As you may have heard, Grammy award winning David Ball has a new project paying tribute to the great music of Uncle Waltâs Band, called David Ball & That Carolina Sound, featuring Warren Hood & Marshall Hood.
Heidi Hyatt will be releasing an Uncle Waltâs Band anthology 3/9 on Omnivore Records !
In his 1996 song, âThatâs Right (Youâre Not from Texas),â legendary singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett included a verse about the members of Uncle Waltâs Band, a seminal pre-Americana group originally formed in Spartanburg.
When Lovett was starting his career, he was often asked to open for Uncle Waltâs Band, which had become a fixture on the Austin, Texas, roots music circuit in the late â70s and early â80s. He never forgot how much of a boost the trio â David Ball, Champ Hood and Walter Hyatt â gave him.
Hereâs an excerpt from âThatâs Right (Youâre Not from Texas)â:
âThose boys from Carolina, they sure enough could sing
But when they came down to Texas, we all showed them how to swing
Now Davidâs on the radio, and old Champâs still on the guitar
And Uncle Walt, heâs home with Heidi, hiding in her loving arms.â
Sadly, Hyatt was killed in a 1996 plane crash not long after Lovett recorded the song and just before it was officially released. Hood died from cancer in 2001.
As the sole surviving member of Uncle Waltâs Band, the Nashville, Tenn.-based Ball has lately made some of the best music of his career, but the line âDavidâs on the radioâ appears to be criminally outdated.
In a recent interview, Lovett continued to heap praise on the members of Uncle Waltâs Band. But he didnât stop there.
Lovett let it be known that he also admires the musically gifted offspring of the influential band.
âOh my goodness, I stay in touch with Warren (Hood) all the time,â Lovett said. âI think Warrenâs amazing. He sounds so much like his dad â his (singing) and the way he speaks.
âI met Warren, I guess, when he was maybe 7 (years old), in Austin. He was always a sweet little boy, and heâs just the same as he was when I first met him. He writes great songs, and heâs a wonderful musician.
First anthology to chronicle the music of Uncle Waltâs Band, includes five previously unissued tracks and we are celebrating in Austin Friday 3/9/18 at The Saxon Pub!
âWalter Hyatt, David Ball and Champ Hood have been an inspiration to me ever since the first time I heard Uncle Waltâs Band,â said Lyle Lovett, a journalism student at Texas A&M University when he first heard the band. âMusically, their finely crafted original compositions reflect diverse influences, while lyrically they demonstrate a sensitive, sophisticated understanding of the dignified South.â
Uncle Waltâs Band, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, was an eclectic music trio that moved to Nashville in 1972 and shortly thereafter to Austin at the urging of Willis Alan Ramsey. âAn attempt at âan album proved unsuccessfulâ, so the band headed back to Spartanburg in 1974 where they recorded their own debut LP, Blame It On The Bossa Nova. One thousand copies pressed, sold through performances and self-promotion, disappeared quickly. Heat was gaining for the band so they headed back down to Austin with a reissued album now titled, Uncle Waltâs Band. (Pressings of their original LP change hands for hundreds of dollars these days)
While the album gained many fans and followers it wasnât enough to sustain the bandâs larger ambitions. Going on hiatus for a few years â,they reunited in Austin at Liberty Lunch in 1978 which launched a second phase for Uncle Waltâs Band that turned out to be the most popular and productive union yet. A second indâie album, An American In Texas was released in 1980 followed by a live album from The Waterloo Icehouse, Recorded Live, along with a cassette-only release of studio sessions titled simply, Six âą Twenty Six âą Seventy Nine.
Gaining the love of Texas music fans, performing regularly throughout the state, yet unable to get the traction nationallyâ, in 1983 they called it quits again. Although remaining friends and working on various projects over the years, each went on to pursue solo music careers. Hyatt released several albums, plus performed on Austin City Limits, Hood became a Texas Music Hall of Fame sideman playing for artists like Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, and more, and Ballâs success with the hit, âThinkinâ Problemâ established him as a Country Music star.
Back in the late â70s at Austinâs famed Waterloo Ice House you could find Uncle Waltâs Band fans listening raptly in the packed venue sitting beside the likes of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Nanci Griffith, Jerry Jeff Walkerâ, or Marcia Ball. Now, you can pull up a seat next to them yourself. This long overdue collection attempts to right missed opportunities of the past and finally gain Uncle Waltâs Band the recognition they deserve. Enjoy the show!
CD / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
- SEAT OF LOGIC
- DISH WIPED CLEAN
- RUBY
- HIGH HILL
- ALOHA
- DONâT YOU THINK I FEEL IT TOO
- DEEPER THAN LOVE
- AS THE CROW FLIES
- BLUEBIRD
- LAST ONE TO KNOW
- STAY WITH THE ONE
- SO LONG BABY
- HOLDING ON
- WALKING ANGEL
- GIMME SOME SKINÂ (Live at The Waterloo Ice House)
- WHATEVER REASON
- ONE MEATBALLÂ (Live at The Waterloo Ice House)
- SHINE ON
- GETAWAY
- SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLDÂ (Live at Austin Aqua Fest)
BONUS TRACK:
- IâLL COME KNOCKINâ (Demo)