2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 96

We dropped off Petie and left Branson, heading to Arkansas for a special sidetrip. The other day I received an e-mail from Ezra Idlet of Trout Fishing in America. He wanted to get a CD of mine to feature a song on a guest DJ spot he's doing for Sirius next week, so I called him up and when we realized how close we were to each other he invited us to come out for their 4th of July party. We couldn't make it out there then but made arrangements to stop by today. This was a big deal for me because Trout Fishing in America was one of the most influential acts for when I started getting into doing kids/family music, and I've been a really big fan of theirs ever since. They've been nominated for a Grammy three times now and have played all over the place for many thousands of people and they are really legends in this genre (and in music, in general). When I say "they", it is Ezra on guitar and vocals and Keith Grimwood on bass and vocals and the two of them have been making music together for over 32 years now and show no signs of stopping. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Keith by the time we made it out there... he had been over there earlier in the day but had some things to take care of at home and couldn't stick around... but we had a really wonderful time visiting with Ezra and his wife, Karen (who, among other things, is in charge of their record label).

Earlier this morning, Becca had asked us where "the middle of nowhere" was, and we explained that it was really just an expression, but when we arrived out at Ezra and Karen's place, I thought that might have been it, after all. They have a really beautiful piece of property way off the beaten path in Arkansas, and we especially enjoyed taking a drive out in the back of their pickup truck through the woods nearby to see Ezra's treehouse. He built that (and is still working on it) over the past eight years. You can hear the great Trout Fishing song "Dreaming", which describes the inspiration of the treehouse, and find out more about how it was built at this link: http://www.troutmusic.com/treehouse.asp

We came back and had some dinner, then put the girls down for bed and did some song swapping and jamming together, which was really fun. We all probably could have talked and shared music all night, but we eventually dragged ourselves off to bed.

Karen introducing the girls to their puppy, Pearl...


Evee pointing out the treehouse picture...




Inside the treehouse...