Trout Fishing In America - Safe House (2022)

Trout Fishing In America made several highly regarded CDs for children that received extensive radio airplay on the local, children's, radio program, Kids Corner, that emanates every Monday through Thursday from 7 to 8 PM on WXPN, 88.5 FM - the alternative, non-commercial, music station licensed to the University of Pennsylvania. The two men who are Trout Fishing happily built their strong reputation recording and playing live for kids and earned four Grammy nominations along the way.  As a result I took my daughter to see them twice when she was young. 

What I didn't know for a long time is that Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet were never exclusively an act for pre-adolescents. They've also made records for adults and Safe House - their twenty-fifth full length release in their forty-five years working together - is their latest. TFIA's slightly offbeat sense of humor can sometimes make them seem like a novelty act. Their music should appeal to fans of Barenaked Ladies, a group that - like TFIA - often mixes in humorous but pointed songs with more conventional fare.

Safe House's title came from the time Grimwood and Idlet recorded their latest album at their own Trout House Studio in West Fork, Arkansas where they retreated in 2020 after the world shut down from you-know-what. This thirteen song set with eleven originals and two covers is the result.

The duo played all of the instruments on the album except for the jazzy vibraphone on "Oh, Those Afternoons." They also included the lesser known bouzouki and the African percussion instrument, udu, into their songs. TFIA's sound is heavily acoustic but they also incorporate electric guitar and traditional rock instruments into the mix.

Lyrically, the album is quite broad-based. There isn't much in the way of the way of romance, breakups and associated topics that usually populate the majority of pop songs. 

On "Don't Be Callin'" the veteran musicians take on phone scammers. "Hello, this is the IRS / We've been examining your account and it's a total mess / We don't want to call our lawyers and freeze all your assets / Just pay now / A gift card would be best / Just send me the money and we'll do all the rest."

"We'll Always Have Ardmore" is a tuneful essay about some of TFIA's worst gigs. "We'll always have Ardmore in South Oklahoma where the waitresses hated us and the audience did too."

Despite its title "Looking at a Rainbow" is not a song for kids. The folk veterans take an optimistic view of life. "There's an ocean in a dark sky / Just waiting to be born / If you're looking at a rainbow / Then you made it through the storm."

Safe House is not a kid's record, but in keeping with Trout Fishing In America's proud tradition of being a family act there is nothing on it the young ones can't listen to even though their parents will enjoy it more.