Lawton Williams (Monday 24 July 1922 - Thursday 26 July 2007)

On Monday 1 March 2021, Gene Watson celebrated his recording of Lawton Williams' 'Farewell Party', which took place on Wednesday 1 March 1978.

'I guess I should celebrate this day.  Wednesday 1 March 1978 was the day I recorded 'Farewell Party' at the Jack Clement studio in Nashville.

I've told this many times, but we had just 15 minutes or so on the clock and I had wanted to record this song for years.

The musicians didn't know the song, so I got down on one knee with a guitar, with them and the background vocalists circled around and laid it out.

What you hear on the record was done in one take.  That doesn't happen today.  Today it's overdubs and a vocal recorded over and over to take the best - and definitely the background vocalists are not there with the musicians.

Maybe that was just a miracle, but it turned out to be my signature song and for that, I'll always be grateful.

I'm thankful for Lawton Williams (Monday 24 July 1922 - Thursday 26 July 2007), who wrote it, and to everyone in the studio that day - and I'm thankful to you for listening to this song'