An Enchanted Place

It’s  Saturday and so time for another Saturday Songster post. This week’s track is ‘I Recall a Gypsy Woman’ by Don Williams.

Don Williams is an American country music singer and songwriter from Portland, Texas, often referred to as the ‘Gentle Giant’ of country music. In 2010, after four decades of solo performance, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was at the height of his fame during the 1970s but actually continued to release new music and tour until recently. It’s only this month that, at 76 years of age, he’s announced that he’s retiring.

I first heard Don Williams’ music in the early 1990s (I would have been eleven or twelve at the time) when my mum bought several of his albums on tape, replacing the records she’d had in the ’70s. Unlike my brothers and my sister who were really not impressed by country music, I found his deep, soothing voice a delight to listen to.  When I heard the song ‘I Recall a Gypsy Woman’ I also realised that, whilst I may not have heard it sung by Don Williams, I had heard the song on many occasions – sung by my mum. It was actually one of the first songs I myself ever learnt to sing!

I Recall a Gypsy Woman

Silver coins that jingle jangle,
Fancy shoes that dance in time
Oh, the secrets of her dark eyes,
They did sing a gypsy rhyme
Yellow clover in tangled blossoms
In a meadow silky green
Where she held me to her bosom,
Just a boy of seventeen

[Chorus:]
I recall a gypsy woman
Silver spangles in her eyes
Ivory skin against the moonlight
And the taste of life’s sweet wine

Soft breezes blow from fragrant meadows
And stir the darkness in my mind
Oh, gentle woman you sleep beside me
Little know who haunts my mind
Gypsy lady, I hear your laughter
And it dances in my head
While my tender wife and babies
Slumber softly in their beds

[Chorus:]
I recall a gypsy woman
Silver spangles in her eyes
Ivory skin against the moonlight
And the taste of life’s sweet wine…

Lyrics from azlyrics

If you’d like to know more about Don Williams or would like to check out more of his music, you can visit his website here or his Wikipedia page here.