the CD Reviewed
11
"Over and over
as I listen to this disc,
I remember why I love music....
the nuances...momentarily erase the world for us"
—Al Maginnes
cdconsumer.com
Selected as one of the
TOP ELEVEN CDs of 2000!
visit CD Consumer
Rock and roll bands are not usually long-lived entities. True, a few lumber on decade after decade like the Rolling Stones, but most vanish early on, victims of too much success or not enough or of any of a million other hazards. If we are lucky, we have the legacy of their recordings and perhaps a memory or two of seeing them live. If we are really lucky, we get a second chance at a band we didn’t catch the first time around. Thanks to the dedication of two hardcore South Carolinians, we get one more shot at hearing The Contenders, one of the great should-have-been bands.
The Contenders formed in Nashville in the early seventies when Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood, recently of the fabled Uncle Walt’s Band, joined forces with Steve Runkle and Tommy Goldsmith, two transplanted North Carolina songwriters, and a drummer from Illinois named Jimbeau Walsh. With four songwriters and lead vocalists, The Contenders packed more talent than many of their platinum contemporaries. As I listen to Light From Carolina Vol. 1, I keep wondering how lames like The Eagles sold billions of units of their country-pop light while challenging, grown-up rock and roll like this went begging.
In Uncle Walt’s Band, Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood incorporated ragtime and swing influenced rhythms into a string band setting, and those tendencies still lurk on Hyatt’s “Jungle Flower” and “Lean On Your Mind.” But The Contenders could switch from those tricky grooves to the old-time country-rock of Tommy Goldsmith’s “Old Records” or Steve Runkle’s gorgeous ballad “Snowing Me Under.” These live performances reveal a loose and lively band that avoided the cocaine-cowboy-outlaw cliches so prevalent among seventies bands.
Over and over as I listen to this disc, I remember why I love music. This is music full of those tiny epiphanies that make you pull a little closer to the speakers. And these moments--the twin leads at the end of “Darling, What Does It Take?” or Steve Runkle singing “Sing my song with me,Walter Hyatt,” as the band eases into the last chorus of “Snowing Me Under” or the way Champ Hood’s fiddle solo on “April the Third,” drifts into a meandering guitar solo--are the ones that I listen for, when the nuances of a tune momentarily erase the world for us.
So, where are The Contenders now? Walter Hyatt died several years ago in the Valujet crash, but his solo albums, King Tears and Music Town, are still available and indispensable. Champ Hood is still making music and tours and records almost constantly, usually backing other singers. Steve Runkle is in Nashville writing and playing; he can be heard on recent albums by David Olney and Tom House. Tommy Goldsmith has become a journalist and Jimbeau Walsh is rumored to be in Hawaii.
“The funky Contenders, the mighty Contenders,” Walter Hyatt says after introducing the band members. Funky they were and mighty too. We’re lucky to have another chance at them. Don’t miss them this time around.
Copyright © 2000 CD Consumer, used by permission
Many thanks to Al for writing and letting us post this. Please visit the CD Consumer site for more insightful CD reviews by Al Maginnes and others. Al has also included Light from Carolina in his Top eleven CDs of 2000! We couldn't agree more.
The Contenders: Light from Carolina Vol. 1
by Al Maginnes of cdconsumer