Guitarist and vocalist Ezra Idlet was attending college in Waco, Texas, on a basketball scholarship when he decided to perform music instead.

He worked at a dinner theater in Houston, Texas,[1] and then joined the folk rock band Wheatfield, which evolved into St. Elmo's Fire.

[2] When several St. Elmo's Fire gigs in California were canceled, Grimwood and Idlet began performing together on the streets in order to earn money.

By 1988, Berger left as well; as a result, the group's lineup reverted to a duo of Grimwood and Idlet, and their name changed back to Trout Fishing in America.

In addition to a studio recording of "When I Was a Dinosaur", this included original compositions tailored to children, such as a nursery rhyme mashup called "The Window" and "Lullaby".

It included a cover of Emily Kaitz's "The Day the Bass Players Took Over the World" and John Gorka's "Prom Night in Pig Town".

Terri Langford of the Associated Press wrote of these two albums that "sometimes it's hard to tell which CD is for which target group" while speaking favorably of the duo's musical diversity.

Finch and Marine also played on some tracks on this album, while session musician Milo Deering contributed on steel guitar and mandolin.

[14] Writing for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette, Rebecca P. Lindwall praised the album's instrumentation, as well as the "homespun" lyrics of the ballad "Lightning".

Reviewing this album for AllMusic, Lankford praised the duo for writing original content instead of covering traditional Christmas songs, while also finding influences of reggae and jazz music in the arrangements.

[30] The duo promoted the album with a concert at Red River Revel, an annual music festival in Shreveport, Louisiana.

[20] In addition, it topped National Public Radio's 2008 list "The Year in Music for Kids", an annual compilation of recommended children's albums by that organization.

[32] Jonathan Takiff of the Philadelphia Daily News rated the album "B+", as he thought its songs would appeal to people who found humor in growing older.

[33] Although Trout Fishing in America recorded fewer albums throughout the 2010s, the duo continued to perform across the United States at venues such as museums and schools.

[31] They returned to the Red River Revel in 2013 to promote their next album of children's music, Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.

"[36] Grimwood said that he considered "The Strangest Times" one of his favorite songs the duo had ever recorded due to its "driving beat" and the "real things" in its lyrics.

[37] Trout Fishing in America continued to incorporate further instrumentation into their live shows, such as Idlet covering "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on banjo.

They also began to look for songs from their earlier albums which they thought had been forgotten by fans, such as "Big Boys in Bad Shape" from Closer to the Truth.

Trout Fishing in America promoted the album with concerts in Texas once pandemic restrictions were lifted enough for them to resume touring.

[38] The duo also promoted the title track with a music video uploaded to YouTube, which features pictures of both members' families.

[28] While their early work was more conventional folk rock that often contained adult themes, the duo said that they chose to record more material suitable for children after both of them became fathers themselves.

[23] Grimwood also noted that due to this song's success with fans, schoolteachers would often attend their early concerts and encourage them to perform more children's music.

[18] Tom Infield of The Philadelphia Inquirer thought that the duo were able to include a variety of influences in their music due to them mostly handling distribution and production by themselves instead of through a major record label.

[25] A 1995 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the duo's music as "not pedantic, nor does it pander to children, but merely deals with topics that kids can relate to or those that will make them laugh.

[29] In relation to their height and stage presence, an uncredited article in the Kent County News also described Idlet as "playful and extroverted" and Grimwood as "serious and reserved".