Dar Williams (USA)

Dar Williams

Dar Williams’ lyrics contain bouquets of optimism, delivered on melodies alternating between beguiling lightness and understated gravity. Williams strongly believes that all of us possess our own power and ability to achieve, and she rejects the exceptionalism that encourages us to “admire that yonder star,” while making us feel small and insignificant; unworthy of shining on our own but hoping to catch enough distant light to inspire some tiny accomplishment. Williams has always been very interested in how to control our future and this album has to do with the fact that at some point, you just can’t.

Like everyone else, Williams spent 2020 in that state of non-control. She and longtime producer Stewart Lerman tracked most of the album, her 12th studio recording, in November of 2019. In late February of 2020, she cut the title tune in Woodstock with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and Larry Campbell, who produced the track and played guitars, pedal steel and twangy baritone guitar. When told they had to postpone a mid-March mixing date, Campbell said he wasn’t feeling well anyway. Turns out he’d contracted a serious case of COVID-19. That was a clear sign that at some point, you have to meet life where it meets you …the common thread throughout that these songs, the willingness to meet life as it arrives.

Dar Williams was always in the right place at the right time for the success she’s had over a 25+-year career. She rose out of the vibrant mid-90’s Boston scene, inspired by the eclectic influences of alt-rockers, Berklee jazz musicians, slam poets, and folk artists, like Patty Griffith, Melissa Ferrick, the Throwing Muses, Vance Gilbert, and Jonathan Brooke. After a year of touring non-stop with her first album, The Honesty Room, in 1994, she was invited by Joan Baez to tour in Europe and The United States. “Good and bad things happen, and it’s not necessarily a reward or indictment. I’ve just got to meet it.” Williams observes. “Like, I’m bringing my whole life to this moment; it will surprise me, challenge me, show me where I was wrong, even make a fool out of me, but my job is to show up and not take adversity personally. Real happiness doesn't have to feel like Snoopy dancing with Woodstock; it can just be knowing you have the resilience to meet whatever comes to you. I will call that a good life.”

‘Few are as familiar with the soul of the music industry as Dar Williams…(she)… is still pressing on the gas of her creativity... As far as her upcoming album goes, we can expect more of Williams’ clever lyrical arrangements.’ – AMERICAN SONGWRITER August, 2021

‘As usual, Williams evades schmaltz; although it finds its positive streak, “Today and Every Day” is based around present-day realities, facing climate change head-on from its opening moments. Still, its music inspires from the moment one sprightly flourish throws the song’s curtains open.’ – POP MATTERS August, 2021

‘If you haven’t heard Dar Williams’ name before, it’s probably because you’re not a professional songwriter — in that sphere, she’s been a legend for decades now. Among her other great attributes, she has that most elusive of gifts: the ability to write a complicated song that sounds simple…Yet another quiet triumph from one of our finest songwriting talents.’ – CD HOT LIST
(recommended releases for libraries) August, 2021

‘The album unfolds like one big song and finds just the right places to land a punch and plant a kiss.’ - COPPER MAGAZINE September, 2021

plus support Heather Maloney

Massachusetts-based 'writer song-singer' Heather Maloney found music in the midst of three years at a meditation center, honing a sound moored in days of silent reflection and reverence for storytellers like Joni, Rilke, Ken Burns, and the anonymous authors of Zen parables. While she eventually traded the quiet, structured life of a yogi for the kinetic life of a touring musician, the core of her songwriting has remained centered around same curiosity about our inner world and the desire to articulate it through storytelling.

With over 1,000 international shows and 8 studio albums under her belt, she is now on the brink of releasing her 9th and most personal record to date, “Exploding Star” (out January 31, 2025). Written in the wake of her father’s death, “Exploding Star” is a collection of 12 songs that Maloney originally had no intentions of recording or releasing until some of her closest friends and family convinced her otherwise.

'Lyrics that cut to the chase' – Huffington Post

'Utterly gorgeous – visceral.' – Val Haller, New York Times

'Her not-so-secret weapon is that voice' – Boston Globe