Robin and Linda Williams "The Rhythm Of Love"

Produced by Robin & Linda Williams Recorded at Champagne Studios Nashville, TN

Engineered by Randy Best assisted by Judy Trenary Mastered by Jim Loyd at Masterfonics Nashville, TN

Musicians:________

ROBIN WILLIAMS vocals, acoustic lead & rhythm guitars LINDA WILLIAMS vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar, banjo STUART DUNCAN fiddle, mandolin

JERRY DOUGLAS dobro LARRY CHANEY electric guitar ROY HUSKEY, JR. bass PAT MclNERNEY drums, percussion MIKE CASS pedal steel






Special thanks to BOB KIRSCH, BARRY POSS, CRIS CAMP and DIANE VINEYARD.
Dedicated to the memory of HOWARD L. HILL, JR.

"Rhythm of Love" is considered by some to be Robin and Linda's masterpiece in terms of the production. Working as a duet when this abbum was recorded, they enlisted the help of some of Nashville's finest musicians to create a fresh new sound, somewhere between old and new. It begins with original material as personal to Robin and Linda as any previously recorded. Starting with the autobiographical title song, there is an openness and honesty to try every word and note sung and played. Many of the songs from this album have remained in their concert repertoire. Once again what stands out and holds the album together is their singing, both alone and in glorious harmony.

I met Robin and Linda Williams in 1975 in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where they were doing five nights at a college coffeehouse. I had driven over to ask them to play on A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't such a big deal at the time. It was impressive, as I recall, to meet them and to see their motel room, which was one of the neater rooms ever lived in by a musician. Their clothes were hung up, and their stuff wasn't spread out on the floor, nor were they. I could tell they had grown up in the right kind of homes. Despite this advantage, they turned out to be a lot of fun, more fun than the earnestly messed-up musicians I knew, and that night at the coffeehouse, which deserved a niche in the Bad Gigs Hall of Fame, they were even more fun. Robin and Linda, then as now, have a sort of kryptonite bond with an audience so that nothing can come between them and us. They were magnificent. All the distractions were somehow incorporated into their show, as comedy, and of course it helps to have talent. Individually, their voices can melt cheese, and in duet, they can do all-purpose welding. They sang for three hours, and nobody left, and other people kept arriving.


They played "Prairie Home" soon thereafter and came back again and again. Somewhere in the meantime, in the course of doing a couple hundred shows together, they and I became friends.


I listened to this record three times and loved it. But what do I know? I'm just an old pal, and their music speaks for itself: it's not like cubism, you don't need a deep voice telling you how much you ought to be appreciating it. All I can do for you is answer the question that we fans ask about the performers we care about "Are they having any fun?" I used to wonder that about Flatt and Scruggs, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, and Dolly and Porter, and other fine acts, and always hoped that, despite the well-advertised perils of road life and show life, they were enjoying their work.


But about Robin and Linda, I never wondered. Bears aren't Catholic and Robin and Linda don't have a sad life. It's possible to have a tremendous gift and to use it well and to hang up your clothes .


GARRISON KEILLOR


---




1) THE RHYTHM OF LOVE 2:53 R. & L Williams (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 2) WHEN I HEAR THAT WHISTLE BLOW 3:24 R. & L. Williams (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 3) HOUSE OF GOLD 4:14 H. Williams (Acuff-Rose Music Inc./Hiriam Music, BMI) 4) I'LL REMEMBER YOU LOVE IN MY PRAYERS 3:03 P.D. arr. by R. & L. Williams (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 5) GONE TO THE WEST 3:19 R. & L. Williams/J. Clark (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 6) HIRED GUN 3:07 R. & L. Williams/J. Clark (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI)

7) THEY ALL FADED AWAY 3:30 R. Williams/J. Clark (The New Music Times, Inc., BMI) 8) THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS 3:57 R. & L. Williams/J. Clark (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 9) HILL COUNTRY LOVE SONG 2:44 B. J. Shaver (EMI-Blackwood Pub., BMI) 10) THE DEVIL IS A MIGHTY WIND 3:43 R. & L. Williams/J. Clark (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 11) POOR WAYFARING STRANGER 4:28 Trad., arr. R. & L. Williams (Brantford Music/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc., BMI) 12) YOU DONE ME WRONG 2:52 R. Price & G. Jones (Trio Music Co./Ft. Knox Music/Cedarwood Publishing/Starrite Publishing, BMI)





The Rhythm ot Love Robin and Linda Williams 1990 Branfford Music/Songs ot Polygram Intl, Inc. (BMI) We started slow trying not to rush We wanted more than passion between the two of us We weren't thinking forever until we saw that we Fit hand-in-glove just the way it ought to be Chorus: Walking in perfect time Talking in pertect rhyme Your heart and mine Beat in the rhythm of love So we hit the road, and that road's been long Taking every day of living making it into a song We've cut a path for two it's narrow but it's wide Enough for us to travel side by side Chorus: It's not easy keeping close harmony We sometimes stop listening that's when we lose the beat It takes giving and forgiving to make our voices blend And to keep our song sweet-flowing to the end Chorus: When I Hear That Whistle Blow Robin and Linda Williams 1990 Brantford Music/Songs ot Polygram Intl., Inc. (BMI) I stood at the station with tear-filled eyes The note in my hand just said goodbye The train sent a message whistlin' in the wind Your baby won't be back again Chorus: Now when I hear that whistle blow I think of all I did to make you go Angry words I've spoken, Promises I've broken Baby when I hear that whistle blow I had no chance to change your mind Cause the train pulled out right on time I cried out "Darlin', don't leave me alone" The whistle answered, "Your baby's gone" Chorus: Some days I'll be doing just fine I won't think of you for hours at a time Then I'll hear the rumbling on the rails The diesel's whine and that lonesome wail Chorus: Gone to the West Robin and Linda Williams, Jerome Clark 1990 Brantford Muslc/Songs ot Polygram Intl, Inc. (BMI) He says he has no more to say He says he can no longer stay In these bitter winter nights Where love and hope have taken flight Out in California they sleep out every night In the morning the big orange sun shines bright You can hardly count the blessings of the day And there's no memory of yesterday Chorus: The north wind blasts down the cold steel tracks Roaring like a high ball express In the dark blue dawn of tomorrow he'll be gone Gone, gone to the West He says, "Not even you can hold me down To this sad and broken town" He told me, "Let the memories go You're a fool to hold on so" Out in California the lights are coming on As the sun sets and day is done While shadows fall on these empty streets Where yesterday our hearts once beat Hired Gun Robin snd Linda Wllllams, Jerome Clark 7990 Brantford Muslc/Songs of Polygram Intl., Inc. (BMI) He rides beneath the outlaw moon In a land that time passed by Where the rivers flow like open wounds And the wild coyotes cry Silent men ride the range And steal what they don't own Then shots ring out across the sage Blood falls and paints the stones Chorus: In the dark Wyoming night He lies out of sight His face is hard and lean Living by the speed of the draw In a country too big for the law He's paid to keep the range clean He gets the job done, he's a hired gun He gets the job done, he's a hired gun In a boomtown along the border They gave him a badge and gun He killed a man in the name of law and order Like it was eighteen ninety one He got off free but the judge said "Get outta town by the close of day There's lots of folks would like to see you dead And see you put away" Chorus: Up on Powder River someone died With a bullet in his chest There was no justice, he was not tried He was just laid down to rest He was a rustler so they say He got what he deserved The sheriff looked the other way He never said a word Chorus:

They All Faded Away Robin Wlllliams, Jerome Clark ¡1955 The New Music Tlmes, Inc. (BMI) All those rolling little hills And ramshackeled towns And green green rocky roads Have got my head all turned around Oh I see them in my mind When I think of you I can see the countryside That we two were just passing through Chorus: Your folks lived down by the lake I'd see them for your sake But when you turned away, they all began to fade Like ghosts in the air Like they were never there They all faded away I held you tight in my arms But then I heard you cry I felt my world begin to spin Our love was new why did it die Down the valley I see The country of my soul It's a land both green and young Where the blue waters gently flow Chorus: Six O' Clock News Robin and Linda Williams, Jerome Clark ¡ 1990 Brantford Music/Songs ot Polygram Intl., Inc. (BMI) When loneliness was my only friend I took up residence in a downtown bar One night a woman sat down next to me She was pretty but her eyes were hard She had a double and I had a beer We talked for hours about used-to-be's At closing time we went to her room She took my heart and started to squeeze Chorus: Now the images dance on my Tv screen Showing me a tace that I've already seen I could have been with her and in his shoes I could have been on the six o'clock news I'd never known anyone like her Just when I thought I'd seen it all She'd show me something beyond my dreams She took my heart but that wasn't all We drank like a river, snorted like a horse We lived on passion, booze and cocaine I lost myself and all my good sense Riding with her on that runaway train Chorus: One day I woke up from down in the gutter I walked away and I never looked back It all seems like a dream to me now In this little town so far down the track The Tv said it happened last night They murdered a clerk in a liquor store She and some scared palefaced man The cops caught them just outside the door Chorus: The Devil is a Mlghty Wlnd Robin and Linda Williams, Jerome Clark ¡ 1990 Brant10nd Muslc/Songs oi Polygram Intl Inc. (BMI) What am I doing this dark night Drawn to the flame and not the light Wandering around in the storms of life When I've got a home and a loving wife Chorus: Man is tinder Woman is fire And the devil is a mighty wind In a motel room in my mind There's a woman there I'm sure I'll find I know she's waiting there for me In some place I should not be Chorus: I walk up to the door And I knock I hear her cross the floor And undo the lock Then I wake up next to the one I vowed to love till life was done She doesn't know that in my dreams I hear a mighty wind that screams









Return to:

R&L's homepage	Welcome	Biography	Discography	Band	On the Air	Festivals
Tour Info	Newsclips	Order CDs	Music Links	Clubs	Yak-Yak-Yak	Concerts