Don Williams a Country Music Paradox

In a genre of music replete with songs about rebellious drinking and infidelity, Don Williams is downright counterculture.

His songs are positive love ballads that also often glorify home and family.

Don’t expect him to play the new LP “True Love” at his home on a 90-acre ranch in neighboring Cheatham County, where he lives quietly and reclusively with his wife of 30 years. The 51-year-old Williams has a detached attitude toward his music once it’s recorded, rarely listening to his songs.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’ve done after I’ve finished it,” he said. “I’m so critical of what I do that it’s just never been a part of the picture to sit around and relax with what I’ve done.”

Williams, a member of the Pozo Seco Singers pop-folk trio in the 1960s, has never been involved in even a whisper of controversy despite his high visibility as one of country music’s top performers since the mid-1970s.

“I’m so bland I’m amazed people want to do interviews with me,” he said. “We live a pretty simple life. And that’s our preference. We don’t do a whole lot. We go to church, and we were involved in school activities when our kids were in school.”