KINDLY dude of folk, Don Williams (pictured), plays St David's Hall on Thursday October 3, the first night of an extensive UK tour.

Expect hits such as Good Ole Boys Like Me, I Believe In You, Love Is On A Roll, Amanda and Tulsa Time sung in his warm hickory baritone voice.

The same hits are available on the second volume of Don's greatest hits out now and available from www.don-williams.com.

Don is concerned with people and how they treat each other...

"I don't think there's anything we have to do daily in our walk that's more important than how we deal with each other," he confessed. "To me, it's everything. So when you're looking for songs, if they can express that, then you've found something special."

He's been on a roll since the mid 1960s when, in the Pozo Seco Singers, he had a hit with Time, but he's still a good pull live.

"When you first start making records, all the songs are challenging and there's so much to talk about," he said, explaining the challenges of a maintaining a 25-year career. "But after you've done it for a while, it's hard to revisit the same places and still be believable. "The longer you do it, the harder it becomes to do things that aren't just an echo of something you've already done.

"Of course, when you do lock into it, the fact that you've lived all those years and seen so much allows you to bring a lot of things to the song you couldn't have when you were starting out."

For Don Williams, trying to address the simple pleasures and the things that should last has always been his stock in-trade.

And he's also always been something of an iconoclast in a town known for its assembly line approach to making music; Detroit.

"Ideally, whether I'm in the studio or on stage, I'm totally into the story, or if there's no story, that emotion, that feel of what I'm doing at that moment is the only thing I want to experience," he said.

"After a day in the studio or a show, the energy I've used just wears me out and if you're not 100% there, that's even worse."

* Don Williams plays St David's Hall on Thursday, October 3 at 7.30pm. Tickets went on sale today, £22.50/20.

For more information dial (029) 2087 8444 or surf to www.don-williams.com