Trout Fishing Goes Back to Wheatfield
By Becca Bacon Martin
The Morning News

 

FAYETTEVILLE -- Before Trout Fishing in America -- the band, not the book -- there once existed St. Elmo's Fire -- the band, not the movie. Now four musicians have turned the hands of time back even further, to Wheatfield -- the band from Houston, not the band from Oregon.

"It's all Ezra and Craig's fault ... er, idea," jokes Connie Mims, Wheatfield's original vocalist. "Craig (Calvert) and I began working together again as a duo, (and) it really threw a light switch. (Then) Craig found some old tapes that we had never released to the public, and he and I formed a business partnership to bring those tapes into the digital age and offer them up to the masses. Ezra (Idlet) agreed.

"Touring the CD release was a no-brainer. This time we've added Keith (Grimwood)."

The replanted Wheatfield will perform Thursday at 7 p.m. at GoodFolk Productions in Fayetteville. Grimwood, who has been playing with Idlet for more than a quarter of a century as Trout Fishing in America, says he enjoys being "the new kid on the block."

"I wasn't involved in the first reunion as I wasn't an original member of Wheatfield," he explains. "I didn't join the band until the name had changed to St. Elmo's Fire. So I guess I'm 'the new guy.'

"When they asked me to be a part of the second reunion series of shows, I jumped at the chance," Grimwood adds. "The music is still very dear to me and stirs up a well of emotions. Also, I love any chance to play -- and I love any chance to be referred to as 'the new guy'!"

Idlet, the half of Trout Fishing in America known as "the tall one," was half of Wheatfield's original duo.

"In my senior year at Lamar High School in Houston, I met Craig Calvert," he picks up the story. "We just connected musically: The first day we met, we wrote a song. Craig and I performed at the school talent show as a duo, and we thought we'd be the next Beatles. We called ourselves Neat Stuff."

The next fall, Calvert and Idlet went off to different colleges, but the music pulled them back to play. They recruited vocalist Mims, a year behind them at the same high school, and by the end of their first summer as a trio, Wheatfield was asked to play in St. Croix.

"We had to decide if we wanted to go back to school or continue playing music," Idlet recalls. "It didn't take a long time for us to make up our minds! We spent seven or eight weeks in St. Croix."

"We were featured for a full hour on 'Austin City Limits,' were on the bill at the Kerrville Folk Festival, wrote two ballets for the Houston Ballet Company and toured and played extensively," Calvert continues the story. "Everything was happening so fast -- the creativity was non-stop and after all, it was the '70s! Our popularity was pretty heady stuff, and I'm not sure how well I handled it -- but I cherish those memories!"

Grimwood met the other musicians when they were commissioned to write a rock ballet based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and he was playing with the Houston Symphony. The timing couldn't have been better, Idlet explains.

"Sometime after the ballet -- which was really successful -- another band named Wheatfield, who had a lawyer, wrote us a letter telling us to cease and desist using the name," Idlet says. "We changed our name to St. Elmo's Fire, and shortly after that, our bass player, Bob Russell, left the band.

"We wanted Keith, but he had a great job with the Houston Symphony," Idlet says. "Fortune smiled on us and there was a union lockout that kept Keith from working with the orchestra. Keith agreed to help us out temporarily. That was in 1976, and Keith still hasn't gone back to work!"

"St. Elmo's Fire was an explosive time for writing, playing and learning," Grimwood picks up the tale. "Much of what Trout became was influenced by SEF, either as a model for or a reaction against."

St. Elmo's Fire broke up in 1979, a topic about which the musicians have little to say. Each pursued their own musical careers afterward.

Mims commuted between Houston and Los Angeles to court a solo career, finally settling outside Houston to raise a family in 1983. Now that her children are old enough, she has formed the Woodlands (Texas) Songwriters Association and returned to work with "my original homeboys, Ezra, Craig and Keith."

Calvert teamed up with singer/songwriter Vince Bell and wrote a third ballet, played in several bands, had his music recorded by Lyle Lovett and sits on the Board of Governors for the Southwest Chapter of the Recording Academy -- "otherwise known as NARAS or Grammys," he says.

Idlet and Grimwood formed Trout Fishing in America even before St. Elmo's Fire broke up and together have traveled all over the United States and Canada, recorded 12 CDs, and received three Indie Awards and two Grammy nominations.

All of them, however, are interested in pursuing Wheatfield on the side.

"The most exciting thing about the reunion is the rediscovering of friendships that had faded after the breakup of St. Elmo's Fire," Idlet says. "The magic on stage is very much alive, even more so because of the friendship. We've written some new material that we'll be performing, and as far as goals go, the idea of writing for the four of us is a pretty good goal.

"We all have careers and bands that occupy our time and attention, and I don't see Wheatfield supplanting that," Idlet adds. "But it sure does provide a wonderful outlet for some new and old music."

"I'm jazzed about collaborating and performing with everyone again," Mims agrees. "We've all maintained our individual writing and musical styles, which was a key to the success of Wheatfield in the first place -- the individual parts summing up into a whole lot of great original music, with a genuine love of performing, too."

'Second chances don't come along very often," adds Calvert, "so we want to make sure we make the most of it."