The Contenders: The Contenders

Repost for Good Reason: They Coulda Been...

I attended a show, this afternoon, by a band called The Belleville Outfit. Go see their blog (at http://www.thebellevilleoutfit.blogspot.com/) and then go buy their new CD at your local (preferably locally owned) Music Store. They were in town to pay tribute to a local hero and are playing in a sold out program this evening that features a larger group of artists paying tribute to the same man.

Walter Hyatt is legendary in these parts (and several others) as the lead songwriter for a band called "Uncle Walt's Band", who influenced songwriters such as Lyle Lovett and Robert Earle Keen while living and performing in Austin, TX. He was killed in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in 1996, at the time pursuing a successful solo career.

He was also a member of another band. The Contenders were a group that was put together while Hyatt and fellow "Uncle Walt's" alumn DesChamps Hood were living in Nashville in the 70s and 80s. They released but one album and it is phenomenal. If I thought I could explain the record, or the band, any better than Eugene Chadbourne already has for "The All Music Guide" I would try. I can't, though, so here is what he has to say:

"The Contenders are considered one of the great "could have been" bands from the progressive country scene, featuring several of the brilliant players associated with Uncle Walt's Band in combination with a pair of North Carolina pickers and songwriters. It wasn't the quality of music that kept this group from ever hitting it big, despite the adage "the worse the music, the more the people." But it very well could have been the group's name, since a band that calls itself the Contenders is going to have to compete with a religious cult, a Kinks album, a television series, a film, and an eight-piece Minneapolis ska band, not to mention the category of shreeves running for public office that refer to themselves as "contenders" as well. The Contenders under discussion here originally formed in Nashville in the early '70s. Singer and guitarist Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood, a pro on fiddle as well as guitar and vocals, joined up with Steve Runkle and Tommy Goldsmith. Hyatt and Hood were two of the three members of Uncle Walt's Band, a group that had formed while still in high school in Spartanburg, SC. Drummer Jimbeau Walsh consolidated the Contenders lineup, which boasted a whopping (or horrifying, depending on one's point of view and band politics) four songwriters and lead vocalists.

"Fans of the band tend to feel the wonderful harmonies and ace picking were severely overlooked by the country rock audience. The success of groups in this genre, such as the Eagles, could have been the Contenders'. Yet not a single recording made by the Eagles had the complexity or musical interest of the Contenders, which goes a long way toward explaining one group's popularity and the other's lack of it. Ragtime and swing influences came into the band via Hyatt and Hood, while Goldsmith brought in an authentic old-time country-rock sound that is completely out of the Glenn Frey universe.

"Hyatt and Hood continued on with a re-formed Uncle Walt's Band into the early '80s, followed by solo careers for both and a busy schedule as a fiddle session man for Hood. In 1997, Hyatt died in the awful ValuJet crash in the Everglades. Runkle remained in Nashville as a writer and player, working and recording with artists such as David Olney and Tom House. Goldsmith, on the other hand, became a journalist while Walsh is supposedly in Hawaii doing who knows what. Of interest to song collectors obsessed with American cities would be Runkle's "Greensboro Blues," supposedly inspired by Olney's "Original Greensboro Blues." Other songs about Greensboro include "Greensboro Woman" by Townes Van Zandt and yet another "Greensboro Blues," this one by Bruce Piephoff, the only one of these jokers who actually lives in Greensboro. The Contenders, minus Goldsmith, who was recovering from an operation, backed Olney up on short tours in the late '70s." - Eugene Chadbourne, The All Music Guide

Sadly, the parts left out of this story (which was written, I'm sure, before they took place) are that both DesChamps Hood and Steve Runkle have passed away in the meantime.


This is a great record. It's a bit more laid back than what you usually find here (even moreso than some of the Easy Listening records I've posted) but it has a groove all it's own. Git it.

The Contenders: The Contenders

1. Lean on Your Mind
2. The Lack of Love
3. Walking Angel
4. Hollywood Girls
5. Silver Cup
6. Chain of Emotion
7. Dim the Light
8. Smokey Night Life
9. Whatever Reason
10. Talk
11. Light from Carolina