Friday Random Ten

I'm continuing my series on using the discovery of Pandora as a reason to go down memory lane on some concerts I've attended. Next up is Trout Fishing In America. They are an interesting pair of guys. First is the fact that they are odd to look at -- Keith is short and plays the bass while Ezra is very tall and plays guitar, so neither really looks like he fits his instrument. Then, they have very different musical backgrounds, with Keith studying music in college and starting out with jazz groups while Ezra's background is in basketball-turned-rock'n'roll. I would primarily classify them as folk, but it's their kid's music with smart enough lyrics for adults that really drew me to them. I have several of their "adult" albums, but the most fun are the crazy kid songs -- tongue twisters and odes to imaginary friends with inconvenient names and recipes for pico de gallo that are just downright catchy (you know Ohio rhymes really nicely with pico de gallo, don't you?).

The time I saw them live was in College Station, and they had arrived in a summarily low key way in their old crimson truck, Robert RedFord. They proceeded to spend the next 2+ hours making me laugh until my sides hurt. Similarly to last week, as a relatively low-key band, there aren't a lot of videos that I had to pull from in the YouTube annals, I refer you to their MySpace page and demand you to listen to "Proper Cup of Coffee". You should also listen to "Baby's Got the Car Keys", but I won't demand that one. Meanwhile, I give you this energetic rendition of "Eleanor Rigby" with poor video quality, but that's not their fault. Enjoy!



And now on to what happened when I typed "Trout Fishing In America" into the Pandora musical engine.

"Something Sweet" by Trout Fishing In America* on inFINity
"Orangedale Whistle" by The Rankins on Collection
"Slip Away" by David Leask on Tightrope of Dreams
"Common-Law Love" by Sonny Landreth on Outward Bound
"Murrell's" by Trout Fishing In America* on Reel Life
"Hard Luck Woman" by Kiss on Rock and Roll Over
"California" by Creede Williams on Something Borrowed
"Wishing Well" by Monte Montgomery on Live at the Caravan of Dreams
"That's the Smoke They're Blowin'" by DAn Hicks & The Hot Licks on Selected Shorts
"The Number of That Truck" by Trout Fishing in America* on Reel Life

I hadn't heard of many of the other acts that Pandora dished me (wait -- who put Kiss in any sort of relation with TFIA?? Oh well, it worked...somehow), but they definitely focused on the folk side of things, and less on the fun-kid-song side, even with the songs they played from TFIA, directly. I'm still not sure how country ended up in the mix, but I guess other people have different ways of classifying TFIA's sound than I do. Regardless, it was a fun and relaxing little mix that I got served up, and I enjoyed most of it (Dan Hicks couldn't get off the Pandora stage fast enough for me). I can't wait for these guys to come to someplace near SB, so I can see them in person again.

* Acts I've seen live