Big Trout Radio

Award-winning guitarist Artie Traum writes about a trip he and his band, Big Trout Radio, take to play a small gig in Edwards, New York. Somehow he manages to weave in Eric Clapton (“Eric from England”), a foodless 249-mile drive into the hydrogenated heart of the Adirondacks, and a song inspired by a favorite novelist:
“I played my song ‘Big Old Trout,’ which owes more than a little to Herman Melville and the whale that obsessed Captain Ahab:
There’s a fish I’ve been after
About 20 years
Just as clever as a trout can be
He lives in a pool on a mountain stream
I think he must have psychic ability
I look at him, he looks at me
I know that I met my match
With his giant fins and big brown eyes
He’s a fish I just can’t catch.”
On Chronogram.com.