Ronnie Bowman wrote “Say I Do” and sang it with the Lonesome River Band on One Step Forward, the band’s 1996 album for Sugar Hill (SHCD 3848). The record introduced a new lineup. Tim Austin, the last of the founding members, had stepped down and handed the band to Bowman, its bass player, and the banjo player Sammy Shelor; Dan Tyminski had left to join Alison Krauss’s Union Station; and the guitarist Kenny Smith and the mandolin player Don Rigsby came in.
The song is a proposal. Asked what is on his mind, the singer decides to say it plainly: she can take as long as she likes to answer, but will she say “I do”? Flowers and diamond rings would mean nothing to him without her, and she is the reason he sings. He cannot offer her the world, he admits, only a promise of faithful love that will last a lifetime if her answer is yes.
On the album, recorded at Doobie Shea Studios in Ferrum, Virginia, and Le Garage in Nashville, Bowman sings the lead, with Kenny Smith on guitar, Rigsby on mandolin, Shelor on banjo and Bowman on bass, and the guests Aubrey Haynie on fiddle and Jerry Douglas on dobro.
