

Both Idlet and Grimwood have children, which naturally led them to writing music for kids. “Our music is sophisticated,” says Idlet. “It doesn’t play down to kids or adults. Kids are moved by the lyrics or the rhythm. They know right off the bat if you’re faking it musically.”

A 1992 Indie Award for “Pop Album of the Year” for Over the Limit led to national distribution for the group’s own Trout Records (PO Box 914, Prairie Grove, AR 72753-0914; [888]439-8342; troutmusic.wpengine.com). Since then, the two musicians have won two more Indies for their children’s albums Mine! (1994) and My World (1997), as well as a Hall of Fame induction from the Kerrville Folk Festival. Their most recent recording, Family Music Party, has also been released as a performance video that was shown by many PBS stations. It features the achingly beautiful ballads “Lullaby,” “Back When I Could Fly” and “Count on Me.”

The variety of styles makes Trout Fishing in America’s music hard to classify. “If you go into a music store and try to find our CDs, you find them in different parts of the store,” say Grimwood. “In Nashville, we’re country. Someplace else, we’re in kids’ music. Some other place, we show up in the pop section. They don’t know quite what to do with us, which may not be the best marketing strategy, but at the same time it’s-” “-allowed us to stay together happily for 22 years!” Idlet interjects.