Dar Williams Poems

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Dar Williams
Dar Williams (full name Dorothy Snowden Williams, born 1967) is an American singer-songwriter specializing in what can be described as "folk-pop". She is a frequent performer at folk festivals across the nation, such as the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, New York. She has also toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis. Williams was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and grew up in Chappaqua with two older sisters, Meredith and Julie. 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 far more interested in drama at the time, and majored in theater and religion at Wesleyan University. Williams moved to Boston, Massachusetts 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. Her voice teacher 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 1993 Williams moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. Early in Williams's music career, she opened for Joan Baez, who would make her relatively well known by recording some of her songs (Williams also duteted with Baez on Baez' live album Ring Them Bells, performing Williams' "You're Aging Well"). Her growing popularity has since relied heavily on community coffeehouses, public radio, and an extensive fan base on the Internet. In recent years, she has performed on nationwide television shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Williams recorded her first full album, The Honesty Room, under her own label, Burning Field Music. Guest artists included Nerissa and Katryna Nields and Gideon Freudmann. The album was soon picked up by Waterbug Records. In 1995, she moved to Razor & Tie, and her first album for that label, 1996's Mortal City received substantial notice, partially due to the fact that it coincided with her tour with Baez. The album again featured guest appearances by the Nields sisters and Freudmann, as well as noted folk artists John Prine, Cliff Eberhardt and Lucy Kaplansky. With that success, Razor & Tie re-released The Honesty Room. By the time of her third release, End of The Summer (1997), Williams' career had gathered substantial momentum, and the album did remarkably well, given its genre and independent label status. 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. She has since released three more studio albums on the Razor & Tie label (The Green World (2000), The Beauty of the Rain (2003), and My Better Self (2005)), as well as a live album (Out There Live (2001)). Williams has lent her talent and support to various causes, founding the Snowden Environmental Trust and taking part in 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. On May 4, 2002, she married Michael Robinson, an old friend from college. Their son, Stephen Gray Robinson, was born on April 24, 2004. She currently resides in Rhinebeck, New York.

the ocean
 
 
When I went to your town on the wide open shore,
Oh, I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn t... [read poem]
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