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, someone who cares deeply about you and the quality of your life ... and who will always offer a hand when you need it.

“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.”

Without a doubt 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, have always had a knack for finding songs that speak directly to people's hearts.

“When you first start making records, all the songs are challenging and there's so much to talk about,” Williams begins, explaining the challenges of maintaining one's artistic commitment a quarter of a century into a solo career. “But after you've done it for a while, it's hard to revisit the same places and still be believable.”

“The longer you do it, the harder it becomes to do things that aren't just an echo of something you've already done. Of course, when you do lock into it, the fact that you've lived all those years and seen so much allows you to bring a lot of things to the song you couldn't have when you were starting out.”

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.

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.”