All contemporary photos taken by Alan Mercer
at the Stagecoach Ballroom in Fort Worth, TX
Multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and performer David Ball grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The son of a Baptist minister father and musician mother, David started playing the ukulele as a young boy, but by age 12 had switched to guitar.
After high school, he and hometown friends Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood moved to Nashville, where they scraped out a living as Uncle Walt's Band. The going was tough, and eventually the trio moved to Austin, TX, hoping to find greener pastures. There David and his friends matured as musicians, playing covers of popular folk and roots numbers, but also writing and performing their own compositions.
Champ Hood, Walter Hyatt & David Ball
David played bass, sang lead, and also contributed backup vocals. Uncle Walt's Band was a hit in Austin, where the music scene was more progressive and hungry young players like Lyle Lovett would pack the group's dance hall shows. The band released three successful albums before breaking up in 1983 as its members pursued solo careers.
David moved to Nashville where he signed a publishing deal and later, a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records where success was quick. ‘Thinkin' Problem,’ his 1994 release for the label, went double platinum and spawned five hit singles. The following year, David was nominated for a Male Vocalist of the Year Grammy.
Fourteen of his singles have entered the Billboard charts, including ‘Riding With Private Malone,’ which made David Ball one of the first artists to take an indie single to the Country Top 5. He has recorded a total of nine studio albums.
In 1997 Bob Dylan invited David to join artists like Jerry Garcia, Bono, and Willie Nelson to celebrate ‘The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute.’ Later that same year, Dylan became the first rock star ever to receive Kennedy Center Honors, considered the nation’s highest award for artistic excellence. David joined Bruce Springsteen that evening, as they sang in tribute. Exactly twenty years later, The Kennedy Center invited David back to perform at the JFK Centennial Celebration in May of 2017.
David won a Grammy Award for the song “Old Folks At Home (Swanee River)” from the album ‘Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster.’
In 2013 David Ball became one of the first living members to be inducted into the Historic Spartanburg Music Trail in his hometown of Spartanburg SC, joining other notables such as Hank Garland, Don Reno, Buck Trent and the Marshall Tucker Band.
David continues to honor our military by participating in fundraisers for veterans’ charities around the country, and playing tribute shows for veterans and active duty service members. On Dec 16 2016, David was honored with the Operation Troop Aid Chris Kyle Patriot Award.
David Ball released his highly anticipated new record, "Come See Me Soon," on Public Records. It’s David’s first new music in eight years. Recorded at his home in Franklin, TN, this may be David’s most personal record yet. He wrote and produced every song and created the cover art.
Alan Mercer: David, I’d like to know about your Uncle Walt’s Band experiences at the beginning of your career.
David Ball: Uncle Walt’s Band was three guys, all from Spartanburg, South Carolina. We kind of grew up together. I knew Champ Wood in grammar school. I did not know Walt. He was always a mysterious guy, but I did meet his older brother.
AM: How big was Spartanburg then?
DB: Spartanburg was only about seventy thousand people when I was in the eleventh grade.
AM: Were you playing music with each other already?
DB: I had played a little, off and on, with Champ. He was a little bit older than me. Everybody was in bands. We were all in different bands. The drummer in Champ’s band had a little brother and he was a bass player in my band. So, we would all hang out. Then Champ started playing with Walter Hyatt, who was a bona fide Folk musician. They were phenomenal when they played together in Spartanburg.
AM: How did you start playing with them?
DB: They only played here and there in small clubs and restaurants. I would go see them and follow them around. After about a year, I would get up and sing with them a little bit. Then I figured out what they needed was a bass fiddle, so I went and got one.
AM: And you learned to play it?
DB: Being a guitar player, it was pretty easy to pick it up. Within about five or six months I started playing that bass with them. Of course, they taught me a lot of stuff.
AM: Didn’t you write songs for the group?
DB: Yes, we all wrote songs. I think Walter was always the inspiration and the direction. Really, what happened was the three of us got together and just started singing harmony. We just created all these different kinds of blends. That’s what I did for about two years. After school, about 4 o’clock, we’d all wind up at Walter’s house. Those guys were hot to trot so we ended up in Nashville for a year.
AM: How did you end up going to Austin?
DB: We met a lot of people from Texas when we were in Nashville and they encouraged us to come out to Austin.
AM: You have a “Texas” quality to your music.
DB: That’s because speaking musically, I totally grew up in Texas music. We were seventeen and eighteen years old when we first went out there. We loved hanging out so within a year we moved there. We stayed out there for eleven years. Uncle Walt’s went through some changes. At one point, Jr. Brown played some steel guitar. We had a great fiddler. We were a good Swing band. It wasn’t really a Western Swing.
AM: You guys sure did play the right kind of music.
DB: That kind of music just fit with the upright bass and our vocals. We were all crooners.
AM: I have to ask you about your song, ‘Don’t You Think I Feel It Too.’ It’s one of my favorite songs of all time.
DB: That was about the first song I ever wrote.
AM: What a great first song. It’s a classic! Do you ever sing it now?
DB: Thank you. Yes, I do still perform it. Omnivore Recordings has put out all that music again.
AM: And how exciting was it to win a Grammy?
DB: It was exciting! I really didn’t realize how big a deal it was. I had been nominated a couple years before but then I won with ‘Swanee River.’ I love that music. That’s South Carolina music. It’s great to go back to that very melodic sound that’s hot.
AM: I want to talk about your latest album. I want everyone to hear it.
DB: I was hoping you could tell me what it was.
AM: It’s a hybrid of different influences isn’t it?
DB: Yes.
AM: I hear gut bucket blues. I love the under produced sounds.
DB: I love it!
AM: Do you have anyone singing with you?
DB: No, that’s me doing the harmonies. I played all the guitars.
AM: Your voice has such a large range.
DB: Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that.
AM: Is it all you on the album?
DB: Yes, but Scott Metko came in and played some drums on two or three songs.
AM: I love the song, ‘Pretty Baby.’
DB: Scott is playing drums on that one. It makes a difference and I can hear it.
AM: I also love ‘Put Your Arms Around This Broken Heart.’ I feel ridiculous even mentioning any titles because I love them all.
DB: Well I appreciate that. Making the album was so easy. I went at my own leisure and when I felt inspired to do it. I just didn’t want to go into the studio and mess with the click track and deal with the sounds. I just got my sounds how I wanted them, and it took five minutes. It does not have to take all day. When I felt like singing, I would record the vocal in one pass. There’s a freshness.
AM: Did you write every song?
DB: I wrote all of them, yeah.
AM: I knew you wrote them, but they sound like classic old songs from decades ago.
DB: I’ll tell you the truth, I feel like I found a voice that I had not explored. I like a lyric that floats along with the melody. I enjoyed writing all the songs.
AM: I hope you do another album in a similar vein.
DB: I think I am.
AM: It sets you apart.
DB: Good, I walked into a music store the other day and they had about sixty CD’s up in a rack and they had mine with that goofy cover, and it jumped out at you. That’s what I wanted. I’m always about something new.
AM: I love it because it lets you know the music is unpolished.
DB: Not over cooked. (Laughter)
To learn more about David ball visit his web site https://davidball.com/