Uncle Walt’s Band - Recorded Live at Waterloo Ice House (2021)

1982 live recording from trio of Walter Hyatt, Champ Hood, and David Ball.

“The best band in town was Uncle Walt’s Band.” That’s what Jimmie Dale Gilmore remembers about the trio of Walter Hyatt, Champ Hood, and David Ball circa 1980.

Originally released as a private pressing in 1982 on the band’s own Lespedeza label, Recorded Live was a document of their legendary shows at Waterloo Ice House in Austin, Texas. While those shows began around 9:30 p.m. and often continued past 2 a.m., only 14 tracks recorded over four nights were made available to share the magic of the three virtuoso singers and players.

The re-imagined version of Recorded Live—now titled Recorded Live At Waterloo Ice House—has been expanded to 21 tracks, with seven songs from the original release, four previously unissued alternate takes, and a whopping ten previously unissued performances. The new package features photos, ephemera, new liner notes from Peter Blackstock (music writer for the Austin American-Statesman), and restoration and mastering from Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Graves.

Recorded Live At Waterloo Ice House helps paint a bigger, wider picture of Uncle Walt’s Band in their prime, and certainly in their element. Tracks from this collection have been performed/recorded by Shelby Lynne, Twang Twang Shockaboom, Kelly Willis/Bruce Robison, Shawn Colvin, Christine Albert, Gary P. Nunn, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Junior Brown, and Jimmy LaFave.

The late Texas singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker once recollected, “I would go see Uncle Walt’s Band at the Waterloo Ice House, drink scotch and soda, listen to Walter sing ‘Ruby,’ and everything was all right.” Rush Evans, DJ with Austin’s KOOP-FM, says of the band, “Sitting front row center for these shows changed my life.” Longtime fan Terry Tammadge remarks, “I think of the electricity in the air at those gigs at the original Waterloo Ice House… I imagine it to be what one would have experienced at the Cavern Club seeing the Beatles.” Producer Fletcher Clark, who recorded the four weekend shows which form the foundation of this release notes of the Ice House years, “Most people sensed that they were in a very historical moment. A lot of times, you look back and go, ‘Gosh, that was the best time.’ But people realized it then.”