Wheatfield had another great outing to kick off 2011. It was a pleasure to play at Uncle Calvin's in Dallas and to see all our North Texas friends. They know what their doing and offer a well run concert series in the middle of Dallas. Visit their site and catch a show. http://www.unclecalvins.org/ In Austin we played a Barker House Concert in a new larger venue. Very nice! Paul Barker has been hosting House Concerts for years and has introduced many artists to Austin music lovers. http://www.barkerhouseconcerts.com/aboutus.html Check out his website and better yet, check out one of the concerts. We finished of in Houston at the venerable Muck Duck for a standing room only show on a Tuesday night. Houston is where it all started for us and we appreciate the continued support from all of you who live in Houston and the surrounding area. We have a YouTube channel (whatever that means) and encourage you to visit it. You will find past live performances that were shot by Stan Ostrum and you will also find a new clip that Ezra put together using our song called "All This Snow" as the bed track. http://www.youtube.com/user/WheatfieldBand.  We added two new songs to the Wheatfield songbook. Connie penned a toe-tapping tune called "Weathervane" and Ezra wrote a heartfelt song called "The Very Best Thing".  We love playing the old songs but it is really a thrill to offer up the new titles. Although we all have other musical endeavors, Wheatfield is very important to us for a variety of reasons. We thank you for indulging us.      

In this blog posting I had planned to write in detail about Connie and her husband Jeff moving to

Nashville in order to advance and promote her wonderful songwriting skills. I also planned on writing

about Ezra and Keith's latest CD entitled "Looking At Lucky". I even planned on mentioning the gigs

I've been playing and the recording sessions I have been hired for recently. But then it dawned me that I should put off all that self promotion and write something that needs to be written. When Wheatfield was formed in the early 70's, we were either blessed or fortunate enough to seemingly immediately find an audience that would stick with us through thick and thin. Throughout all the changes in the band there has always been a nurturing and supportive group of people who either encouraged us to keep playing and growing together or, after we broke up, encouraged us to get back together and make music again. I believe I can say without fear of contradiction that all four of us owe a sincere thank you to all the people who have supported our musical endeavors throughout the years. Wheatfield and St. Elmo'sFire were the springboards for all of our careers and we have every audience member who ever came to one of our shows to thank for it. So, thank you very much. We truly appreciate it!

The Mucky Duck gig in Houston is coming up on June 8th and Wheatfield is playing a backyard party in Austin on June 9th. We are still working on the new CD and since getting snowed out of our last recording session, I have purchased Protools and an iMac and speakers and all the other accouterments necessary to record and email my parts to Ezra. Talk about a learning curve! It didn't help that I acquired a very nasty virus on my PC and subsequently lost a week trying to rid myself of the #*%+ing thing. Got the bug on Facebook so watch out all you social networkers. I'm looking forward to seeing Connie and Keith and Ezra and hope to see you at the gigs. cc

The Mucky Duck gig in Houston was wonderful and so was the Zimmerman's backyard party in Austin. We thought we were going to be rained out in Austin but the skies cleared and we played for about 100 appreciative people. We debuted our new song called "All This Snow" which was written in January while we were snowed in at the Idlet house. We also debuted "Home", a song that Keith wrote after one of our late nights at 'band camp'. I am sending my mandolin, guitar and vocal parts for the upcoming Wheatfield album through the ether to Ezra so he can lay the parts in to the mix. Our friend Bonard said, "You're all supposed to be in the same room when you make a record!" He's right of course, but when the band is spread out over 3 states as it is now, getting everyone into the same room is challenging to say the least. We will get it done! cc

The Mucky Duck gig in Houston was sold out and we played a longer show than usual. Toward the end of the night, members of the audience began yelling out the names of tunes they wanted us to play. Ordinarily, we don't encourage that kind of behavior but the mood was right and Wheatfield just kept on playing. I forgot to bring CD's to sell that night so a few people left disappointed that they were unable to take some music home with them. Speaking of CD's we are still working on a new CD that will have many of our new tunes as well as a couple of older ones. I was optimistic that we would have it completed by August of '09 but it looks like August of '10 is a little more realistic. Ezra and Keith continue to be road warriors and Connie and I are playing together a lot more often. We are in the process of planning Band Camp 2010 and will post the live dates on the Tour Schedule page. Stay cool. cc

What's new - Band camp was great and so were the gigs. Wheatfield has never sounded tighter. The new

CD is coming together and we now have 8 tracks recorded in varying degrees of completion. Keith says it's

not going to be finished in August but I haven't given up hope. Regardless, the songs are sounding great and

we are all excited to be releasing a CD of all new material. Ezra and Keith did not win the Grammy for 'Big

Round World' but we are really proud of them for being nominated for the 4th time. The fifth time will be the

charm. Connie just got back from Nashville where she played for publishers during a showcase at the

Bluebird and I am playing three to five times a week. We just booked a date at the Mucky Duck In Houston

for Tuesday, June 2nd. We hope to see you there. cc

Band Camp - Well it's almost time for band camp again and we are looking forward to spending time together in the hills of Arkansas writing, rehearsing and recording. We are planning on releasing a CD in August of '09 and it will be recorded at Trout House Studio located in the land of no cell phones. The latest release from Trout House, "Big Round World" has been nominated for a Grammy and we hope to see Trout Fishing In America accepting the award for Best Children's Music Album. Immediately after 'Band Camp', we will hit the road for a short tour beginning in Fayetteville, Arkansas and ending in Austin, Texas. We look forward to playing our new (and old) tunes and we hope to see you at one of the venues.