March 15, 2008

Uncle Walt's Band Archive

I came home from college in the fall of 1970 to find my best friend, Jimmy Hilton, hanging around with some musicians and playing in a band with them. (This was before the band was Uncle Walt's Band. As a commenter reminded me, they were the Walter Hyatt Consort at this time.) So I did a bit of hanging around with them too, and took these pictures.

Please enjoy them, but don't make copies for your own use without asking me. Thanks.

The following pictures were taken sometime in 1971, I believe. The setting is a rehearsal in the basement room of Walter's mom's house.



From left to right, the players are:
  • Jimmy Hilton, who played piano and violin. (He was classically trained and never really graduated to "fiddle.") Jimmy died in a car wreck in 1973, at the age of 24.
  • Champ Hood
  • Walter Hyatt
  • Kathy Hyatt, Walter's sister, on the drums
  • David Ball

Walter Hyatt, playing and singing.

Kathy Hyatt on the drums.

Jimmy Hilton on piano.

David Ball on stand-up and electric bass.



A few more pictures from the rehearsal.

I took the following two pictures for a poster announcing an Uncle Walt's Band show at the Wofford Coffee House. They were both taken on the grass in front of the Coffee House.




This picture was taken at Myrtle Beach, where Uncle Walt's Band played a folk festival. It's the only picture I know of that shows Jimmy playing with the band. The high point of this festival, for me, was sitting in the dressing room with the band and listening to Doc and Merle Watson warm up.




8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi David,

Amazing pictures. Grew up in SC listening to Uncle Walt's Band and trying to find some info on them came across your site. Truly great pictures of a great band.

Anonymous said...

Well written article.

Jerry Axson said...

Hi David - beautiful photographs of Uncle Walt's Band. I run Local Music Scene SC website and Facebook. The purpose of the site and page is to showcase the artists and bands that have come out of our state throughout the years. My primary focus is on history presented truthfully and factually to be used as a reference point by anyone wanting to know. There is no monetary gain for myself in doing this, I do it for love of our music and respect to the artists and bands. I would like permission to use your photos in a showcase I am planning for Uncle Walt. Of course I will reference you for each one I use. Please look the site over and let me know your thoughts on this and thank you.

David said...

Just for everyone's information: It's OK for you to link to this blog post from your website, Facebook page, etc. The permanent link is "http://onthecorkboard.blogspot.com/2008/03/uncle-walts-band-archive.html".

However, you may not copy the images to your website, link to the images individually, or otherwise make use of the images. I want the images to remain within the context of the narrative here.

Thanks for dropping by "On the Cork Board". Please come back.

David Littlejohn

mdm said...

HI David- Great photos, I am working with Heidi Hyatt on some UWB projects. Can you email me at your conveiniance to discuss ? Thanks markdmichel@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Hi, David. I want to know if you have additional photos of the Wofford coffeehouse gig. I was at the gig. I remember the gig pretty vividly, since it was the first of many times that I saw Uncle Walt’s Band (aka Walter Hyatt Consort, as I recall Walter calling it at that time) perform. I moved to Nashville and saw Uncle Walt’s Band (without your friend Jimmy) weekly when they had a job as a weekend bar band. Anyway, thanks for posting these. I haven’t seen the rehearsal pics previously.

David said...

Anonymous,

I don't seem to have any pictures of performances at the Wofford Coffee House. I guess I just wasn't interested in doing that kind of photography at the time. I did the pictures of the band on the grass at their request. If you were seeing Walter and the gang at the coffee house, I'm sure I was there, too.

mdm said...

We only know of one photo of the band playing at the Wofford Coffee House, was in Peter Cooper’s book “ Hub City Music Makers”. We do have a lo-fi recording of that show. It includes very early versions of “As The Crow Flies” and “High Hill”- Mark Michel/ Walter Hyatt/ Uncle Walt’s Band archives.