From basketball to art to music

Musical talent may be inherited, although it can take its own good time to manifest itself.

So it has been with Dana Louise, who grew up in Prairie Grove surrounded by music, thanks to her father, Ezra Idlet, the singer-guitarist in Trout Fishing in America. (At 6 foot 4, she's 5 inches shorter than her dad.)

After she excelled at basketball at Prairie Grove High School, the University of Tulsa offered her a basketball scholarship, which enabled her to get a degree in something she really loved -- art.

"Three years ago, I went to the Azores [Portugal] to paint," the 28-year-old Louise explains. "While I was there, I listened to a lot of music. And I ended up hearing a song I really wanted to learn to play, so I kind of stole a guitar from a friend and learned to play by ear. I got bored with the song and decided to learn another one, and soon I had nearly three hours of music I learned. Even though Portuguese is the main language, lots of people also speak and sing in English.

"I was in the Azores for six months, and I played in some cafes on the island. The following year, I went back for three months. When I came home, I started writing my own songs."

Her father was somewhat surprised at his daughter's move into music. As a child, she confesses, she was too shy to be on a stage except at her parents' parties or the "hootenannies" they would stage.

"I never felt the need for that stuff," she says. As she grew up, she figured she might become a hairdresser or even a tattoo artist, never thinking music could lay claim to her.

Tonight's performance at the White Water Tavern will not be her first. A few months ago, she performed there as part of a duo, Air Loom, which released a seven-song EP, Seeds, in August 2013. Her partner then was Jackson Jennings, who is a member of the biology faculty at the University of Arkansas. She has a new duo partner, Adams Collins.

Collins, a Fayetteville native, is a member of a couple of bands: Cutty Rye, a bluegrass group, and jazz trio The Tri-Tones. He likes to play banjo and vibraphone, and found those two groups in which to pursue his different musical leanings.

"We have a mutual friend in the band Handmade Moments, which is a group of folks who are also in the band Don't Stop Please," Collins says. "They were recording at Ezra's studio and asked me to add some banjo to some songs. And when I went there I met Ezra and Dana Louise and she and I started talking about music and our goals.

"Playing with Dana is the only place where I get to play both instruments I like, since the way she writes music allows me the opportunities to really express myself."

The two musicians are working on a full-length album in Idlet's studio, and Louise figures her dad and his Trout Fishing cohort Keith Grimwood will take part.

"So we'll be surrounded by great musicians," she says.

For their first tour, the duo will perform originals and a few covers.

"Some of our covers are pretty obscure and could pass for originals," Louise says, "and we'll also do songs by friends and family. I sometimes do my dad's song 'My Hair Had a Party Last Night' and sometimes even 'Lori's Song' by his first band, Wheatfield."

Style on 10/21/2014