Trout Fishing in America April 6, 2019 CHARTS, UA-Pulaski Tech, North Little Rock, AR
Set 1: Strangest Times, Big Boys in Bad Shape, My Hair Had a Party Last Night, Pico de Gallo, Perfectly Healthy for Someone Your Age, Where’s Your Mama?, Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Driving in the Driving Rain, Foggy Mountain Breakdown (w/ Beverly Hillbillies theme), Don’t Touch My Stuff, When the Fog Rolls In, Dixie Chicken
Set 2: Today Is the Day, Sing It One More Time Like That, 18 Wheels on a Big Rig, I Nod My Head, Not the Only One, Barbed Wired Boys, The Window, Freeze, Proper Cup of Coffee, Close Your Eyes, Not Fade Away (w/ La Bamba tease)
Encore: Cockeyed, Shake It Downtown (not sure about the title of either song)
The concert season for 2019 got off to a very nice start with Trout Fishing in America last night. We haven’t seen Trout Fishing in probably 10 years. That was one frozen night in the bar at Juanita’s when it still existed and was still on Main St, and the bar was small and intimate. Other times we would see them at RiverFest when our girls were young and would sit on the stage. This time, Beth and I had 3rd row center seats at Pulaski Tech’s CHARTS (Center for Humanities and Arts). The crowd was small-ish, but very enthusiastic. The band consisted only of Keith on bass and Ezra on guitars. Keith did not play stand-up bass at all, sticking to his electric bass except for one song (“Barbed Wire Boys”?) on which he played violin, which he said he had only recently learned. Ezra carried the high end on guitar, electric banjo, and an 8-string guitar-like thing whose name escapes me, although Keith made a point to introduce the instrument.
The show ran 2 full hours, with a short break, and it was a mix of old favorites and newer songs. Set 1 opened with “Strangest Times,” a catchy new song, followed by “Big Boys in Bad Shape,” a deep cut from 1999. “My Hair Had a Party Last Night” is an old children’s favorite which seemed to resonate well with the old children in the audience, and had everyone mussing their hair. “Pico de Gallo” was met with universal delight and quickly became a sing along. That led into two songs from Keith on the joys of aging — “Perfectly Healthy for Someone Your Age,” about his annual physical (“a blues song”), and “Where’s Your Mama?” in which a would-be suitor comes to realize that even the sweet-young-thing’s mother is too young for him (“Where’s your granny?”). At this point, Ezra switched to banjo for “Driving in the Driving Rain” which led directly into “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” to which he added, with a sly nod to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, a bit of the Beverly Hillbillies theme. “Don’t Touch My Stuff” encouraged audience participation as Keith recounted the time in Houston when the guys had their van stolen with all their stuff in it. The beautiful, more reflective “When the Fog Rolls In,” a new one (I think) from Ezra, then led into a cover of Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” with Keith and Ezra each taking sweet solos.
Set 2 was a similar mix of old and new. I can’t pretend to be familiar with half of the songs in this set, but they were all great fun, and the guys mixed up the pacing nicely. As always, the songs somehow seem to apply to all the stages of life. “Sing It One More Time Like That” could be about an insistent child or an audience who always asks for the same songs. Keith introduced “I Nod My Head” by saying that when he wrote it, he thought it was a kid’s song, but everybody tells him it’s a husband song (“She’s talking again. I nod my head. I pretend to understand.”). “Barbed Wire Boys,” a cover of one of one of Ezra’s favorite songs (by Claire Lynch), provided a sweet interlude before “The Window.” “The Window” is a fan favorite and the guys took suggestions from the audience for fairy tales to highjack and throw out the window; the highlight was the final verse in which Keith sang “Humpty Dumpty” while Ezra sang “Stairway to Heaven.” The second set ended with a tongue-twister sing-along on “Proper Cup of Coffee,” the tender lullaby of “Close Your Eyes,” and more bass and guitar dueling on “Not Fade Away.” I’m not sure of the titles of the two songs in the encore, but they were classic Trout Fishing — silly enough for kids, but thoughtful enough for their parents.
And the crowd was mostly parents — people like Beth and me who probably used to bring their young kids to the shows. Those kids may be grown and gone now, but the music is still fun, still rocks, and it stirs up a whole range of feelings from the joyful to the nostalgic. In the front row was a couple with their two young daughters who looked to be maybe 3 and 5 years old. We had talked to them at the merch table. The parents were fans, but it was the kids’ first show. It was wonderful to see the newest generation of Trout Fishing fans being initiated, little girls dancing together, dozing in daddy’s lap, basking in the smiles of people making and enjoying music. And right beside them, those older fans, clapping and singing along.
You can check out Trout Fishing in America’s webpage here.
Mind Out of Time 