Uncle Walt's Band

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Forever associated with the redneck hippies who littered Austin in the 1970s, Uncle Walt's Band originally hailed from South Carolina but relocated to the Lone Star State after releasing their debut, Blame It on the Bossa Nova, finding the home of the Armadillo World Headquarters more welcoming to their rangy hybrid of folk and country. Once in Austin, they retitled their debut after themselves, re-issuing it in 1978 with an altered running order. Omnivore later expanded this album with a bunch of bonus tracks: eight demos, plus four live tracks, including two cut at the Waterloo Ice House. In any incarnation, the music on Uncle Walt's Band is strikingly out of time, proud to be part of a folk lineage but not overly respectful of their roots. There's a laconic sense of humor in Uncle Walt's Band, evident not only in the songs of Walter Hyatt, David Ball, and Champ Hood but in their sly interplay as a group. The trio plays with a slight swing that's evident even on their ballads, and they drift in and out of group harmony, two qualities that give their music a rich elasticity that underscores how they elude any strict categorization. At times, they seem like kindred spirits to the sensitive singer/songwriters of Southern California, particularly when they're singing poignant love songs. Other times, their debt to the Grateful Dead of American Beauty is evident; witness how they turn Robert Johnson's "Four 'Till Late" into a lithe bluegrass number. This elusive blending of traditions -- at once knowingly contemporary and steeped in the past -- was an original sound in the 1970s and had a deep impact on the Americana of the 21st century, but what's striking about the group's debut album all these decades later is that it still seems fresh and imaginative, unlike anything that came before or since. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine