Undeterred by the rain outside, several hundred of New England’s dedicated folk fans crowded into the UMB Campus Center ballroom to catch an intimate performance from Dar Williams, an established name in the local folk circuit.
Headlining the second day of the three-day Boston Folk Festival, Williams capped the all day event on a high note with her one-woman solo performance. The seventh annual festival, hosted yearly by WUMB Radio 91.9 FM, displayed a surprisingly wide range of musicians and unique musical styles of the current folk scene. But Dar Williams’ blend of melodic acoustic guitar work and heart-felt lyrics brought the event back to what has always been at the heart of folk music: the honesty of the singer/songwriter.
Even with the Campus Center ballroom filled to capacity, Williams managed to maintain the casual atmosphere of a coffee shop performance through her charming and candid between-song descriptions of the influences that went into each of her tunes. Not content with simply playing captivating and moving music, she made a decided effort to have her audience fully realize how her songs reflect her life experiences and the emotional investment that she puts into her songwriting. This only added to the audience’s understanding of her depth as an artist, and her openness as a performer. Her always insightful and often humorous lyrics are frequently the focal point of her music, and are delivered fully when supported by her gently sweet-sounding voice, well crafted melodies, and memorable hooks.
But instead of sounding overly sentimental, lyrically, Williams manages to cut into the emotional essence of her subjects, allowing for broader interpretation and giving her songs added relevance.
She has become increasingly skilled in refining her lyrical sophistication and her most recent album, 2003’s The Beauty of the Rain, shows her expanding as a singer/songwriter. Speaking of this growth, Williams noted that, “I guess I’m always trying to figure out how to say more with less. I’m always trying to have less words and I was working on that with this album.” This permits her to shift a little of the focus to her music while not sacrificing her lyrical depth. “That album was the second project I’d done with the same group of people. It was nice to sort of say to them, ‘I’m going to relax and you’re going to relax,’ and I think the album is better for that. I tried to choreograph [2000’s] The Green World a little bit more than The Beauty of the Rain, so actually I think some of the musicianship of the people on [this] album came out better and is more evolved.”
Dar Williams began playing guitar at the age of nine, encouraged by both her parents’ and her sister’s interest in folk music. Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Cat Stevens, and Jim Croce, are all early folk artists that she cites as influential to her involvement in music. Born in Mount Kisco, NY, Williams attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, eventually settling in Boston to pursue a career in the arts. Encouraged to focus on her music, Dar began to play the local coffeehouse circuit, which lead to the issuing of several self-released cassettes. After relocating to the more folk-receptive Northhampton, MA, she then recorded her first full-length album, 1993’s The Honesty Room, which was quickly picked up and released on the indie-folk label, Razor & Tie, with whom she continues to work with.
Five albums later Dar Williams continues to write and record music that is both centered sincerely in her folk roots, but also ambitious enough to captivate the younger generation of her folk audience. Visit her websites DarWilliams.com or DarWilliams.net (she personally recommends the latter) to find more information about her and her music.