By the time Dar Williams arrived on stage at the CKCU Ottawa Folk Festival last night at Britannia Park, the audience was ready to hear what she had to sing about.

The rhythm 'n' rhymes of poet Shauntay Grant had kicked off last night's main-stage show and the acoustic rock of Tegan and Sara ended the night too late to be included in this review. And in between Grant and sunset, there were a couple of hours of instrumental music.

Zubot and Dawson provided a lavish sampling of their progressive, fiddle-led fusion, while the dynamic Richard Wood doled out a solid, sparkling set of Celtic fiddle tunes.

Both were great sets by very talented and personable performers who bantered easily with the audience between songs, but they left some of us longing for musical expression that involves singing. (One unexpected line during Zubot's set came from a lifeguard on the beach next to the festival site: "You are swimming at your own risk" is now a likely candidate for a Z and D song title.)

Enter Williams, a U.S. singer-songwriter in her mid-30s known for her finely crafted lyrics. Her first wise comment concerned the tinkering that was required to get her acoustic guitar connected to the sound system.

"Sometimes it just doesn't work and I have to have a relationship with it," she joked.

That brief fling of a sound check resulted in a wonderful sound, and she chose the light-hearted Fishing In the Morning from her latest disc to start the set. Performing solo with an acoustic guitar, she delivered a slightly rushed version of I Saw A Bird Fly Away before she caught the laidback vibe of the Ottawa Folk Festival.

"I'm sorry the U.S. blamed the blackout on you," Williams declared. "That is so typical of our administration. You're lucky we didn't send in our armies."

From there, highlights of her songs included characters such as the dysfunctional family in Christians and Pagans and the youngsters in Canada Girls, while between songs she touched on issues of gay rights and media ownership.

Last night marked the first time the festival, which traditionally runs from Friday to Sunday, presented a Thursday night show.

The fourth night was designed as one of the ways to celebrate the festival's tenth anniversary.

With an audience numbering about 3,000, the extra show was considered a success, and festival director Chris White was already musing about making it a permanent feature.

"Isn't this fun?" he asked the audience between sets.

"I think we should do this every year. It gives you that much longer to get into the folk festival spirit."