Walter started seriously playing guitar at 13, aided by a scooter accident during his newspaper route that laid him up for quite some time. Encouraged by his parents towards any creative endeavor, Hyatt got the Mel Bay chord book and learned all the chords. By his mid-teens Walter had formed his first band, and by the age of 20 formed the trio Uncle Walt’s Band, with hometown friends Champ Hood and David Ball. In 1972 the boys moved to Nashville where they were soon “discovered” by revered Texas singer/songwriter Willis Allen Ramsey (Muskrat Love) who then lured them down to Austin, TX. Where their distinctive musical eclecticism had won the band’s first noted fan.

In Texas Uncle Walt’s Band began to wow Austin music lovers with their distinctive songwriting style and musical eclecticism… along with that warm southern charm, and quickly became a tour-de-force in Austin’s music scene, “We all would try to cut our last set short so we could make the last set of Uncle Walt’s Band”, says Jimmie Dale Gilmore (The Flatlanders) “We all” included; Gilmore, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Jerry Jeff Walker, Marcia Ball, Hal Ketchum and more. Even in those early days, Uncle Walt was the musician’s musician.

In 1974, Uncle Walt’s Band recorded, Blame It On The Bossa Nova, on their own label, “Lespedeza Records”. Jimmie Dale Gilmore says it is “still among my favorite records in the world.” Selling them from the stage, Uncle Walt’s Band were leaders in the independent record making trend. Their albums have taken on cult status all over the globe, all thru the South and at Universities from Berkley to Moscow (Russia).

Walter grew his Austin following for several years after and returned to Nashville in 1987 where he continued to work on his solo stylings and released the MCA Records album, “King Tears”, produced by Lyle Lovett, on which Walter was the first and only vocal artist in the Masterworks series.

From this much acclaimed release Walter toured with Lyle Lovett and was once again spotlighted on Austin City Limits in 1990. Walter continued performing live and writing music in Nashville and in 1991 Sugar Hill Records released two compellation Uncle Walt’s Band albums. In 1993 Walter released his second solo album, “Music Town” on Sugar Hill Records.

In 1996 Walter was raising his new family in Nashville and had formed the King Tears band, with whom he was traveling and performing, while preparing for is third solo album. In route from a show in Key West, Florida to his oldest daughter, Haley’s college graduation Walter was killed in ValueJet’s Flight #592 in southern Florida.

Read More About the Incident Here: Value Jet plane crash in the Florida Everglades

Tributes to Walter Hyatt at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and NPT’s Austin City Limits included performances by artists interpreting Walter’s vast musical catalogue included; Lyle Lovett, David Ball, Willis Alan Ramsey, Allison Moorer, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Gary P. Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Asleep At The Wheel, Junior Brown, Marcia Ball, Toni Price, Shawn Colvin, David Olney, Shelby Lynne, Hal Ketchum, Townes Van Zandt, Jeff Hanna, Walt Wilkins, BJ Thomas and many more. In fact, annual tributes to Walter continue to this day in Austin, Nashville, South Carolina and throughout the U.S. where Walter’s spirit and musical genius lives on.