Upcoming Event: Celebration of
Category: Music

Promised Land comes out on September 9. We're having a studio bash for the Hudson River painters we've featured in Dar's new album CD booklet. They'll be showing their work at Spire Studios in Beacon, NY on Tuesday the 9th between 6:00pm and 9:00pm. I will probably sing a song or two, too. Come enjoy Hudson Valley artists and gazpacho from our own gardens. Promised Land, indeed.

Address details are listed in the upcoming show section of the myspace page.

Currently listening : Promised Land By Dar Williams Release date: 2008-09-09

5:12 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

In-Store Performances in NYC, Boston, Ann Arbor
Category: Music

Dar will be doing several in-store performances and signings in the coming weeks to promote her eagerly anticipated new album, "Promised Land," out on Tuesday, September 9th.

The first appearance is at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square in New York City on Wednesday, September 10th at 7PM. Purchase "Promised Land" at the Union Square location only beginning September 9 at 9AM and receive a wristband for the event on September 10 at 7PM. Time and space are limited so please arrive early!  Click HERE for more details.

After that, Dar will be performing and signing at Newbury Comics in Cambridge, MA on Friday, September 12th at 6:00 pm.  (Pre-order "Promised Land" from Newbury Comics and receive a limited edition, autographed CD booklet!)

The final signing and performance will be at Borders in Ann Arbor - Waters Place on Wednesday, September 17th at 12:30 pm.

Be sure to catch Dar in one of these intimate settings and get a preview of some of her brand new material!

10:56 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Special Newbury Comics Pre-Order Offer!
Category: Music

For a limited time, when you pre-order Promised Land from Newbury Comics (support those indies!!), you will receive a limited edition, autographed CD booklet!!

Click HERE for more information and to place your order.

Remember, Promised Land arrives on September 9 -- pre-order now, and be the first on the block to get yours!

8:22 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Pacific Northwest Radio Appearances This Week!
Category: Music

In anticipation of the September 9 release of Promised Land, Dar will be doing a few live radio appearances in the Pacific Northwest this week. Be sure to tune in! (All times Pacific)

Wednesday, 8/20 @ 4:00 pm 103.7 KMTT, Seattle, WA
Thursday, 8/21 @ 1:00 pm 104.5 KFOG, San Francisco, CA
Friday, 8/22 @ 12:00 pm 101.9 KINK Portland, OR

5:21 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Coming September 9th: PROMISED LAND!
Category: Music

JULY 15TH, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACCLAIMED SINGER/SONGWRITER DAR WILLIAMS' TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM, PROMISED LAND SEPTEMBER 9TH

WILLIAMS SET TO TOUR WITH SHAWN MULLINS THIS FALL

(New York, NY) – Singer/songwriter Dar Williams' first album of original material in over three years, PROMISED LAND, is due out on September 9th. Produced by Brad Wood (Pete Yorn, Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins), the album features 12 reflective songs that introduce a fresh interpretation of her previous sound.  She will hit the road this fall with Shawn Mullins as main support (please see dates below).

Williams' ability to perform witty songs that cover a wide range of social and political topics are showcased on the engaging tracks "It's Alright," "The Easy Way," and "Buzzer."  Williams also does a cover of "Midnight Radio" from the acclaimed rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as well as a cover of Fountains of Wayne song "Troubled Times."  The vigor on PROMISED LAND comes from working with a new group of people – producer Brad Wood and the stable of new musicians he assembled.  Williams' friends are also featured as guest artists – Marshall Crenshaw, Suzanne Vega and Gary Louris from The Jayhawks.  Producer Wood injects her new songs with energy and momentum.  He explains, "Dar was looking to try something different and get out of her comfort zone. She had made a number of records and it seemed like a good time, career-wise, for her to make a change. I was flattered that she thought to ask me to help."

One of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of her generation, Dar Williams has been engaging audiences with her musical artistry since the early 1990s when she rose from the Northeast coffeehouse circuit to the national spotlight.  Never afraid to challenge herself or her audience, Williams has been a dedicated social and political activist throughout her career. Lending her talent to support various causes, she has taken part in many benefit concerts.  Williams has captivated her loyal audiences across the country with her live performances and she continues to tour regularly. For more information, please visit Williams' website:  www.darwilliams.com

PROMISED LAND track listing:

1. It's Alright

2. Book of Love

3. The Easy Way

4. The Tide Falls Away

5. Buzzer

6. The Business of Things

7. You Are Everyone

8. Go To The Woods

9. Holly Tree

10. Troubled Times

11. Midnight Radio

12. Summerday

Dar Williams on tour:

July

26        Hillsdale, NY                Falcon Ridge Folk Festival

27        Cold Spring, NY          Sunset Series

August

2          Madison, WI                Roots Festival*with G Love and Special Sauce/Shawn Mullins

9          Edmonton, BA             Edmonton Folk Festival

10        Edmonton, BA             Edmonton Folk Festival

15        Lyon, CO                     Folk Festival

16        Denver, CO                 Bluebird Theatre*

18        Taos, NM                     KTAO Solar Center

24        Jacksonville, OR         Britt Pavillion *with Judy Collins

September    

12        Somerville, MA            Somerville Theatre*

13        Albany, NY                   Swyer Theater*

15        Pittsburgh, PA             Club Café*

16        Cleveland, OH             Beachland Ballroom*

17        Ann Arbor, MI               The Ark*

19        Chicago, IL                  Park West*

21        Milwaukee, WI             Pabst Theater*

22        Minneapolis, MN          Guthrie Theater*

23        Iowa City, IA                Englert Theatre*

25        Covington, KY             Carnegie Performing Center*

26        Buffalo, NY                  Asbury Hall*

27        New York, NY              The Fillmore at Irving Plaza*

October

1          Portland, ME               One Longfellow Square *

2          Woodstock, VT           Town Hall Theatre*

3          Great Barrington, MA  Mahaiwe Theater*

4          Mamaroneck, NY        Emelin Theater*

November

7          Alexandria, VA The Birchmere

8          Alexandria, VA The Birchmere

* with Shawn Mullins

For more information, please contact:

Carise Yatter/Razor & Tie

212-598-2202 or cyatter@razorandtie.com

Kerri Brusca/Razor & Tie

212-598-2212 or kbrusca@razorandtie.com

10:38 PM - 12 Comments - 21 Kudos - Add Comment

In My Habitat
Category: Art and Photography

Living in the "Hudson Highlands", about an hour north of New York City, has incredible perks. There are musicians and visual artists everywhere. Often they meet at the crossroads and interesting things start to happen.

I got a great email from a talented visual artist and friend, Simon Draper, saying that he and fellow artists were creating small shack-sized "habitats", or artist studios, as an exhibit.

Simon's imagination, like much of his art, is multi-dimensional, and this project is an intersection of politics, aesthetics, the environment, and community building.

One of the defining questions for this project was, "How much space does an artist need to create their work?" and he posed that question to me.

I was so thrilled. I said I could do A LOT with the 4'x6' room of my own that he said he could build for me.

There will be more than my "habitat" at the exhibit, and it should be a thing of beauty; what they're building are no ordinary shacks!

One of the exhibit's inspirations came from a phone call Simon's mother-in-law received asking her to move her ice-fishing shack from the lake (in Minnesota, where she lives) before the spring thaw. She didn't know what the police were talking about until she realized that someone had made an ice-fishing shack from old paintings she'd thrown away (with her signature at the bottom). And so, the ideas of using reclaimed materials, old art housing new creations, and basically making only a small carbon footprint but with one extremely functional extraordinary shoe were also behind this habitat project, so the resulting space is a wonderful visual statement. His wife, Marnie Hillsley, is almost done with hers, and it's stunning.

And as for me...lucky me! No more clearing off the dining room table and hoping the phone doesn't ring (plus all writers and meditators know that their houses are full of competing gravitational pulls).

I get to keep my 4'x6' shack, built to accommodate my specific artistic needs, like a desk that folds up so I can pace and play guitar and a ledge outside the window for placing "contemplative objects".

To learn more about it, you can visit www.habitatforartists.blogspot.com, and for an actual, not virtual, reality, you can visit on May 17th at Spire Studios, 45 Beekman Street, in Beacon, New York. I'll be in and around my own little studio in the afternoon.

If you get to Beacon, I'd also recommend DIA: Beacon and the Homespun Café on Main Street.

The habitats will be there all summer. Simon is also planting a garden in the spaces between.

10:12 AM - 8 Comments - 13 Kudos - Add Comment

Dar To Auction Signed Guitar For IMA
Category: Music

The Institute for Musical Arts is a non-profit organization founded by Ann Hackler and June Millington that has as its mission to support girls and women in music and music-related businesses. Located on 25 beautiful acres in western Massachusetts, the IMA features a recording, performance and teaching facility that hosts, among other things, summer camps devoted to teaching girls everything about playing and recording live music.

The IMA is building a state-of-the-art recording studio that will also be a teaching and performing space. They need to raise $150,000 by this June, and part of the fundraising effort is an auction of several items donated by the likes of Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls, and Dar Williams.

Dar’s Huss and Dalton guitar, which she has played on tour will be on auction from April 5 - 14. Read all about it here (scroll down, the donors are listed alphabetically), and mark your calendars for April 5 to place your bid!

10:22 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Foodie By Default
Category: Blogging

Fleisher's is an old-fashioned butcher, which is a very modern thing to be these days. They sell local, antibiotic-free, pasture fed meats.  Our neighbors spearheaded a group order, and soon after, I drove an hour up to Kingston for a pick-up.

I mentioned to my husband that I'd gotten ¾ of a pound of ground beef, and he said I should find a recipe from Marcella Hazan's Fundamentals of Italian Cooking.  I snorted and looked around for the other wife he was talking to.  

But then, "Dar," I said to myself, "You need to honor these farmers and this cow by cracking open that cookbook. And Michael gave you that book, too, for your birthday."  I decided that for political reasons, I really had to be a slow food person, if just for one slow night.

We had all the ingredients for the Bolognese sauce, including (sign from God) exactly ¾ pound of "not to lean" beef.  The sauce needed "at least" three hours to cook. I had three hours of business calls I could make.  

My taste buds have always been blunt instruments at best, which always worked for me. My travels require that I adapt to everything.  I am very good at talking about local food, praising other people on their sustainable lifestyles, and then getting on a plane, Starbucks mocha in hand as "brunch".

So all this time in the kitchen really freaked me out.  Past cooking failures and "I should be somewhere creating something invisible, yet permanent, like ideas" aside, I followed the recipe.  And it was so great.  

Then I tried the parsley lemon chicken. Simple. Michael gave me some tips, and it was better the next time. I tried other recipes from other books.

Then we started a neighborhood garden, and I found I wanted to spend my afternoons there. This all coincided with having less gigs and more time at home. Every evening I went out to the garden with a big colander. We made dinners with one box of pasta and everything else from the garden.

We had garden meetings, and even though we didn't really talk much about gardening, I found out a lot about my neighbors and where we live, which was also new for me. I knew my neighbors when I lived up in Rhinebeck, but discovered at the Christmas party that I was known as "the one who didn't rake."  In my defense, that was after the fall Green World tour of 2000.  But the truth is, I was never a raker. I was never there. In Rhinebeck, my neighbor said, "I renovated your house. Put a thermometer in it, so I can check the temperature from the outside in the winter. If those pipes freeze, I'll kill you." 

What was I, twelve years old?  No, but I wasn't the thing that lots of adults were, either, a gardener, a cook, a neighbor.

Now I rake, and simmer, and console, and all that.   For the five months up to Thanksgiving, we walked to the farmers market every week. It was a total scene. Michael met his Pilates instructor there.

We harvested our last lettuce on November 6^th and broccoli a little later.  I have a screen saver of my son running along the garden fence with an enormous zucchini under his arm. I felt like an imposter when I put it there. But that's not a rental son, and we did find that zucchini under a giant leaf in our garden. At a café, I heard some Hudson Valley gals talking about how they cook all the late crops, like turnips, potatoes and kale. I moved closer. This amazed me. I'm the one that edges away, explaining to myself that I exist to affirm these people, not to be one of them. I don't offer recipes. I offer validation.

Then I heard an audio book of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, and it was all over, or, I should say, another layer deeper.  A friend described this book as "the book that people read and then they raise chickens."  I'm still enough of a traveling musician that I'm encouraging other people to raise the chickens. 

But I did get out to Veritas Farm with my neighbor, Felice, on a rainy Tuesday before Thanksgiving, to pick up the pasture fed turkeys I'd ordered. It was a beautiful drive through the dripping forests of the Hudson Valley, and I love Felice, and I also bought a pumpkin for pie. A real pumpkin.  The abstract carbon footprint that I think about so often was right there with the muddy footprint at Veritas Farm. They were almost the same size. Well, at least I feel like it would take only two planet Earths to support my lifestyle, not the three I learned about one late night, checking out my life on the "carbon calculator". So many people have lived like this for decades, I know. It's a beautiful way to live! And I know that many vegetarians could point out that there's one huge thing I could do to reduce the hypothetical space I'm taking up. But for once, walking the walk really involves walking, not just buying, writing and praying, so here I start.

Usually I write about the last few months of gigs. As you can see, I couldn't get there this time, even though I'll never forget walking around the rainy streets of Salem, Massachusetts before a gig in Newburyport where the promoters snuck me up to the soldiers' attic hideout during the Revolutionary War. The itinerant life is also beautiful.   

Oh, and so is the studio life! I recorded a new album, with producer Brad Wood, in January. A great experience all around. The songs are about crop rotation. Just kidding. They're about humans, as usual.

I'm going to be all over the place in the spring and summer, so I look forward to visiting your local scenes, and, yes, affirming them, but also coming from one myself.

Here comes the sun!

Dar

4:28 PM - 19 Comments - 30 Kudos - Add Comment

Rescheduled Fundraiser for Barack Obama (and this one’s going to happen!!)
Category: Music

Dar is performing at a fundraiser for Barack Obama in New York City on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 6:30pm on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

If you're interested in supporting/attending this event, contact Emily at emilypross@yahoo.com for complete information.

Hope to see you there!

12:43 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Dar To Perform At Fundraiser Feb. 11

Dar will be performing Monday February 11, 2008 at a fundraiser for Congressman John Hall in Chappaqua, NY.

Learn more at www.johnhallforcongress.com or write/RSVP to Jane Lindau at janelindau@gmail.com.

2:49 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment