Album Review – Don Williams “Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes”
Is it only a coincidence that after the death of the great Don Williams in 2017, everything seemed to begin unraveling in society? Is it just by chance that when they struck Don Williams from radio in the ’90s, and after he released his final original album in 2014, these events were followed by periods of malaise in country music? Maybe.
But there’s just something about the music of Don Williams that sets the human soul at ease in a manner no other artistic expressions or medical prescriptions ever could. The world was a better place because of the music of Don Williams, and everyone who sat in audience of his music were better people for it. You’re incapable of cussing out the driver beside you in traffic, or responding to someone in ALL CAPS on the internet after spending your afternoon with The Gentle Giant.
All the more reason to strongly anticipate the release of his posthumous archive album Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes. Captured between 1979 and 1984 when Williams was at the height of his powers, the album includes never-before-heard recordings discovered in the cellar of the Williams family’s rural Tennessee home on multi-track tapes. The tapes were in workable shape, with Don’s vocal tracks intact across the recordings. Some of the instrumental tracks had deteriorated over time, so they solicited Don’s long-time producer Garth Fundis to help restore the recordings.
The results sound like a Don Williams album no different from any other in his storied catalog, sliding right between landmark releases like Country Boy and Expressions. Can you expect to hear songs that became legendary standards like “I’m Just a Country Boy” and “Tulsa Time”? Of course not. There’s a reason these songs were left to the side when albums from the era were released. But all of these songs sound like Don Williams, and despite their orphaned history, still present a really strong effort, and one you’re more than happy to receive since it’s a Don Williams gift from beyond.
Even though these song were taken for various sessions, they all work together surprisingly well. Along with “Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight” made famous by The Oak Ridge Boys and written by Rodney Crowell, you have a strong selection of love songs that look at the emotion from a host of different angles. The opening song “Try Me Again” is about second chances. “I’m The One” is about evolving beyond a walled heart when you find the right person. “I’m In Love For My Last Time” and “How Can I Miss What I Never Had” also explore perspectives and experiences in love like only a song delivered by Don Williams can.
This album might not include any super hits for today or even yesteryear, but you do feel like “I’m The One” presented in two separate versions on the album could emerge as an all-timer from the Don Williams discography. It really captures the essence of makes Don Williams so great. One of the reasons Don’s legacy remains so strong here nearly a decade after his death is he didn’t really release any bad songs. And even after sweeping up all the leavings on the studio floor and cobbling them together for a posthumous release, he still hasn’t.
Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes might not set the world on fire like we saw with the Waylon Jennings posthumous release last year, Songbird, which charted on Billboard, and had some calling it an Album of the Year. But it’s far from a rag tag collection of odds and sods. Similar to Waylon (who covered some Don Williams songs in his day), Don just didn’t do anything that wasn’t quality. Even his worst stuff is better than some of what is labeled as great today.
If Don Williams were resurrected or still around today, it might not change the world. But he had the unique ability to smooth the edges off of life, to soothe the frayed nerves of everyday occurrences, and to make moments feel more vibrant. The music of Don Williams just made life easier and more enjoyable to live. The Cellar Tapes lend to that legacy.
8/10
– – – – – – – – – – –
Stream/Purchase Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes
June 1, 2026 @ 7:11 am
I own this record. Proud to have my third Don Williams vinyl. Side note: everyone also check out “And So It Goes”.
June 1, 2026 @ 7:14 am
The last two albums of Don’s career including “And So It Goes” are as good as any from his catalog. Can’t say I own every record, but every record I’ve heard cover to cover is great.
June 1, 2026 @ 7:31 am
After hearing Waylon’s album and now these tracks, every relative of a deceased country star should be sprinting to their cellars to see if there are any unreleased recordings tucked away down there.
June 1, 2026 @ 7:55 am
Scooter Jennings will already be down there.
June 1, 2026 @ 8:30 am
Yes, now if we can just get the Haggard family to get to work and release Merle’s unreleased music from his archives and also his last album produced by Buddy Cannon. These are long overdue.
June 1, 2026 @ 3:23 pm
Won’t ever happen. Ol’ Hag is dead will soon enough be as forgotten as Lefty Frizzell and Ray Price, sadly.
Legal disputes, debt, bad blood within the (extended) family and so on prevents a release from happening anytime soon.
And; if the archive really held some buried gold, he would’ve released it long before he died. The last two-three decades worth of output didn’t serve his legacy well.
June 1, 2026 @ 3:26 pm
“Ol’ Hag is dead will soon enough be as forgotten as Lefty Frizzell and Ray Price, sadly.”
Bullshit, and over my dead body.
Maybe they won’t release the archive material. But Haggard is an all-timer. He won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
June 1, 2026 @ 4:15 pm
Yeah, sure, he’s a cultural icon like Presley, Cash, Nelson and Parton, known (at least briefly) by most of those over 25.
No, he’s not. Haggard, Jones, Paycheck, Jennings… they are not well known among the general population. They are probably not even well known among the fans of Zach Top, Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen, three of the brightest “country” stars of today.
Truth is that those who didn’t sell out to tv and Vegas, never became universally known, unlike those (over-)exposed few.
For those of us who knows and loves the good, old sound, Haggard will always be upon Mount Rushmore – hell, he IS Mount Rushmore -, but we are fewer by the day.
Sad, but true, no matter how much you disagree, Trigger. I appreciate your defense of ol’ Hag, for sure.
June 1, 2026 @ 5:20 pm
When I go out to taverns and establishments to listen to live music, which is frequently, most of these musicians play a Hag song or two. Frequently Ramblin Fever and Mama Tried. Even the 20 something young guys know a little bit of Haggard. So I dont think it’s as grim as you think. And when I go to Nashville to listen to live music I hear LOTS of Haggard. Whether im in Roberts or Music City Bar or Nashville Palace or Laylas or Hank Jrs, I hear Haggard songs. No hes not forgotten. Now Don Williams is not on most young country fans radar…that’s true.
June 1, 2026 @ 5:27 pm
Sofus paints a grim picture over everything. “Mama Tried” T shirts are all the rage right now with 20-somethings at Ella Langley concerts.
June 3, 2026 @ 3:54 pm
I will be pleasantly surprised if happens when his last wife is still alive.
June 1, 2026 @ 7:44 am
Not sure I’ve ever heard his voice sound better than on “I’m the One”. Immediately became one of his favorite tracks of mine. I do feel that one would have been a hit.
June 1, 2026 @ 7:51 am
…an album that may – or may not – get some of the new neo-traditonalists thinking, whether they should have stayed on till the next stop on their return trip. dated perhaps, but undeniably classy.
June 1, 2026 @ 8:11 am
There’s something about Don’s voice that puts the heart at ease. When listening to him, the words “senior statesman” always came to mind, that’s the way I always thought of him when listening to his music.
June 1, 2026 @ 9:07 am
I agree. I gave it a listen and tried narrowing it down to just a few songs to add into the rotation, but they’re all just quintessential Don Williams songs and I ended up adding almost all of them. The production sounds just like it was released in the early 1980s and signed off on by The Gentle Giant himself
June 1, 2026 @ 10:02 am
I will be giving this album multiple spins this week. I can’t wait. Don Williams is, in my opinion, the best artist in the history of the genre. That voice, that relatability, that consistent song quality. If anyone clearly preceded Geroge Strait, Alan Jackson, and Clint Black– it was Don Williams.
June 1, 2026 @ 10:25 am
He has never made a bad album. They are all at least good, some great. His voice is warm, laid back and smooth. A unique artist who I had the opportunity to see in concert many years ago. One of the greats and this is a worthy addition to his catalogue.
June 1, 2026 @ 11:00 am
“How Can I Miss What I Never Had” is my absolute favorite, but there’s not a bad one in the bunch. Of the three versions of “I’m the One,” I like the second one best.
June 1, 2026 @ 1:54 pm
I agree that the alternate version of “I’m the One” is better than the more up tempo original even though that version is really good too. He had such a great voice that he could probably sing the phone book (remember those?) and make it sound amazing.
June 1, 2026 @ 1:18 pm
I could listen to Don Williams fart. He is my all-time favorite country singer. Been a fan for over 40 years.
June 1, 2026 @ 3:27 pm
Gonna check this one out. Sounds a bit like the ETC deal, except these recordings were from Don’s prime. Even though the ETC album was recorded towards the end of his career, I enjoy it very much. ETC also did not record any bad songs.
June 2, 2026 @ 4:16 am
All this talk about Don Williams and Earl Thomas Conley has me yearning for the days when male country singers had to be able to sing.
Most of the frat boy clowns of the last 30 years can’t hold a candle to the greats in terms of singing ability.
June 2, 2026 @ 6:24 am
And those who couldn’t sing, had a lot of soul and/or great phrasings (Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, Kris Kristofferson among them).
They could also outwrite every single one of the frat boys, probably even in their sleep.
June 5, 2026 @ 4:10 pm
Lee Brice and Chris Young can sing but waste their talents on crap songs.
June 1, 2026 @ 3:38 pm
According to the website Praguefrank, there were some unreleased recordings from his mid to late 1980s Capitol Records era as well
June 1, 2026 @ 6:00 pm
One unissued title from 1985 on Capitol titled “Long Time, No See” listed. Possible there could be others unreleased from the Capitol period from 1985 to 88?
June 1, 2026 @ 3:58 pm
You need some years on you to fully appreciate Don Williams (and most of the “older” country music). Most 20 year olds of today cannot really fathom the message; it’s music for grown-ups.
That’s the highest praise I can give him.
I frowned upon Kenny Rogers’ “Lady” back when I was a young man. It was sappy and embarrassing. But now that I’m half a century old, with wife, daughter and dog, it’s one of the finest, most heartfelt love songs I’ve ever heard. And none of the several covers comes close to Kenny’s original recording.
The same can be said about almost every song ol’ Don ever recorded; never less than good, more often than not very good and – again and again – as close to perfect as a performance and a song can be. Probably the only one who could record “light” country without sounding anywhere close to Nashpop.
If it’s allowed; here are two songs intended for Don, but recorded by the norwegian singer Steinar Albrigtsen in the early 90’s. A shame that Don never recorded them.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz8seIwXNJQ&list=RDHz8seIwXNJQ&start_radio=1&pp=ygUaQWxicmlndHNlbiBqdXN0IHdhbm5hIGZhbGygBwE%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_olbyFSnaL4&list=RD_olbyFSnaL4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUVTm93ICYgdGhlbiBhbGJyaWd0c2VuoAcB
June 2, 2026 @ 6:58 am
What makes the release of Don Williams’ Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes so remarkable is that it highlights how poorly the legacies of some other country music giants have been managed.
Don Williams passed away in 2017. Nearly a decade later, his family and estate have found a way to release previously unheard recordings that were apparently sitting in storage for decades. Not demos that should have remained buried. Not half-finished fragments stitched together with modern production. Actual songs from the prime of his career that listeners can enjoy today.
Meanwhile, fans of Merle Haggard continue to wait.
Haggard died in 2016. He was one of the most prolific songwriters and recording artists in country music history. By all accounts, he recorded constantly. He maintained home studios. He cut songs for projects that were never completed. He recorded informal sessions, demos, alternate takes, and material that never made albums. Numerous musicians who worked with him have discussed the sheer volume of music he accumulated over decades.
Yet ten years later, there has been virtually no meaningful effort to systematically release archival Haggard material.
This is not speculation. Every serious student of Merle Haggard’s career knows there are unreleased recordings. The question has never been whether they exist. The question has been why they remain locked away.
Compare that to Johnny Cash. Compare it to George Jones. Compare it to Waylon Jennings. Compare it to Don Williams. Their estates recognized something important: fans are not merely consumers. They are custodians of an artist’s legacy. They supported the artist for decades, bought records, attended concerts, and kept the music alive long after radio moved on.
Merle Haggard’s audience did the same.
What makes the situation especially frustrating is that Haggard was not merely another successful country singer. Many regard him as the greatest country songwriter who ever lived. His catalog forms a significant part of the historical record of American music. Unreleased Merle Haggard recordings are not just family property in the ordinary sense. They are cultural artifacts.
Nobody is suggesting that every tape should be released. Nobody is arguing that unfinished scraps should be packaged and sold. But it is difficult to believe that among decades of recordings there is nothing worthy of preservation and publication.
The Don Williams release demonstrates exactly what can be done when an estate approaches its responsibilities with care. Fans receive new music. The artist’s legacy grows. Historians gain additional insight into the creative process. Younger listeners discover the artist. Everyone benefits.
Instead, with Haggard, fans are left with rumors, anecdotes, and occasional references to recordings that may never see the light of day.
Every year that passes makes the situation worse. The people who played on those sessions grow older. Engineers pass away. Producers pass away. Memories fade. Documentation disappears. Opportunities to provide context vanish forever.
Merle Haggard spent a lifetime creating music. He gave country music some of its most important songs. The least his estate could do is make a serious effort to determine what remains in the vaults and share the best of it with the people who kept his career alive.
Don Williams’ family just showed how it can be done.
The contrast is impossible to ignore.
June 2, 2026 @ 9:55 am
Exactly.
June 2, 2026 @ 8:39 am
This album is every bit as good as expected. It makes me grateful that we have these songs, but also hopeful that there are more where they came from.
June 2, 2026 @ 5:37 pm
Great write up. I dont agree with the score but they are pretty meaningless anyway. I consider this album better than any album out for a long while and while i liked waylons album, i like it better than that too. .
June 2, 2026 @ 8:42 pm
Got my copy in the mail today. Great album! Don is my top 5 of all-time for me. Happy to have it in my musical library. Thankfully got to see him in concert a few years before he passed. Not many folks my age, 33, understand what good music is.
June 3, 2026 @ 11:48 am
Big fan on Don’s as my Grandfather loved him. I’m about halfway through this album, and it is superb.
June 4, 2026 @ 1:54 pm
My favorite song is Crazy Again. I had it pegged as a McDill song before the first chorus was over and I was right. Songwriting son of a gun.