Gentle Giant returns

Williams had a string of hits from the 1970s to the 1990s, including Tulsa Time, I Believe in You, It Must Be Love and Good Ole Boys Like Me. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

With the chance to reunite with honored Nashville producer Garth Fundis, with whom he'd worked for 17 years on many of his greatest successes and encouragement from his management and the label, he decided to go back to the studio one more time, as well as out on tour to support the release.

"I didn't do this album because I just felt that I was going to die if I didn't do another one, but because of all of that encouragement to do it," he said. "So here we are - and now I'm feeling good about it."

The band includes guitarist Billy Sanford and percussionist Kenny Malone. Keith Urban, Alison Krauss and Vince Gill add both instrumentals and vocal backing. Williams duets with Krauss on I Just Come Here for the Music. "We weren't looking to reinvent Don," producer Garth Fundis notes, "just to make a good new Don Williams record."

"When we started back up again," Williams said. "It was like we'd never quit."

Kieran Kane, Ronnie Bowman, Al Anderson and Leslie Satcher, Don's son Tim Williams and Williams himself contributed songs. "The only description that I've ever had for songs I choose to do," he said, "is that they affect me emotionally and that, hopefully, they have something to say that will touch other people." In doing both of those, listeners are about to find, 'And So It Goes' doesn't miss a beat.