Wheatfield was formed in the early 70's  

You Want to know more?

Wheatfield began in 1972 in Houston, Texas, with Connie Mims, Ezra Idlet, and Craig Calvert.  The three original members met during a talent show at Lamar High School in Houston Texas. When they began performing together professionally in 1973, luck was on their side as they almost immediately began to land really cool gigs.  One evening, while playing a private party, Wheatfield was invited to play in The Virgin Islands.  After 6 weeks in St. Croix, they came back tighter and determined to conquer the Texas music scene. The trio quickly established themselves at the forefront of the then emerging Texas music scene and continued to stretch their musical influences from country, bluegrass and folk into jazz and rock genres as they added bassist Bob Russell in 1974. Wheatfield worked the clubs, festivals and concert venues that year between Houston, Austin and the surrounding areas, learning their craft and honing their skills.  They played well known local venues such as Liberty Hall, Armadillo World Headquarters, Steamboat Springs, Castle Creek, The Too Bitter, Guaranteed Wholesome and countless others. In 1975 Wheatfield decided that they needed to improve their groove and added drummer Damian Hevia. Not long after that, before MTV, the band was approached about playing a new live music television show on Austin's public supported KLRU called 'Austin City Limits'. Who knew? Then, Wheatfield got a call from the artistic director of the Houston Ballet (James Clouser) who wanted the band to write the music for a three act ballet called Caliban, based on 'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare. While the band was completing the score for 'Caliban' they were contacted by another band called Wheatfield who claimed to own the rights to the 'Wheatfield' name and insisted that the 'Texas Wheatfield ' cease and desist using the name. Caught up in the creative process of 'Caliban' and without the resources of the internet to see if the other band's claims were true, the members of Wheatfield decided to change the name of the band in order to avoid a law suit. The band that once was Wheatfield became known as St. Elmo's Fire and St. Elmo's Fire played on until it in 1979. 

Read interview with Wheatfield

Lyle Lovett - January 1999

from the foreword to the book

"Austin City Limits-25 Years of American Music"

by John T. Davis

'Turning the knob, changing the channels the old-fashioned way one evening in 1976, I landed on KUHT, Houston's PBS station-the country's first PBS station- and saw a band on a stage in front of an enthusiastic audience.  Two tall, skinny men with long, blond hair, one on each end of the stage, stood playing acoustic guitars as a beautiful dark-haired girl sat on a stool between them in the center of the stage, singing, "The lady has no heart....". "What is this?" I thought. I sat down, mesmerized, arm's length from the television, and didn't touch the knob again until after Gary P. Nunn's "London Homesick Blues" played and the credits for the show ran.

The band was Wheatfield.  The tall, skinny men were Craig Calvert and Chris (Ezra) Idlet, the dark-haired girl was Connie Mims and what it was, was Austin City Limits in its first season.    

Wheatfield News

Wheatfield is proud to announce the release of their new 5 song downloadable MP3 entitled "Second Chances". Please go to our Merchandise page for more information.

Congratulations!

Trout Fishing In America (one half of Wheatfield) has been nominated for a Grammy© for the third time. Their new CD and DVD, 'My Best Day', is available online and at fine record stores everywhere. 

http://www.troutmusic.com/store/catalog-cds.asp