In retrospect, it's easy to see what a creative tear Don Williams was on when he was with ABC. It wasn't so much that he was able to draw great material from songwriters, but that he knew his strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else, he could produce his own records, and he drew on both of those things to make one fine album after another. With his partner, Garth Fundis, as engineer and in backing vocals, there was virtually nothing he couldn't accomplish. And while Williams is best known for his love songs, pro and con and broken, his reach extends to other themes as well. Country Boy is one of those extended reaches. The title track, a love song fantasy, is quickly followed up by the Bob McDill classic "Louisiana Saturday Night," a hit for Mel McDaniel a few years later. And Williams keeps turning these themes around one another for the entire album with his own crack band and a nine-piece string section. "Overlookin' and Underthinkin''' is a fractured love song, and it's followed by the consequences of a rural fool who is "Sneakin' Around." It happens again on side two with the celebratory "I've Got a Woman in You," immediately followed by "Rake and Ramblin' Man," with a character who is turned inside out by the possibility that he's not just the redneck he thinks he is. Williams is in full control of his destiny, but he lets the listener discover that the characters in his songs are not and they often make it up as they go. He's a magician with a silver voice who is pure country soul, and on Country Boy that soul is bared for all to hear.
DON WILLIAMS
COUNTRY BOY
Dot DO-20881977
Produced by Don Williams
Jimmy Colvard, Reggie Young - guitarGarth Fundis - rh.guitar/vocals
Lloyd Green - steel/dobro
Joe Allen - bass/vocals
Shane Keister - keyboards
Charles Cochran - piano/keyborda
Kenny Malone - drums/percussion
Danny Flowers - harmonica/guitar
Buddy Spicher - fiddle
Strings:
Lennie Haight, Carl Gorodetzky, Wilfred Lehmann, George Binkley, Sheldon Kurland,
John Allan Catchings, Marin Katahn, David Vanderkooi, Donald Christian Teal, Kathryn Plummer
Arrangements by Charles Cochran
Recorded:
1977, Jack Clement Recording Studio, Nashville
1.
I'M JUST A COUNTRY BOY
(Marshall Barer - Fred Hellerman) « © '54 Hampshire House Publishing, ASCAP / Honeywind Productions, ASCAP »I ain't gonna marry in the fall I ain't gonna marry in the spring
Cause I'm in love with a pretty little girl who wears a diamond ring
And I'm just a country boy money have I none
But I've got silver in the stars gold in morning sun
Gold in morning sun
Never gonna kiss the ruby red lips of the prettiest girl in town
Never gonna ask her if she'd marry me I know she'd turn me down
Cause I'm just a country boy money have I none...
I never could afford a store bought ring with the sparkling diamond stone
All I could afford is a loving heart the only one that I own
Cause I'm just a country boy money have I none...
**********
2.
LOUISIANA SATURDAY NIGHT
(Bob McDill) « © '77 Ranger Bob Music, ASCAP / PolyGram Int, ASCAP »Waitin' in the front yard sittin' on a log
Single shot rifle and a one eyed dog
Yonder come a kin folks in the moonlight
Louisiana Saturday night
Hey git down the fiddle and you git down the bow
Kick off your shoes and throw 'em in the floor
Dance in the kitchen till the morning light
Louisiana Saturday night
[ guitar ] My brother Bill and my other brother Jack
Belly full of beer and a possum in the sack
Fifteen kids in front porch light
Louisiana Saturday night
Hey git down the fiddle and you git down the bow...
[ guitar ] When the kin folks leave and the kids get fed
Me and my woman gonna sneak off to bed
Have a little fun when we turn out the light
Louisiana Saturday night
Hey git down the fiddle and you git down the bow...
Hey git down the fiddle and you git down the bow...
**********
3.
OVERLOOKIN' AND UNDERTHINKIN'
(Don Williams - Joe Allen - Deon Lay) « © '77 Songs Of PolyGram, BMI / Joe Allen Music, BMI »You turned your head at things that I was doing
You closed your mind to think your eyes could never stand the scene
It's hard to look back now at what I'm ruining
You're reaching now and holding on with love I couldn't see
Overlookin' and underthinkin'
I wish that you could take me back and somehow set me free
Overlookin' and underthinkin'
Overlookin' lovin' you when you were lovin' me
Sometimes it seems the time is just all wrong
And later on you realize how things were meant to be
But time won't stop it just keeps moving on
If only I had understood what you were giving me
Overlookin' and underthinkin'...
**********
4.
SNEAKIN' AROUND
(Bob McDill) « © '77 Ranger Bob Music, ASCAP / PolyGram Int, ASCAP »Saturday evening your honey and you
Lay back on the sofa watching the tube
The telephone rings you jump to your feet
Don't answer that honey I know it's for me
Sneakin' around sneakin' around
Midnight romances the wrong side of town
You build it all up and you tear it all down
Ain't no good can came from your sneakin' around
Put on your coat and sweaten your smile
You say you're goin' step up for a while
Down to the tavern for just one or two
She knows where you're going cause she ain't no fool
Sneakin' around sneakin' around...
[ steel ] It's three in the morning as you stumble in
She ain't there to ask you where have you been
The house is all empty she's nowhere around
She got too lonely from your sneakin' around
Sneakin' around sneakin' around...
Sneakin' around sneakin' around...
**********
5.
LOOK AROUND YOU
(Buck Lindsey - Bill Joor) « © '77 Joe Allen Music, BMI »How do you like it being lonely from
What I see you're someone who knows
Oh maybe you and I could get together
Then we won't be lonely anymore
Look around you see where you've been
You ain't never have to pass that way again
Look around you if you need a friend
I might be the one who make your loneliness end
Would you like to have someone to hold you
Someone to tell your troubles to
Someone to catch you if you're falling
Someone who really cares for you
Look around you see where you've been...
**********
6.
I'VE GOT A WINNER IN YOU
(Don Williams - Wayland Holyfield) « © '77 PolyGram Int, ASCAP »I oughta know what it's like to lose at love
I've done it enough and I oughta know
But then you came my way and tore away the fear of pain
I won't lose again this time I know
I've got a winner in you no way I can lose
A love I can hold on to I've got a winner in you
[ piano ] I know how it feels when you try and try again
And you never win I know how it feels
Oh but this time around I finally found what it's all about
They write songs about the way that I feel
I've got a winner in you no way I can lose...
**********
7.
RAKE AND RAMBLIN' MAN
(Bob McDill) « © '77 Ranger Bob Music, ASCAP / PolyGram Int, ASCAP »I ran into an old friend of mine the other day
We hadn't seen each other for quite a while
What he had to say to me hit me pretty hard
Cause I think a lot of folks get started this way
He said I thought it would be so easy another one night stand
She seemed so warm and willing right in the palm of my hand
Now it's three months ago last Wednesday since I woke up in her bed
Lord I think I love her but it scares me half to death
Cause you know I'm a rake and ramblin' man free as an eagle flies
Well look at me now and tell me true do I look like a daddy to you
Oh do I look like a daddy to you
Now she's feeling sick in the mornings she can't get into her jeans
I spent my last ten dollars bought her a second hand ring
I start to work next Monday cause I just can't let her down
I've had me some good times but it's all changin' now
You know I'm a rake and ramblin' man...
You know I'm a rake and ramblin' man...
**********
8.
TOO MANY TEARS (TO MAKE LOVE STRONG)
(Jim Rushing) « © '77 Tree Publishing, BMI »It's comin' all apart babe with every tearin' word
I've lost my taste for what I take from you
When a painful night of silence is a sweetest sound I've heard
Till I play your game I'm cheatin' on the truth
It takes too many tears to make love strong
Too much of me for me and you to get along
I'd need another lifetime but I'll never last that long
It takes too many tears to make love strong
Takes a lotta livin' a lot of goin' through
To finally see an end to goin' down
There's no gettin' up my courage for making up the few
Cause making up just finds another round
It takes too many tears to make love strong...
It takes too many tears to make love strong...
**********
9.
IT'S GOTTA BE MAGIC
(Bob McDill) « © '77 Ranger Bob Music, ASCAP / PolyGram Int, ASCAP »I'm back on the road sometimes I don't know
It's hard to make good sense of it all
When I have to roam my mind's back at home
Thinking of you there all alone
But we're doing well somehow I can tell
I really don't know it's something I feel
Cause we've been making it strong each day right along
Though we both hate being alone
It's gotta be magic we're still in tune
There's good loving midnight or noon
It's gotta be magic I know it's true
Cause it's still working for me and you
We keep saying goodbye we keep on wondering why
Though we both know it just has to be
Oh but honey the road can get to be such a load
You're all that helps me make it I know
It's gotta be magic we're still in tune...
**********
10.
FALLING IN LOVE
(Bob McDill - Wayland Holyfield) « © '77 Ranger Bob Music, ASCAP / PolyGram Int, ASCAP »I thought by now I was too smart thought I was through giving my heart
It's only a game that tears you apart falling in love
My poor soul was about to mend honey then you smiled at me and then
Lord help me here I go again falling in love
Falling in love falling in love
When'll I learn I bet I get burned
Falling in love
[ steel ] Looking back through the bridges I burned each heartbreak was a page I turned
Never forget the lesson I learned falling in love
Well I was all through until we met never gonna love again and yet
Funny how soon we all forget falling in love
Falling in love falling in love...
**********
