Silver Turns To Gold - Don Williams

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Reviewed by Kathy Coleman

In the world of country music there are few artists as deservedly and unabashedly admired as Don Williams. With his mellow, smooth-as-velvet voice; his quiet, commanding presence; and his deceptively simple delivery, Don Williams remains a solid foundation, holding up the ageless tradition of smokey, "upper-crust" country music without apology, without complaint, and without bending to any current "trend." Don Williams remains nothing more than what he's always claimed to be: Just a country boy.

While songs of puppy love and starry eyes are all the rage with the mainstream cookie- cutter acts, Don Williams croons songs of adult love these songs are not about fireworks and addlepated teenage crushes replete with deathless sighs; rather, they are songs of adult lovers, who know that love actually means waking up every morning to the same face and staying in love even when the sewers are backing up and the roof is caving in. Williams takes on a surprisingly diverse cluster of songs here, largely familiar covers many of them FAR from being country--all re-worked with his magnificent voice and newly-minted sound that does, indeed, turn silver to gold. While each song may be familiar, Don gives them his own classic country- smooth sound as he makes them his own by, really, not changing them much at all.

From the opening, a fairly faithful cover of Nat King Cole's "Pretend," we are welcomed into Don's world. It's quieter here, a little more gentle, a little more laid-back. Don doesn't "play it loud." There won't be any guitars broken, nor will there be any choreography, nothing wild. Nothing crazy. Don merely sings, and he sings well. His band is tight, complimenting their superlative lead singer perfectly.

"Shadow Land" is a hauntingly beautiful song, one of my favorites on the disc. Don's cover of Carole King's "Crying in the Rain" is lovely. Surprising, and wonderful, is Don's version of "Reason to Believe," which has been covered by nearly everyone in the world, but was made famous by Rod Stewart.

Other very familiar covers include another Carole King, "You've Got a Friend," a staple of the 70's generation, and the Gordon Lightfoot standard, "If You Could Read My Mind." Several originals are here, as well, "Wash It All Away," "I Need You To Want Me," and "What Does It Matter To Me" all have Don's writing stamp on them. But one of the strongest tracks, a love song like only Don Williams can sing them, is the title track, "Silver Turns To Gold," a wonderful tune by Danny Flowers and Vince Santoro. It does seem that there is an "age line" keeping country radio "young" there's not a reason anyone can give me I'll agree with when trying to explain why these songs won't get any radio airplay, other than Don is no longer young. Too country? Nah, not these songs. But real? Adult? Countrypolitan for the mature listener? Very much so.

If there are any faults in Don Williams' music, it's a fault that is probably also his greatest strength: Sameness. Don doesn't experiment nor stray far from making the music he likes to make, singing the way he wants to sing. He produced this album for Don Williams Enterprises, and RMG Records was good enough to release it in keeping with Don's obvious vision. This is a collection of songs that mean something to Don personally, and he simply hopes the listener will like them, too. I certainly do.

Song List:

1. Pretend
2. Shadow Land
3. Crying In The Rain
4. Wash It All Away
5. Fever
6. Restless
7. You've Got A Friend
8. Silver Turns To Gold
9. Reasons To Believe
10. I Need You To Want Me
11. If You Could Read My Mind
12. What Does It Matter To Me