Trout Fishing in America

This year started off with a bang and the pace hasn't let up yet. It all began with a Grammy nomination for our CD, Big Round World. Then in April, our illustrated children's book, My Name is Chicken Joe, was released. cover of book

The first shipment sold out immediately and the next shipment is due any minute at the Trout House Offices. Work on the songs for the musical play, P's and Q's: The A B C's of Manners, is almost complete. We recently took a trip to Houston for a read-through at Houston's Main Street Theater. It went great! We were elated at how the script came to life with the combination of great acting and music. The play is scheduled to open this July. Most recently, Big Round World has been awarded Album of the Year honors at the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards!

Ezra had a plan. His friends Rick and Debbie have been training their German Shepherd dog Aja as a "scent" dog. Aja is an accomplished and award winning dog with an amazing sense of smell. The plan was to invite Rick, Debbie, and Aja to Arkansas for a walk in the woods during morel mushroom season. Surely if Aja can find a piece of cloth hiding in the woods she can find the elusive morel mushroom! Somehow tracking her master's scent and tracking the scent of some random piece of fungus didn't translate. Aja loved her time in the woods, but the only morels located were found the old fashioned way with sharp eyes and good color vision. Ezra wasn't very helpful on either front. Still, a few morels were found and eaten after a great walk in the woods.

Our travels have taken us many places lately. There are a lot of different climates, pollens, and humidity levels in this country and we've experienced many of them. After performing in the Gulf Coast humidity of Jazz Fest in New Orleans, we are currently in the dry Albuquerque, New Mexico desert air for a live taping of a radio show called The Art of the Song. Ezra has visited their website and says it is one of the finest radio shows he has ever heard. cover of book

We're staying in The Albuquerque Hotel and Keith is fascinated with the corner windows in each room. It's glass on glass at a corner, which produces a very weird effect. He took a picture of it to share with you.
We'd like to wish a Happy 65th Wedding Anniversary to Keith's parents, James and Hilda Grimwood. Wow! That's twice as long as Keith and Ezra have known each other.
Jim and Hilda