Hi ya'll, I've been a reader of this list for a while, though due to its volume, I save it to a file and use it as a search database . I stumbled across the Walter Hyatt discussion from January and had to add a few notes: Bell/Wrightson wrote: >Walter was originally from North Carolina. He and his band, Uncle >Walt's Band, arrived in Texas in the mid-70s. They included Champ Hood >(who still lives and performs in Austin) and the now hat-act, David >Ball. Actually Walter, DesChamp & David were from Spartanburg, South Carolina, and moved to Nashville in the early 70's and were part of the folk/R&R scene there, which wasn't happening yet (boy that's certainly changed now hasn't it - Nashpop...); but they did meet Raleigh, NC expatriots Tommy Goldsmith and Steve Runkle (who wrote zillion seller "Love Song" as done by the Oak Ridge Boys), and folk-god Dave Olney. Soon Goldsmith headed for Austin to play lead for Marcia Ball, and Uncle Walt's Band followed. After a while the Austin thing got old with no fame and fell apart for them. David Ball went solo and Walt, Champ, Tommy and Steve formed The Contenders back in Nashville, which should have been successful (they sure worked hard at it), but all that survived was a postmortum release on Chapel Hill-based Moonlight Records in 1978. I know Goldsmith wrote some liners for the Uncle Walt comps on Sugar Hill, and I always wondered why Suger Hill hasn't re-released the Contenders record. Its truely a gem, though rare as hell. This is a great list, - Michael Coxe, Raleigh-expatriot San Jose, CA since 78
