My high school friend suggested that we go to hear a concert. It must have been about 1975 or 1976. She said, “I want you to hear Uncle Walt’s Band.” I had no idea her uncle was a musician, but I had grown up hearing my Daddy and his friend E.W. picking on their mandolins around the kitchen table, so I didn’t mind going to listen to a bunch of “old farts” fiddling around.
She took me to a local bar that was crowded and noisy and hazy with smoke, as all bars were at the time. I noticed three handsome young men who seemed to be “holding court.” They were sitting at a table shaking hands with people who approached them.
I kept asking my friend when her uncle was going to play, and she just laughed at me. As we sat at our table, the women sitting beside us began to chant, “Champ, Champ, Champ.” Soon, other people were chanting, as well. I didn’t have anything better to do, so I started chanting, too. I had no clue what it meant.
Then, one of those handsome young men arose from the table. He had wavy golden-blond hair that reached his shoulders, and an almost angelic shy smile that lit up the room around him. He walked onto the makeshift stage in the corner of the room and picked up a bass fiddle.
“Who’s that?” I asked my friend.
“That’s Champ,” she replied. “His name is DesChamp Hood.”
The other two good looking fellows joined him onstage with guitars and fiddles, and the music began. “Uncle Walt” was not my friend’s uncle … his name was Walter Hyatt. The trio of Walter Hyatt, David Ball, and Champ Hood were magic. As they began to sing their ethereal harmonies, I couldn’t figure out if I was listening to Bluegrass, Cajun, Country, Jazz, or Blues. It was a phenomenal hybrid of all of them.
Uncle Walts Band~ Champ Hood, Walter Hyatt, David Ball
I didn’t know it, but I was listening to young men who would be legends on the Texas music scene back then. Although the group didn’t achieve national “fame,” they were respected by all of the Austin singer-songwriters at the time.
I was remembering Uncle Walt’s Band today, as we prepare for a trip to Austin because I can’t think of the city without remembering the beauty of the music that night. I began Googling to find some music to share with you and was unable to find much. Although I knew that Walter Hyatt had died in an airplane crash in 1996, I was devastated to learn that Champ had died of lung cancer in 2001 (I was “unplugged” from the news and from music for a few years around that time).
Reading that information was a shock, and made me feel a bit like a hermit who came out of her cave to discover that while she was hiding in the depths of the mountain, Elvis had died (or John Lennon or Michael Jackson … you get the picture). It made me sad that he died too young, but I also mourn my youth and the innocence that the music of Uncle Walt’s Band represented to me. I thought they would always be there … and grow old along with me.
I’ve been playing “Green Tree” and watching Champ fiddle. Yes, I’ve been chanting, “Champ, Champ, Champ.” But, I’m whispering it quietly, so my husband won’t get jealous.
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{ 1 comment }
Beautiful, thank you for sharing it. It’s hard to imagine that golden lad has since died of lung cancer.
.-= Robin´s last blog ..I’m speechless =-.
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