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Don Williams

Presented by Paramount Theatre at Paramount Theatre

October 16, 2011

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There are few American classics these days, but Don Williams is certainly one of them. With a warm hickory baritone that balances strength with a gentle concern, he draws his listener into the intimate world of an old friend. Williams, whose hits with the likes of Good Ole Boys Like Me, I Believe In You, Love Is On A Roll, Amanda and Tulsa Time, has always had a knack for finding songs that speak directly to people’s hearts.

For Don Williams, trying to address the simple pleasures and the things that should last has always been his stock in-trade. And he’s also always been something of an iconoclast in a town known for its assembly line approach to making music. “I don’t think there’s anything we have to do daily in our walk that’s more important than how we deal with each other,” Williams confesses. “To me, it’s everything. So when you’re looking for songs, if they can express that, then you’ve found something special.”

Williams recalls, “Back when I was on JMI Records several industry people really liked what I was doing but they also said it would never work … it’s too laid back.” What those people forgot is that country music is built on real emotions, real songs, real moments in people’s lives. Don Williams is a subtle master of all of those things, deftly inhaling tenderness and concern into some of the best lyrics and melodies ever created.

And his commitment to the songs never flags. “What it is, is simple: I want the best songs possible. I don’t look at songs as just singles or who the publisher is – I look at what it’s trying to say, how it feels. Then when they’re picked out, I want to treat them all the same. I want to make them as special as I can.”

For the man who got his professional start with the Pozo Seco Singers, who hit with Time in the mid-60s, there’s no greater sin than not being completely committed to the songs he’s entrusted with. As he says with an earnestness that stops you in your tracks, “There’s just the emotion. There’s the right emotion – and then it’s over.”

On February 23, 2010, the Country Music Association announced that Don Williams was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Don Williams has called this “the biggest honor of my life”. Williams creates the kind of music that speaks to everyone. There’s a broken-in familiarity among his players that can’t be created merely by charts and musicians – and those lived-in grooves fit Williams like the custom-Stetson hat he’s known for.

www.don-williams.com