Trout Rodeo ropes bluegrass fans and fishing enthusiasts into helping give kids the gift of music

“TROUT RODEO!!!” 

It’s a cheer, a rallying cry, a great time when it happens in the river, a vibe, a state of mind, one of the best music events Ennis has to offer in the Summer and it’s all for a good cause. 

The roots of Trout Rodeo reach back to almost thirty years ago when Arthur Hancock the 4th visited Ennis with his family and fished with a young Joe Dilschneider who went on to own Trout Stalkers. 

“Well, 29 years ago, to be exact, I was taken to Ennis by my aunt to go fishing and horseback riding for like an epic trip, and I met and fished with, a 26 year old at the time, Joe Dilschneider,” explains Hancock who is best known for his time playing with the Kentucky bluegrass band The Wooks. “Over the course of the years following that fly fishing trip, Joe and I stayed in touch because of our love of music, and as my kind of musical exploits grew, I came back to Ennis in 2015 and then subsequently, the years following, we started making it an annual thing.”

In 2019 the annual trip began to morph into the Trout Rodeo that we know today.

“In 2019 Darren Shoemaker and I went out to Ennis and fished and played music,” Hancock continued. “Then it just started growing from there. We were able to bring more musicians and do a bigger event. Joe (Dilschneider) is very gracious and generous. We love to fish, and he loves music. So it's a great combination and a great partnership, where we can come out, enjoy the things we enjoy, and provide entertainment to Ennis.”

For the crowd that flocks to the event each Summer Trout Rodeo is a reason to dress to impress, let your hair down, reconnect with old friends, make new friends and lose themselves in some of the best live bluegrass featuring songs about the Madison River and grasshoppers they will ever hear while they make a difference in the lives of children they will likely never meet. 

“Well, I think you know, the biggest thing that's evident when we come to Ennis is how much people love the music.,” explained Hancock. “It kind of happened organically that we started working with Diana Hicks (the founder of Can'dAid, a non-profit based in Colorado) on this particular event. We wanted to have a charitable arm to what we were doing and because of what I see in Ennis, which is a passion for music, we wanted to kind of couple that with the fishing and try to raise money each year for Can’daid, which is a national nonprofit.” 

“Can’dAid has a lot of programs, but the program we focus on is their Tunes program,” he continues. “To date, they've donated over $400,000 worth of instruments and done programming in 43 states, and they do a lot of great things to get music equipment and instruments into schools where those programs are being underfunded.” 

“It really boils down to the fact that Ennis loves music, and Montana really receives the bluegrass and acoustic music that we play well. We wanted to take the opportunity to try and raise funds for the Can’dAid programming while we're out there playing and fishing,” he explained.

This year the group traveled as a six piece band with a collection of experience that is difficult to put onto a single stage anywhere in the world. 

“This year we had Daniel Kimbrough playing bass. He plays with Jerry Douglas, the Earls of Leicester, as well as he's the bass player for the Transatlantic Sessions, which is a big deal in Europe,” explains Hancock leaving out the fact that Kimbrough has been nominated for multiple Grammys and has played with a list of artist that reads like a who’s who of music and includes Eric Clapton, Sara Jarosz, Rosanne Cash and Allison Kraus just to name a few. 

“Darren Shoemaker, who's a world class audio engineer, was playing mandolin,” Hancock continued. “He plays with a guy named Woody Platt from North Carolina. We had Chris Wade on the banjo this year. He plays with Volume Five and a number of other bands. He has a full-time career, but he also plays a lot of banjo. My cousin Kipper Worthington, who's a real estate agent and avid angler, played guitar, and he's a great songwriter and guitar player.”

“Christian Ward played the fiddle this year. This is his third year, and he plays full time with Del McCoury and the Traveling McCourys, which is a big deal for anyone in the know. He's a world class fiddler.”

“And then there’s me,” he states casually. “I play in a band here in Kentucky called Hancock and Shouts, and have played in a lot of bands over the years. And I'm kind of the ringleader of the trout rodeo for the musicians.”

The typical set is a mix of traditional bluegrass with hints of classic country sprinkled in and punctuated by a series of songs about Ennis,fishing and grasshoppers. 

“Starting four years ago we decided we wanted to record and release a song that kind of celebrates trout rodeo each year,” said Hancock. “The first song that we released was just called trout rodeo.”

Trout Rodeo the song is available on Tidal, Spotify and other streaming platforms along with a collection of additional songs inspired by the band's fishing experiences. 

“We have another song called It's Not the Fly, which is an old fly fishing guide saying.” he continues. “We released three kinds of Madison River odes this year, two instrumentals and one song, the grasshopper song called The Hopper Song.”

“I know how much Joe and all of his guys and all the people in Ennis love the culture surrounding the Madison River. When you couple the music that we play with that culture, it's a lot of fun. It's a unique challenge to try and write a song about a grasshopper or fishing experience. You know it may not resonate with everyone, but for the people that do like to fish and love bluegrass, it's kind of the perfect combination of both worlds.

Each year hundreds of people who like fishing and bluegrass make a point of coming out to see the Trout Rodeo and Hancock and his fishing buddies have yet to disappoint. 

“As long as we're able to do the Trout Rodeo and keep coming back to Montana, we're gonna record and release a song each year, and it's just a fun challenge,” Hancock concludes. 

As long as the band keeps coming, shouts of Trout Rodeo will echo up and down Main Street Ennis as an ode to the fun experience people get to have while they are making a difference by helping give children the gift of music that has been so valuable to Hancock, his bandmates and the entire community of Ennis.