Here’s a heartwarming story for a lovely Spring day, sent by our friends at Nechville Musical Products.
Trout Fishing In America is the name used by children’s entertainers Ezra Idlet and Keith Grimwood for their duo show, an odd choice for a band name as it refers to a decidedly adult work of abstract fiction published in the 1960s. The music is folk based, and Idlet uses both guitar and banjo in their act.
In January of this year, their touring van was stolen, which of course contained all of their musical gear. Among the stolen items was a highly-customized Nechville Metor banjo, whose body was emblazoned with artwork created by Ezra’s daughter. Needless to say, its loss was a double blow.
Here’s where the story get’s interesting. According to Al Price at Nechville…
“Within a few weeks, the van was recovered in a vacant lot. But the banjos, guitars, basses, amps and other musical gear were nowhere to be seen.
Recently, Nechville discovered a used Meteor for sale on eBay. As they looked through the photos, they spotted the familiar line art on the white body. This instrument was clearly the same one stolen in Houston from Trout Fishing in America.
A call was immediately placed to Ezra, who in turn contacted Houston Police. This led to the recovery of not only the banjo, but one of the guitars well.”
Well done, all!
Nechville reports that a number of instruments are still unrecovered. You can find photos of the missing items on the TFIA Facebook page.
