Bummed  to hear Don Williams has died. He was one of the truly great country music composers and performers. One of Don's songs, Amanda (written by Waylon Jennings), was a big hit for the country radio station I worked at in the early 70s. There's a female backup vocal on it, gently rising two octaves or more above Don's baritone, sung only during the word "Amanda," that still haunts me. Listen to it at the link above. Doesn't get more country than that, and I mean that in every good way.

He was 78 and had a good long life, at least for a smoker. (See the image at the first link.) Now 70 and still young, I can't help noticing that most of the people my age that I once knew and are now dead were smokers, and the ones still with us either quit long ago or never took it up. In fact I know nobody my age, or even within ten years of it, who still smokes.