Don Williams’ death breaks social media
In less than 24 hours, the news of the death of country music ace, 78-year-old Don Williams, has shattered the social media, recording more than 60 million tweets.
Notable among celebrities that are mourning the award winning country singer is Kenny Rogers, who tweeted: “Sending my sincere and heartfelt prayers to the families & friends of Don Williams’’.
A statement by his publicist, Mr. Kirt Webster, said he Don Williams died on Friday after a short illness.
Williams had a string of hits before retiring in 2016.
His mellow sound influenced a later generation of singers including Joe Nichols and Josh Turner and Keith Urban has said Williams drew him to country music.
Williams, nicknamed ‘the Gentle Giant,’ had a rich voice, gentle delivery and storytelling style. He toured sparingly, did few media interviews and spent much of his time on his farm west of Nashville.
“It’s one of those blessings and curses kind of things,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1994.
Some of his hits included I Believe in You, Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good, You’re My Best Friend, Some Broken Hearts Never Mend, Till the Rivers All Run Dry and Back in My Younger Days.
At least one duet with Emmylou Harris made the charts, If I Needed You in 1981.
In his tweet, Margo Price, said: “Rest In Peace to the Gentle Giant, Don Williams. Man knew how to burn that slow groove. May have to work up ‘Tulsa Time’ this weekend.’’
Brothers Osborne: “ RIP Don Williams. 100% class and spirit. Said so much with so little. He was and will always be a blessing in country music.’’
He ended with with “RIP icon Don William’’
Don Williams was nicknamed the Gentle Giant at a not-quite towering 6’1”. He was giant, though, when it came to his success on the country charts. With a nearly two-decade-long run in the top ten of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Williams remained steadfast as the genre moved through a number of different aesthetic eras, carving out his own timeless, velvety niche with his distinctive voice and style.
The native Texan had already spent years pushing for hits as a member of the ’60s folk group the Pozo-Seco Singers (best known for their song “Time”) by the time he made it to Nashville and launched his solo career. He had hits almost immediately, and rarely strayed from the sound and collaborators he established early on. Williams produced and wrote as well as sang and played guitar; especially as a producer, he was able to keep his rock solid but still understated soft country-rock sound constant through dozens of songs.
Williams’ rich bass-baritone voice, charming and more than a little seductive, offered another throughline to his catalog. Just about any love song sounded sweeter when Williams sang it, and more modern and groovy when he produced it – so even though he was incredibly prolific through the ’70s and ’80s, his hit rate rarely changed. It was country through an adult contemporary lens, mature and familiar but still compelling. Yet with all that consistency, Williams was still able to dabble in contemporary styles like disco more convincingly than most other country artists – it all still just sounded like Don Williams music, rather than some significant departure.
