Dar Williams

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dar Williams
Vocals
Guitar
Years active1990–present
LabelsBurning Field Music
Waterbug Records
Razor & Tie
Websitedarwilliams.com

Dorothy Snowden "Dar" Williams (born April 19, 1967)[1] is an American pop folk singer-songwriter from Mount Kisco, New York. Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker has described Williams as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters."[2]

She is a frequent performer at

folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, the Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.[3]

Early life

Williams was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and grew up in Chappaqua with two older sisters, Meredith and Julie.[4][5] Her nickname "Dar" originated due to a mispronunciation of "Dorothy" by one of Williams's sisters.[6] In a 2008 interview with WUKY radio, Dar said her parents wanted to name her Darcy, after the character in Pride and Prejudice, and that they intentionally called her "Dar-Dar", which she shortened to "Dar" in school.[7]

In interviews[specify], she has described her parents as "liberal and loving" people who early on encouraged a career in songwriting. Williams began playing the guitar at age nine and wrote her first song two years later. However, she was more interested in drama at the time, and majored in theater and religion at Wesleyan University.

Musical career

Williams with a guitar in front of a microphone
Williams in 2005, promoting My Better Self

Williams moved to

public radio, and an extensive fan base on the Internet.[citation needed
]

Williams recorded her first full album,

End of The Summer (1997), Williams's career had gathered substantial momentum, and the album did remarkably well[specify
], given its genre and independent label status.

In 1998, Williams,

Cry Cry Cry as a way to pay homage to some of their favorite folk artists. The band released an eponymous album of covers and toured from 1998 to 2000. In June 2017, Cry Cry Cry reunited for the first time to play at the Clearwater Festival in New York.[9]

She has since released six more studio albums on the Razor & Tie label (

Many Great Companions (2010), and In the Time of Gods (2012), as well as two live albums (Out There Live (2001) and Live at Bearsville Theater
(2007)).

Williams founded the Snowden Environmental Trust and has been a part of many benefit concerts. She performed in a show at

Alcatraz with Baez and the Indigo Girls, to benefit the prisoner-rights group Bread and Roses
.

As someone who has toured a great deal of the time and had trouble finding suitable dining on the road, Williams was inspired to write and publish a directory of

natural food stores and restaurants called The Tofu Tollbooth in 1994.[11] In 1998 Williams co-authored a second edition with Elizabeth Zipern.[12]

Williams wrote a book, released on September 5, 2017, titled What I Found in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musicians Guide to Rebuilding America's Communities – One Coffee Shop, Dog Run, & Open-Mike Night at a Time, that focuses in part on rebuilding smaller cities and larger towns in America.[13]

Personal life

On May 4, 2002, she married Michael Robinson, an old friend from college, though they are now divorced.[14] Their son, Stephen Gray Robinson, was born on April 24, 2004. In addition, they have an adopted daughter named Taya, who was born in Ethiopia.[15] She resides in the Hudson Valley region of New York.[14]

Songs

Williams onstage in 2008

Recurrent themes in Williams's songs include religion, adolescence,

anti-commercialism, misunderstood relationships, loss
, humor, and geography.

Williams' early work spoke clearly of her upbringing in 1970s and 80s

All My Heroes Are Dead
, she sang, "I know there's blood in the pavement and we've turned the fields to sand."

Williams' songs often address gender typing,

self-loathing in detail. The song ends with the singer finding an unnamed female mentor — "the woman of voices" — who points her toward a more enlightened and mature point of view. Joan Baez covered the song in concert and later dueted with Williams on tours.[16]

A 2001 article in

The Advocate[17] discussed Williams' popularity among LGBT
people, writing that among LGBT-supportive straight songwriters, "few manage in their lyrics to dig as deeply or as authentically as... Williams does".

"When I Was a Boy", also on The Honesty Room, uses Williams' own childhood experiences as a tomboy to muse on gender roles and how they limit boys and girls, who then become limited men and women.[8]

"The Christians and the Pagans" on

pagan couple that chooses to spend solstice
with the devout Christian uncle of one of the women, thus creating a situation where people who would oppose each other on almost every political and cultural front try to get by on pure politeness. Throughout the song, the family members begin to discover their differences need not estrange them from one another.

In an interview in 2007 on the Food Is Not Love podcast, she said that the song "February" from Mortal City is one of her songs that she likes best. She referred to the way the song "kept on evolving into, not only what I wanted to say, but what I wanted to say and didn't even know was in there." She liked the way the song "kept on breaking its own rules in a way that art is all about."[18]

Williams' relationship with her family is hinted at through several songs, including "After All" on The Green World. The song deals mainly with her depression at the age of twenty-one,[19] referring to it as a "winter machine that you go through" repeatedly while "everyone else is spring-bound."

Her song "As Cool As I Am" has become part of Bryn Mawr College's traditional May Day, when the song is played during the "May Hole" celebration. The song is even called an "unofficial anthem" for the school.[20] Williams has visited the college several times to perform at concerts.

Discography

Albums

Singles & EPs

  • "Alleluia" (Grapevine Label), 1995
  • "As Cool as I Am" (Grapevine Label), 1996
  • The Christians and the Pagans EP (Razor & Tie), 1996
  • What Do You Hear in These Sounds? EP (Razor & Tie), 1997
  • "Are You Out There" (Razor & Tie), 1997
  • "Play the Greed" (Capricorn Records), 1999
  • "I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono" (Razor & Tie), 2000
  • "I Saw a Bird Fly Away" (Razor & Tie), 2002
  • "Closer To Me" (Razor & Tie), 2003
  • "Comfortably Numb" (Zoë Records), 2005
  • "Echoes" (Razor & Tie), 2005
  • "The Easy Way" (Razor & Tie), 2008
  • "Summer Child" (Razor & Tie), 2012
  • Folkadelphia Session 6/26/2015 (Download-only EP) (Folkadelphia), 2016

Videos

  • Live At Bearsville Theater
     DVD (Razor & Tie), 2007

As a member of Cry Cry Cry

  • Cry Cry Cry (Razor & Tie), 1998
  • Live @ the Freight (Download-only album), 2020

Contributions

Bibliography

  • The Tofu Tollbooth (1994, co-author)
  • Amalee (May 2004)
  • Lights, Camera, Amalee (July 2006)
  • What I Found in a Thousand Towns (September 2017)
  • How to Write a Song That Matters (August 2022)

References

  1. ^ "Infoplease.com". Infoplease.com. April 19, 1967. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Fans Note Dar Williams, The New Yorker Magazine, Hendrik Hertzberg. November 5, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
  3. ^ "Dar Williams".
  4. ^ Pearlman, Skip (June 10, 2016). "Putnam Movie Director Screens 'The Anthropologist' At Greenwich Film Fest". Putnam Daily. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  5. ^ Wilbur, Martin (December 2, 2015). "Chappaqua Native Dar Williams Returns to Westchester With Irvington Concert". The Examiner. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  6. ^ Cohen, Gail J. "Dar Williams FAQ". Archived from the original on March 31, 2007. Retrieved March 6, 2007.
  7. ^ "Tonic on WUKY". Archived from the original on October 31, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  8. ^ a b Alarik, Scott (September–October 1994). "Finding a New Approach". Performing Songwriter Magazine. Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  9. ^ Vos Macdonald, Joan (June 1, 2017). "Cry Cry Cry Fans Get The Reunion They Hoped For at Clearwater". Patch. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  10. ^ Wayne Robins (September 14–21, 2000). "Folk tales; Dar Williams gets to heart of The Green World". Bostonphoenix.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  11. ISBN 9780963992611
    . Retrieved March 11, 2007.
  12. ISBN 9781886101067
    . Retrieved March 11, 2007.
  13. ^ "Singer likes Rochester's food and wine so much it's in her new book". Democrat & Chronicle. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  14. ^ a b Dar's manager, Patty Romanoff, Bulletproof Artists
  15. ^ "Jun 07, 2012 • Dar Williams • 8:00 pm". Infinity Music Hall & Bistro. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  16. ^ "Joan Baez and Dar Williams Interviewed by Liane Hansen". NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. October 8, 1995. Archived from the original on December 18, 2006.
  17. ^ Gail Cohen (November 6, 2001). "Dar to be different". Darwilliams.net. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  18. ^ "Food Is Not Love podcast". Archived from the original on July 7, 2007. Retrieved March 21, 2007.
  19. ^ Rothschild, Matthew (June 2006). "Dar Williams Interview". The Progressive. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  20. ^ Parzen, Molly (April 6, 2010). "Dar Williams at the Mawr". The Bi-College News. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2013.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dar_Williams&oldid=1218050161"