The difficult phone calls that rang across Music City on Sunday, and the friends who gathered on the porch and living room of Walter and Heidi Hyatt’s West Nashville home that afternoon, served as a reminder of how interlocked Nashville’s music community can be. The untimely tragedy of Hyatt’s death in the Valujet plane crash last weekend brought forth his community of friends, who shared tales of his special artistry alongside remembrances of his warmth and generosity.
An intelligent, soft-spoken soul with the rumpled look of a distracted college professor, Hyatt asserted his presence in Nashville with graceful gentleness. Although identified in news reports as a songwriter, Hyatt wasn’t interested in joining the tune factory of Music Row publishing houses. He was an artist, a writer of timeless pop songs with a jazzy underpinning, who performed with a sly subtlety dabbed with urbanity and melancholy blues. His work drew on such masters as Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer rather than on traditional country or modern pop tunesmiths; his guitar playing would have fit in better with Basie or Goodman than it would have with Reba or Garth.
Hyatt struggled financially, but he never considered altering or selling out what mattered most to him about his music. After moving to Nashville in 1987, he occasionally took jobs preparing sandwiches or taking food orders, always with a smile and without a complaint. He gladly lent his expertise at the sound board for weekly shows at the Sutler, a humble and sometimes thankless gig that he assumed with the same gentlemanly casualness he displayed onstage.
Hyatt leaves a recorded legacy that is both invariably artful and unfortunately meager. He first set his reputation as part of the critically applauded Uncle Walt’s Band, a short-lived Austin trio that remains a cult favorite. The band featured David Ball (now a successful country singer) and Champ Hood (an in-demand multi-instrumentalist). Their three albums have been collected and reissued on CD by Sugar Hill Records. In 1990, MCA’s Master Series label released Hyatt’s fine King Tears, coproduced by his old friend Lyle Lovett. A 1993 album on Sugar Hill Records received similarly good reviews.
“Outside Looking Out,” a song on King Tears, nicely describes Hyatt’s point of view. He was out of step with modern musical trends, and proudly so. He wasn’t interested in trying to mold his style to fit the mainstream. Instead, he worked on perfecting what he enjoyed, and he figured that those who appreciated and understood his work would find him. Those who did know how much has been lost.
A memorial fund has been established for Hyatt’s family, who were left without insurance. Contributions may be made to the Walter Hyatt Fund, Second Presbyterian Church, 3511 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37215.
Sunday, May 19, from 5-6 p.m., Hunter Moore will host a tribute to Hyatt on WRVU-91 Rock.
Producer Stuart Colman is the latest well-established Brit to relocate from London to Nashville. Colman first came to fame in England as an influential disc jockey for BBC Radio One, where he was known for his eclectic tastes and his knowledge of American roots music. As a record producer, Colman is best known for his work with Shakin’ Stevens, a rockabilly singer who sold over 30 million albums worldwide but never achieved success in America equal to his European popularity. Colman has also worked as a producer for The Jets, Phil Everly, Little Richard, Jeff Beck, Kim Wilde, The Inmates, Cliff Richard and Gary Glitter. Since moving to Nashville, he’s worked with The Crickets, Billy Swan, Etta Britt, and the Big Town Playboys, as well as producing a comeback album for Connie Francis at Woodland Studios.
“I’ve always been a fan of the music of Nashville,” Colman says. “I used to champion it a lot when I was on the radio. I’m a huge admirer of the studio A-teams of the past, of people like Grady Martin and Hank Garland. What Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins achieved with four-track machines was just fantastic.... There’s always been greatness coming out of this city.”
Like many other recording veterans moving to Nashville, Colman also mentions the city’s friendliness and its standard of living. “There are a lot of things here that used to exist in England but are disappearing,” he says. He also believes British music is too technological and recycled, while “the freshest of the new country music is really the new pop music. It’s the kind of music that has always appealed to me. There’s such a fresh vibe here. It reminds me of the strength of the music that came out of England in the late ’60s and early ’70s.”
Since its inception in 1972, the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas, has grown from a modest three-day event to an 18-day celebration that draws thousands of modern troubadours for all-night campfire jam sessions and hours of acoustic balladry. Last year’s festival attracted 30,000 songwriters and spectators, and this year marks the festival’s 25th anniversary. The lineup for this year’s New Folk Concerts competition, to be held May 25 and 26, includes Nashvillians Adie Grey, Rory Lee, Lee Mitchell, John McVey, Marianne Osiel, Steve Dan Mills, Mark Aaron James, Roxie Dean, and Dianne Cannon and Michael Killen. Among the festival’s featured artists are Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Kevin Welch and Dar Williams. The Kerrville Folk Festival runs May 23-June 16; for more information, call 1-800-435-8429 weekdays.
