The Life and Legacy of Don Williams: Country Music's Gentle Giant (1939–2017)

Don Williams, country music performer and songwriter, was born in Floydada, Texas, on May 27, 1939. He was the son of James Andrew Williams and Loveta Mae (Lambert) Williams. His father was listed as a farm laborer in Floyd County on the 1940 census. He grew up in Portland, Texas, and his mother taught him to play guitar. Williams attended Gregory-Portland High School, where he served as vice president of the freshman class. The teenager performed in various bands in the Corpus Christi area. In 1960 he married Joy Janene Bucher. They had two sons, Tim and Gary.

With fellow guitarist and singer Lofton Kline, Williams formed a duo known as The Strangers Two and performed folk music at Del Mar College and other venues in Corpus Christi. In 1964 the two teamed up with performer Susan Taylor and established the folk group Pozo Seco Singers. At the height of the folk pop movement, the trio found success in 1966 with the hit “Time”—the B-side to the single “Hello Blues and Down the Road I Go,” which was penned by Williams and recorded at Gold Star Studios in Houston. The Pozos toured the United States, and the group’s harmonies, enriched by Williams’s warm baritone, drew audience approval.

After the Pozos disbanded in 1970, Williams worked at his father’s furniture store before he signed on as a songwriter for Jack Clement’s Jack Music publishing company in Nashville. After Williams initially recorded demos for producer Allen Reynolds, he signed with Clement’s JMI Records to record his own songs. His first country single, “Don’t You Believe,” was released in 1972 and soon followed by his first album, Don Williams, Volume One. Several songs charted, including Williams’s own tune, “The Shelter of Your Eyes,” at Number 14. One song off that record, Bob McDill’s “Come Early Morning” (that charted at Number 12), was also produced as a music video therefore making Williams one of the earliest country performers to do so. A follow-up album, Don Williams, Volume Two, came out in 1973. His rendition of Allen Reynolds’s “We Should Be Together” resulted in Williams’s first Top 5 hit in 1974. Later that year Wiliams had his first Number 1 song with “I Wouldn’t Want to Live If You Didn’t Love Me,” written by Al Turney—thus launching a string of fifty-six chart-making songs, including seventeen Number 1 hits from 1974 to 1991.

His success promoted not only his prowess as a songwriter but also propelled the careers of other tunesmiths, with recordings of Bob McDill’s “Say It Again,” “It Must Be Love,” and the reflective “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” as well as Danny Flowers’s “Tulsa Time” and Roger Cook’s and Sam Hogin’s “I Believe in You.”

Williams’s unassuming, down-to-earth manner and rich baritone voice earned him the title of country music’s “Gentle Giant,” and he was a fan favorite with national and international audiences. He was elected into the Grand Old Opry in 1976 and named the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year in 1978; his version of “Tulsa Time” was named CMA Single of the Year. Readers of Country Music People, a magazine based in London, named Williams Artist of the Decade in 1980. Williams also had appearances in the Burt Reynolds films W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) and Smokey and the Banditt II (1980). In 1981 he promoted the work of another songwriter, Townes Van Zandt, with his performance with Emmylou Harris on the duet, “If I Needed You,”—a Top 5 hit.

After JMI Records, Williams signed with the ABC-Dot label from 1974 to 1978, then MCA (1979–85), Capitol (1985–89), RCA (1989–92), and other labels. His last hit came out in 1991 with “Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy,” but he continued a prolific recording output and performance schedule. Hailed as an “international ambassador of country music,” he commanded a strong following in Europe (especially the British Isles), Australia, Latin America, and was one of the few country performers to tour in Africa. In spite of his musical stature, Williams remained humble and refuted his superstar status. “The only way that I would be comfortable with that sort of title,” he once commented, “is when people tell me that my music has helped them through some stage in their life.” When asked about “special treatment,” he said, “I never have been too big on that.” William preferred to spend time with his family on a farm in Alabama.

His album My Heart to You was released on Sugar Hill Records in 2004. His 2006 tour was publicized as a “farewell tour,” but in 2010 he came out of retirement. That year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and to date had released more than thirty-five albums. The Best of Don Williams, Volume II and the Best of Don Williams, Volume III went gold; I Believe in You was certified platinum. He released Reflections in 2014 and retired from touring in 2016. Musicians from many genres have recorded Williams’s songs, and in 2017 a tribute album, Gentle Giants: The Songs of Don Williams, was released.

Don Williams died on September 8, 2017, in Mobile, Alabama. He was seventy-eight. His remains were cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. He was survived by his wife of fifty-seven years and his two sons. Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, described Williams’s music as a “balm in troublesome times” from a man who “offered calm, beauty, and a sense of wistful peace….”