Dar Williams is 47 years old today. A singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk, Williams 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. Hendrik Hertzberg of the The New Yorker has described Williams as one of America’s very best singer-songwriters. Williams was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and grew up in Chappaqua with two older sisters, Meredith and Julie. Her nickname Dar originated due to a mispronunciation of Dorothy by one of Williamss sisters. Recently, in an 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. In interviews, 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. Williams moved to Boston in 1990 to further explore a career in theater. She worked for a year as stage manager of the Opera Company of Boston, but on the side began to write songs, record demo tapes and take voice lessons with now Celebrity Voice and Performance Coach Jeannie Deva. Deva encouraged her to try performing at coffeehouses, but her early years performing were made difficult by the intimidating nature of the Boston folk music scene, as well as her own battle with stage fright. In 1990, Williams recorded her first album, I Have No History produced by Jeannie Deva and engineered by Rob Lehmann at Oak Grove Studios in Malden, MA. One year later in 1991, she recorded her second album, All My Heroes Are Dead also produced by Jeannie Deva and engineered by Huck Bennert, most of which was recorded at Wellspring Sound in Newton, MA. This album included William’s song: Mark Rothko Song. The original recording production of this song was later included in her third album The Honesty Room. In 1993 Williams moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. Early in Williamss music career, she opened for Joan Baez, who would make her relatively well known by recording some of her songs (Williams also dueted with Baez on Ring Them Bells). Her growing popularity has since relied heavily on community coffeehouses, public radio and an extensive fan base on the Internet. In 1998, Williams, Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky formed the group 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. Williams writes from personal experience, and many of her songs are based on people she grew up with. She doesnt force herself to write, which is an approach she learned in college when she decided that whatever she could do at any given time was enough. She prides herself on having songs that all came from some kind of inspiration. Here, performs “It’s Alright” in 2008.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 04:06:04 +0000