Dar Williams

By Gail J. Cohen

For the Peterborough Examiner

Published January 26, 2001

“Go ahead, push your luck
Find out how much love the world can hold
Once upon a time I had control
And reigned my soul in tight”

-- After All

Her latest release is based on Shakespeare’s idea of the chaos outside the closed world of court life but on The Green World, Dar Williams shows herself to be anything but chaotic. Her voice and lyrics are mature and more together than on her previous three solo outings.

Williams, who’ll be in town Sunday night at the Market Hall Theatre as part of the Folk Under the Clock program, has taken her critically acclaimed songwriting to a new level on this disk. She reflects on the mysteries of the world, digs deep into personal emotions and revelations but always keeps her wit and insightful observation of the human condition.

Although a singer/songwriter from the folk tradition, the new CD tends more toward the pop. The tunes may be boppy but her sharp-witted, tender and startling honest lyrics remain the integral ingredient in her music. And fans respond to and feel the stories she tells.

“The best feedback I get is on a song-by-song basis,” said a drowsy Williams in an early morning interview. "People responding to specific lyrics and specific songs is always the most meaningful.”

One of the more personal songs on The Green World is After All, which Williams describes as a song about “the hinge in my life between depression and sanity, and where things went from there.”

“Someone said this is going to be an important song for anyone who’s experienced some form of depression,” she said. “I thought that would be great. It was uncanny how directly people related to the song in a way that was exactly the way I wrote it. Usually there’s a nice loose fit of association between what I wrote and what people read into it and what people come back to me with in terms of how specific their experiences. It sort of caught my breath a couple of times.”

I Had No Right, the most political song on the disc, is a number about civil disobedience inspired by the Vietnam War protests of activists Daniel and Philip Berrigan. Occasionally describing herself as an “activista,” Williams isn’t one to shy away from championing causes she believes in, especially environmental issues.

She says she’s honoured by those who feel she managed to document the real grassroots movement the Berrigan family is still so active in to this day.

“ It’s a very word-of-mouth, people-driven movement, which really counters the corporate-sponsored people’s movement we have,” she said. “People who have been changed by the Berrigans have been changed by words and by actions and generally have faith in people’s movements.”

What is likely to be the next single released from The Green World, I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono, takes on all the detractors who only see her as the woman who broke up the Beatles.

“It’s nice to see a lot of fans of Yoko Ono coming out of the woodwork and their take on experimental theatre and existential art as well as Yoko Ono,” she said.

Opening for Williams is Jian Ghomeshi, frontman for Moxy Fruvous, who are currently on hiatus. The two met at a music festival when they “found some bunker of relief from mosquitoes . . . or the heat or something.” Last year Ghomeshi produced the haunting, gender-bending track Williams recorded for Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

Coming off a recent 10-week tour with a full band, Peterborough will feature Williams solo with her acoustic guitar. See her now in this intimate setting because it she won’t be long for the 300-seat venues.

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© Gail J. Cohen 2001