The final song on Dar Williams' excellent new CD, The Beauty of the Rain, might cause some fans to worry about the fair, youngish singer-songwriter whose introspective lyrics have helped them find meaning in their own lives.

In the song, I Have Lost My Dreams, Williams' warm voice takes on a tone of regretful longing almost as if she's wondering if it's too late. Too late for what, we're left wondering. Has she lost her inspiration, perhaps, or is she growing out of the desire to create her beautiful songs?

Whatever is missing, it sounds pretty drastic for a woman in her mid-30s who's on the verge of becoming a superstar in the American folk world. To legions of smart, young women, she's the kinder, gentler sister of Ani DiFranco, not so much a righteous babe as a sharp-tongued bookworm who will ply you with her sweet singing.

Better check up on her, I thought. Anyone who makes a living writing and singing their own songs has chosen a tough road to start with. Sometimes they need encouragement.

It turns out that Williams, whom we find between gigs at the Edmonton Folk Festival and Colorado's Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, spent some time coming to grips with her increasing profile, her recent marriage and the relative stability that settled over her life like a fog over the lake. At least, that's how it seemed at first.

Williams doesn't like to call it a creative block, but she admits there was a "challenge to creativity."

"Some of the things that make dreams go, that give them their drive, is longing and a bit of worry," explains the former leading lady of the New England coffeehouse scene. "So to realize that I was finding a certain amount of contentment in my life -- I was solvent, I was in the place I wanted to be in life, I was engaged -- all of these things were going on, and there was the feeling of being a little locked up in that contentment.

"The world is a very poetic place and when you're succeeding in getting the daily stuff, flossing your teeth and paying your bills, it's easy to be very proud of yourself, but it can actually put you in a very literal way of looking at the world. Where's the poetry? Where's the thing that makes you stop what you're doing a watch a beautiful flock of birds overhead?"

The answer came to her while enduring a session of rolfing, the deep-tissue massage that aims to provide "structural integration" between body and mind. A melody wafted around in her brain. She started following it. Hey, there's a song, Williams realized. It was I Have Lost My Dreams.

"The block became something I could write about, and that opened the floodgates for me to continue writing," Williams says. "It was a magic charm."

Whew. After hearing the rest of the disc, you'll be glad she didn't throw in the towel. It is Williams' fourth and most accomplished disc, filled with a sparkling array of guest musicians, including Blues Traveler's John Popper, bango player Bela Fleck, and background vocals by Allison Kraus, yet it still sounds like a Dar Williams record because it's her voice closest to your ear.

"The musicians we chose, we chose for their virtuosity (in) this cross-genre of bluegrass, jam-band, folk, country and rock. They're some of the best out there. It was sort oflike a moment in history," she reflects. "If the best instrumentalists of your time, of your era, are walking around and they say that they can play on your album, then do that."

The combination of the rich musical setting, eloquent lyrics and the strong melodies of songs like the expansive Closer To Me, the majestic The Mercy of the Fallen and the lilting I Saw A Bird Fly Away have some observers saying this could be her breakthrough disc. Of course, they said that last time, too, when she put out Green World. Still, sales are strong, more U.S. radio stations are playing its songs and concerts are going well, although Williams says it's been a challenge to sell tickets to recession-wary Americans.

She feels things are much freer and looser this side of the border, despite recent battles with SARS and mad-cow disease. This country's proposed legislation to decriminalize marijuana and to legalize gay marriage have made singer-songwriters with leftie inclinations tickled pink about visiting Canada. Besides, our festivals are so much more fun.

"In Canada you have the parties and the really great food and the really great environment where the volunteers and the artists are together a lot, and it's an easy relationship," she says. You can hear the smile when she talks about her last visit to Ottawa's folk festival with fondness.

"We just giggled the whole time. Everything went really well and it was a joy."

-30-