A year after his biggest-selling record ever, the pressure was on
Don Williams to deliver, and he did. While
Especially for You didn't sell quite as well as
I Believe in You, it sold plenty. Economics aside, it is -- like all of
Williams' work from the mid-'70s through the early '90s -- remarkably consistent, full of great songs and the now trademark production sound of
Williams and
Garth Fundis. There are some new twists here as well. While the song catch this time out was as good as any, with contributions from
Bob McDill, Rick Beresford,
Roger Cook, Dave Hanner, and other cats in the band such as
Dave Kirby and
Charles Cochran, there are two covers here of a very special nature. The first is the album's opener, "Fair Weather Friends." Written by
Joe Allen and
Johnny Cash, the song feels as if it were written for
Williams despite the steady but muted
Cash rhythm that is ever present in the song. One can hear
Cash's voice singing it too, as he has for years, but this version doesn't sound so much like a proclamation or exhortation, but like a fireside chat from an elder to a younger. The other is a duet with
Emmylou Harris on a read of
Townes Van Zandt's jewel "If I Needed You," which kicks off side two. Astonishingly faithful to the original and so ghostly in its slow, shimmering approach that it's almost not even there, it has the wallop of an emotional train wreck. Perhaps this track should have closed the set instead of opened its second half, because the voices of
Harris and
Williams move toward each other so effortlessly, so full of elegiac passion, that the other cuts can't complete, though they are excellent works. Oh well, at least the material is here and as an album it sticks up. ~ Thom Jurek