A Deep, Ever-Flowing Well of Love
The gentle resonance of “One Good Well” by Don Williams is a testament to the quiet power of a love that runs deep and steady—an emotional reservoir that sustains even when the world’s richest sources run dry.
Released as the lead single on April 22, 1989, “One Good Well” was also the title track to Williams’s seventeenth studio album, One Good Well. The song climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, underscoring its warm reception and the timeless appeal of Williams’s voice.
Long before it became a charted favorite, “One Good Well” was born from the pens of songwriters Mike Reid and Kent Robbins, two masters of crafting simple yet profound images of human longing and fulfillment. Williams produced the track with Garth Fundis, maintaining his trademark understated style: no grand gestures, no over-the-top production — just a calm, reassuring voice carrying a message of enduring love.
Lyrically, the song weaves vivid contrasts between worldly wealth and the richness of genuine connection. Williams sings of “a million oil rigs pumping that black gold all over the world,” and yet insists that “money can’t buy happiness.” The well in this metaphor is not a commodity, but a deep, ever-flowing source of affection—pure, fine, and “always enough.” In this way, the well becomes emblematic of an emotional foundation: something steady in times of scarcity, something shared unselfishly.
Musically, the arrangement supports this emotional core. The track is mid-tempo, warm, and understated — fitting perfectly with Williams’s gentle giant persona. Rather than dramatic flourishes, the instrumentation feels clean and sincere, letting his baritone voice carry the weight of the sentiment without overshadowing it. Those strings and soft guitar lines don’t call attention to themselves; instead, they cradle the melody like tender echoes.
In a broader cultural context, “One Good Well” captures a recurring theme in Don Williams’s work: the idea that the most valuable things in life are not transactional but deeply human. Throughout his career, Williams often sang about love, trust, vulnerability — not in flashy terms, but in a way that resonates with authenticity. Here, the well becomes a metaphor not only for romantic affection but for emotional resilience: something that endures beyond wealth, beyond status, and beyond fleeting pleasures.
Though One Good Well, the album, included several other strong singles, the title track remains particularly resonant. Critics and fans alike have recognized how Williams’s voice, already mellow with age, lends a special gravity to these lyrics. As one retrospective reviewer put it, Williams delivers this “love anthem” with quiet majesty.
In sum, “One Good Well” by Don Williams is more than a country song from 1989 — it is a meditation on true abundance. It reminds us that when we find that one source of love that never runs dry, we have something far richer than any fortune.