May 2020
Dear Fisherfolk,
We miss you! All of you! It has been over 11 weeks since our last show on March 7. In all of our years working together, we have never been off for 11 weeks in a row. It has been eye-opening, to say the least. Keith spends his hours gardening, practicing, and learning about music. Ezra has been busy working on guitar and banjo. He's also been spending lots of time in the studio. The two of us have been getting together during the week to play and write music so we don't forget how.
Ezra recently purchased a new camera for making Live Stream videos better. Susan, our Wrangler, has learned how it works. Now that all the necessary pieces are here, our happy faces will be back on your Internet Devices for another virtual Trout concert. The first one was such a moving experience for us. We were overwhelmed by your response. The next one is going to happen at 4pm central time on Sunday, May 31. Click here for the link. No Facebook account required to watch the show! If you can't make it, you will be able to view the show (or any of our other Facebook videos) by visiting this link.
If you feel moved to tip the band, you can use our PayPal link Be sure to choose the option to send money to "friends and family" instead of "goods and services". That way, 100% of your money comes to us. We are working on a Venmo account. It should be up and running soon @TroutFishingInAmerica. Have questions? E-mail our Wrangler and she'll help you out.
Half of all donated money will go to Trout and we will share the other half with Fayetteville organizations who continue to help those in need have meals to eat.
While you are waiting, you might want to check out the newly released Wheatfield CD called Some People. For those of you who don't know, Wheatfield is composed of Connie Mims Pinkerton, Craig Calvert, Ezra Idlet, and Keith Grimwood. I'm sure you recognize at least a couple of these names. Wheatfield is the band that lured Keith out of his cushy, glamorous, and respectable life with the Houston Symphony Orchestra back in the Summer of '76. Super Quick History Lesson: Wheatfield morphed into St. Elmo's Fire in 1976 and broke up in 1979. The band got together for a Wheatfield reunion tour in 2004. We had so much fun together that we've done it pretty much every year since then. Instead of playing only the old songs, we quickly decided to write new ones. Some People had a CD release tour set for May, 2020. Can you guess what didn't happen? But we put it up for sale anyway and the response has been super positive! You can find it at the Trout Store. Check out the video (thank you Connie!) on the song Better Days.
When will we resume touring? No one knows. Our shows are so much about connection with you. The time onstage as well as the time between sets talking with our audience is all part of it. Looks like that particular business model isn't gonna fly right now so we'll just have to figure it out. We are smart enough to do that. We'll just figure out a way and adapt. The music business has changed a lot since the early 70's. Talk about an understatement! We'll just have to change again. There are some tentative dates on our calendar. Fingers crossed but we are not going to rush it. You are too important for us to risk losing you!
Troutfully yours,
Keith and Ezra