Duo turns a Gilbert workshop into sweet music

Even though their song is about to be released on CD, the Gilbert kids who helped write “My Favorite Jeans” shouldn’t expect a royalty check from ASCAP.

“That’s not how it works,” says Ezra Idlet, who has played in the Grammy-nominated folk duo Trout Fishing in America with Keith Grimwood since 1976. “We donate the royalties to the organization that put on the event, because otherwise we’d be trying to get information for all these kids.”

The song was created at a workshop at Southeast Regional Library in Gilbert in February 2007.

Trout Fishing in America — named for a book by Richard Brautigan — plays music for both children and adults, says Grimwood. They played their first show for an audience of kids in 1977 — they didn’t know children’s songs, so they sang the Beatles, blues and folk.“

We talk to all generations at the same time — we want something that you can all enjoy, legitimately. Not just something that you can go and tolerate,” says Idlet.

Several songs on their new record, “Big Round World,” like “My Favorite Jeans,” started in songwriting workshops with children around the country. The resulting songs always capture a certain slice of life from a kid’s perspective, Idlet and Grimwood say. And, along the way, the children learned a little about the songwriting process, and how to channel their creativity.

“We found, almost always, the most creative kids were the 'problem cases,’ ” says Grimwood.

In Gilbert and in the other places they worked with children, Idlet and Grimwood found that even the “problem cases” could learn to write a song together. The kids tend to take that opportunity seriously, and work together to write a song that expresses their ideas, they say.

“Teamwork is very important,” Idlet said. “The end product is something tangible as opposed to an abstract letter on a sheet of paper that means whether you get grounded or not.”

Sometimes the result is more tangible than others. In the case of the children who participated in the Gilbert songwriting workshop, there soon will be the shrink-wrapped fruit of their creativity on store shelves.

And, soon after, a check delivered to the Maricopa County Library system.