Dar Williams

Born in Mount Kisco and raised in Chappaqua, New York, Dar Williams has developed since the early 1990s a career rooted in American folk, at the intersection of acoustic folk, folk‑pop and a subtle alt‑country undertow. After a stint in Boston, where she worked in theatre while writing and recording her first songs, Dar Williams released The Honesty Room in 1993, followed by Mortal City (1996) and End of the Summer (1997), three records that established a narrative songwriting attentive to relationships, gender issues, everyday life and American social landscapes. Her repertoire, carried by a clear voice and generally spare arrangements, circulates as much in coffeehouses and folk festivals as on tours with artists close to that scene. Joan Baez has recorded some of her songs and shared the stage with Dar Williams, who also formed the trio Cry Cry Cry with Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell in the late 1990s. She later expanded her palette with The Green World (2000), The Beauty of the Rain (2003), My Better Self (2005), Promised Land (2008), In the Time of Gods (2012), Emerald (2015), I'll Meet You Here (2021) and Hummingbird Highway (2025), while remaining connected to a tradition of literal, melodic and conversational folk songwriting.