Wheatfield back with eclectic mix of funk, pop, bluegrass
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN
bmartin@nwadg.com
If you love Trout Fishing in America and think no music could be better, you’re about to be proven wrong. Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet are part of a band called Wheatfield — which actually predates Trout — and the new album, “Some People,” is everything you love but so much more.
Scheduled for release May 5, “Some People” was, of course, intended to be accompanied by a string of show dates. Then the coronavirus changed everything. So the band instead started releasing some “homespun” music videos on YouTube to keep in touch with their fan base — many of whom have been around for most of 40 years.
“Americana wasn’t a thing then,” says vocalist Connie Mims of the band’s early years. “The Houston folk music scene was just huge, though, with people like Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark. It was a great time for acoustic guitar acts like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, so we jumped on that band wagon and went in that style. I came from kind of a pop music background — I loved the Beatles and British music and piano driven stuff — and Ezra came from everywhere, and Craig [Calvert] really liked rock ‘n’ roll and acid rock.”
“One of the things about Wheatfield, and Trout too, is an eclectic appreciation of and desire to write music,” says Ezra Idlet. “In ‘Some People,’ there are elements of funk and pop and bluegrass bound together with the harmonies we have had since we were kids. And playing any kind of music is not a cross to bear.”
(Courtesy Photo)
And where was Grimwood? Following the band as a fan.
“They became my favorite to go listen to,” he says. “Their harmonies were incredible. I just felt like there was a truth to life somewhere in that harmonic blend.”
At that time, Grimwood was a bassist with the Houston Symphony — until a union lockout left him unemployed. He joined Wheatfield about the time the band changed its name — thanks to a “cease and desist” letter from a lawyer representing a band in Oregon that also called itself Wheatfield.
“We didn’t have any money or access to the internet, so we just tucked our tail between our legs and started looking for a new name,” Calvert says. “It was difficult, and it went on for weeks, but we finally settled on St. Elmo’s Fire.”
That was 1976, but even in the weirdness of the 1970s, no one could have predicted what came next. The band was approached to write, of all things, a ballet based on “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare.
“It was a major experience,” remembers Idlet. “I remember being in tears watching dancers interpret our music in a very serious way. It was stunning.”
Another ballet based on the story of Grigori Rasputin followed, then the band turned its focus to trying to get a major record deal. “That’s how it worked back then,” Mims says. “But we had four different vocalists and four different styles, and the record company couldn’t put a finger on us. And everybody was just kind of tired of chasing the brass ring.”
Calvert left first, moved to Austin and had a career playing music. Mims was a singer/songwriter who worked a lot in Houston recording studios as a jingle singer, then had children and started programming and booking music festivals. Northwest Arkansas fans know that Idlet and Grimwood became the Grammy-nominated duo Trout Fishing in America.
And then Calvert ran across some old Wheatfield tapes, and the band was reborn in 2004, with Grimwood joining up again in 2005.
“One of the things about Wheatfield, and Trout too, is an eclectic appreciation of and desire to write music,” says Ezra Idlet. “In ‘Some People,’ there are elements of funk and pop and bluegrass bound together with the harmonies we have had since we were kids. And playing any kind of music is not a cross to bear.”
(Courtesy Photo)
“We don’t get together a lot, maybe once or twice a year, but we decided right away it wouldn’t be a museum of the old songs,” Grimwood says. “These people are all fabulous songwriters, those three have great harmonies, and instead of writing about the coming-of-age experience, we write about life from a different perspective. We got to write together as young people, and now we’re writing together as not-so-young people.”
__
Go Online!
‘Some People’
Listen to a song from the new CD at nwadg.com/video
Buy the CD at troutmusic.com and wheatfieldband.com.
Watch the videos at WheatfieldBand on YouTube.
Get Out!
Wheatfield will be part of the lineup for the 49th annual Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival on Oct. 12.
