A steady glow of love that outlasts every storm.
When the comforting baritone of Don Williams raised the curtain on We’ve Got a Good Fire Goin’ in January 1986, it marked the lead-single from his album New Moves and swiftly climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Crafted by the skilled pen of Dave Loggins, this song became an early highlight of Williams’s transition into his Capitol Records era, showcasing the quiet but sure flame that defined his mature artistry.
In the gentle opening lines—“There’s a storm rollin’ over the hill… And the willow trees are blowin’”—he sets the scene not with grand drama, but with a domestic image of weather and shelter, of wind rattling branches and an inner stillness that holds firm. Within the structure of a three-minute country song, the narrative becomes an elegy to constancy: the fire here is metaphor and hearth, passion and partnership, glow and sanctuary. The styling is quintessential Williams—unhurried, unflashy, but emotionally honest.
Musically, the production by Williams and Garth Fundis carries his signature warmth: soft steel-guitar licks, restrained rhythm, and Williams’s voice laid bare. It gives room for each lyric to breathe. One senses that the fire isn’t wild and roaring—it’s smoldering and trusted. It is the kind of fire you can sit by and count the embers, the kind that outlasts the grand blaze.
Lyrically, “We’ve Got a Good Fire Goin’” speaks to the quiet milestone of enduring love rather than the rush of new-found flame. Lines like “I want you close tonight / Let me feel your heart beat in the night” point not to the thrill of pursuit, but to the comfort of presence. The imagery of weather and hearth, of storms and refuge, frames love not as a spectacle but as a shelter. In a career often marked by elegant simplicity, this song stands out for how it turns everyday vulnerability into soulful strength: the lover who knows the storms will come, but also knows there’s a good fire burning.
In the broader arc of Williams’s career, this track occupies a graceful moment: an artist with decades of Top Ten hits now reflecting maturity—not just in the voice that has grown more soothing, but in the themes that feel grounded. Whilst many of his earlier hits celebrated either carefree love or gentle yearning, this one affirms love matured, love sustained. Its chart performance—top 3 in the U.S., No. 2 in Canada—speaks to how it resonated with audiences who recognized that tone of quiet assurance.
As The Vinyl Archivist, I view We’ve Got a Good Fire Goin’ as a small masterpiece of late-career calm from Don Williams—an invitation to sit, unwind, remember, and to trust that some fires, if tended, burn on long after the first spark.