Closer to the Truth is a family friendly folk rock album from Trout Fishing in America.  “Closer To The Trout ,” a review in Songwriter’s Monthly, said of this album,

The Trouts are quite an amazing pair of writers. Great ideas and clever lines seem to come naturally to these guys. They can write a great song about anything from dogs chasing cars to people getting older. Keith and Ezra have a gift, lucky for us they like to share. Revealing and universal, this is an album that really should be in your collection…especially if you want to have a look at how great songs are constructed.

1. Dreaming
2. Old Things
3. Closer To The Truth
4. Keep It On The Positive Side
5. Dangerous
6. Big Boys In Bad Shape
7. Alberta Postcard
8. But I Do
9. There You Go
10. After You’ve Gone
11. Almost September
12. Would It Be So Bad?
13. The Sun and Moon and Stars

Credits
Produced by Fred Bogert
Nashville, TN

Special Guest Appearances by: Vassar Clements, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, and Mickey Raphael.

Released in 1999.

My World is an award-winning collection of kids’ songs that give grown ups a peek into a child’s world — and vice versa. “If this doesn’t brighten your day, nothing will,” says FamilyFun magazine. Chicago Parent put it like this: “Children’s music from some grown-ups who really get it!”

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• My World
• Baby’s Got The Car Keys
• Chicken Joe
• My Hair Had A Party Last Night
• Hi Ho
• Six
• Science Fair
• Beans And Weenies
• Hard Ball
• We Weary Deer
• Back When I Could Fly

Produced by Fred Bogert at Studio C Nashville, TN
Released in 1997

Awards
Independent Children’s Album of the Year (AFIM)
National Parenting Publications Gold Award (NAPPA)

Reel Life, an album by Grammy nominees Trout Fishing in America, is danceable folk rock with world music influences.

Songs

• The Number Of That Truck
• Lightning
• More Than Love
• Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyeballs
• Sleepytime Cartoon
• Eleven Easy Steps
• The Last Day of Pompeii
• Intro to Blue
• Ode To Big Blue
• Intro (Ezra’s Corner)
• Spider’s Fence
• Dixie Chicken
• Murrell’s
• Thinking About You
• Baby’s Got The Car Keys

* Songs in italics were recorded live

Credits
Produced by Carl Finch of Brave Combo
Released in 1996

Awards
Awarded the Best Independent Release from the 96 Kerrville Music Awards

A review in Music Monthly describes Who Are These People? as “a new direction for folk music,” but you’ll find it danceable, too.

Songs

• Carry Me
• There’s A Panther In Michigan
• Never Look Down
• Who Are These People?
• Serious About You
• Count on Me
• Mandaddy
• Story Time
• Pretty Mary
• These Are Good Times
• Breakfast Blues
• The Rifle and the Song

Credits
Produced by Carl Finch of Brave Combo
Released in 1994

Mine is an award-winning album from Trout Fishing in America, available on CD and MP3.

Songs

• Boiled Okra And Spinach
• 18 Wheels On A Big Rig
• (Written by Heywood Banks South Hand Music)
• Mine!
• Hall Of A Hundred Doors
• Swimming Pool
• Count On Me
• Wishes
• Carry Me
• Five Little Ducks (live)
• I Can Dance

Credits
Produced by Carl Finch of Brave Combo

Released in 1994
Sister album of Who Are These People?

Awards

• Parent’s Choice Award
• ALA Notable Recordings Award
• INDIE Award for Children’s Album of the Year. (AFIM)

Reviews

Dirty Linen

This new release by TFIA if being sold as a kid’s album, but you don’t have to have a kid to enjoy it…you just have to be a kid, of whatever age. Their music touches universal themes that apply to all of us. ‘Mine,’ the titlecut, humorously points out the way any possession increases in value as soonas someone else wants it. ’18 Wheels on a Big Rig’ is a counting song/comedyroutine that keeps you singing along and chuckling.

Beware of ‘Five Little Ducks’ — having heard/participated in this song ata TFIA concert, my six-year-old delights in repeat performances that leave us both hoarse. And what kid can’t identify with the best line in ‘Boiled Okra and Spinach’: ‘I’d rather eat boogers than black-eyed peas…?’

Not all of the tape is rolling-in-the-aisles funny. Other songs are tender, such as ‘Count on Me’ and ‘Carry Me.’ The syncopated ‘Swimming Pool’  is catchy and just fun. And ‘I Can Dance’ is a celebration of overcoming the fear of seeming ridiculous.

The best thing one can say about TFIA is that they are high-energy without being cloying. This release is genuinely fun, with humor that is silly, yeterudite, and enjoyable even to adult ears. When stacking up the multi-disc CDplayer with other albums of whatever genre, this one will fit right in for a breath of fresh air and some comic relief and maybe the kids won’t complain so much about the music if they know ‘Five Little Ducks’ might just pop up.

–Susan Harman (Baltimore,MD)

Parents’ Choice

This group’s eccentric approach to music is a little wacky, a lot real,and unaffectedly respectful of children’s intelligence and emotion. Did youreally like sharing when you were a kid (‘I saw it first! It’s mine/I had itlast! It’s mine!’)? From boogie to tango, the performers are game–and able to tackle just about any musical mode.

Family Fun Magazine

Towering Ezra Idlet and diminutive Keith Grimwood are the Mutt-and-Jefftwosome who comprise Trout Fishing in America. ‘Mine!’ is their secondchildren’s album, and it is a humorous, delightful must-have. From folk toblues to rock and roll to old-timey music, Trout Fishing plays it all–withsmart lyrics to boot. Check out this couplet from the tango-style titletrack, about the difficulty of sharing: ‘I feel the envy in your eyes eachtime you see it,/But you know that it’s rightfully mine,/You’d better believeit.’ ‘Mine!’ is funny, touching, and always true to life.

–Moira McCormick

Over the Limit was named Indie Pop Album of the Year in 1992, cementing Trout Fishing in America’s reputation as (in the words of Nashville Scene) “one of the most energetic and innovative” bands around.

• Just A Little While
• You Can’t Get There From Here
• Two Brains
• Lori’s Song
• Sam’s Last Boogie
• No Matter What Goes Right
• My Front Door
• Sing It One More Time Like That
• Park Avenue and Tyson Street
• Dead Egyptian Blues
• How Many Times A Fool
• Dragons In The Sky
• Lullaby

Credits
Produced by Carl Finch of Brave Combo.

Released in 1992