We're stuck in a warm country current and it's taking us away...I miss Don Williams. What made me think of him was reading that his song "Lord I Hope This Day is Good" (later covered by Lee Ann Womack) was roosting pretty on this date back in 1981.
Mentioning him today won't hardly cause a ripple, even though he is a new member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The truth is, Williams was such a low-key performer that lots of folks never noticed him when he was turning out hits without the hell-raising bluster of Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard. And he did a pretty good job of that, scoring an impressive 17 No. 1s during his career. All but four of his 46 charted songs made the top 10.
Two years before Eric Clapton recorded "Tulsa Time" Williams had a No. 1 tune with the song, which was written by his guitarist Danny Flowers. The others you'd have a chance of remembering even if you didn't hop that country train are "If I Needed You," a sweet duet with Emmylou Harris, "I Believe in You" and "Good Ole Boys Like Me." That last one, written by tunesmith Bob McDill, is one of our favorites at the Sanctuary.
Williams, who was known as the Gentle Giant, essentially retired in 2006. You can still buy CDs, DVDS, coffee mugs and fridge magnets at his website, and for nothing you can read our thought of the day:
Lord I hope this day is good
I'm feelin' empty and misunderstood
I should be thankful Lord, I know I should
But Lord I hope this day is good
Thanks for the blog on Williams. Brought back many memories. We are both huge fans of the man who: "Learned to talk like the man on the six o'clock news." Nancy has his double CD in the van and if it were vinyl (which we also have) it would be worn through. Curiously, 20 years or so ago, our oldest son brought home a Live Oak tree from school on Arbor Day. It's 40' tall and always reminds us of Williams.
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