On her latest album, The Beauty of The Rain, Dar takes another step forward, showcasing a new, fuller sound, as well as her mastery at mapping out the emotional terrain of people whose lives are in transition.

Recorded in a studio in NYC's Chelsea neighborhood, The Beauty of the Rain was produced by Steuart Lerman and Rob Hyman, and features guest appearances by a remarkable array of talent: Alison Krauss on vocals, Bela Fleck on banjo, John Popper manning the harmonica and backup vocals, Stefan Lessard (of Dave Matthews Band) on bass, John Medeski on keyboards, Chris Botti on trumpet, Cliff Eberhardt on vocals and Michael Kang (String Cheese Incident) on fiddle.

The idea to bring in so many illustrious guests came from Dar, who decided to make her song arrangements richer and denser this time around.

"It can be a little lonely sometimes being a girl with a guitar," she says. "I wanted to reach out into the world and see what else was going on."

The Beauty of the Rain picks up where The Green World left off. "The songs here are rooted in a migration I made to New York from Massachusetts," says Dar, who lived in Cambridge, Northampton and upstate New York before moving to New York City.

"Where The Green World was a meditation on the big picture, on the sky and fields of Massachusetts and being surrounded by nature, The Beauty of the Rain is more tied to an urban landscape. It takes on smaller conversations."

The interplay that springs from mixing and matching these accomplished musicians lends The Beauty of the Rain a surprising, festive undercurrent that flows like electricity throughout the record.

"We grabbed people as they came through New York City, whether they were here touring or visiting friends and brought them into the studio alone or in pairs," Dar remembers. "We took our time and built a real atmosphere of intimacy which we think comes through on the record."

Much of the inspiration for The Beauty of the Rain came from Dar's own experiences, as she made the transition to a different life in New York City, and worked to make sense of her new surroundings. "It's a good process for me," she explains.

The Beauty of the Rain takes on a wide variety of subjects -- technology, identity struggles, dreams, impressionism and the tug of war between independence and intimacy; and its songs transcend the formulaic constraints of today's pop music, allowing it to resonate harmoniously with the times.

Several of the most gorgeous songs on The Beauty of the Rain have a real world urgency that gives them surprising power. "The World's Not Falling Apart" took more than two years to write. The inspiration, strangely enough, came from Dar's experiences interacting with her loyal fans at live performances. "I started getting home computer laid-out zines from young audience members - folk art of the information age! They were able to capture their idiosyncratic alternative cultures. There were swirling images in my head of ways that people were romancing technology and I wanted to convey the idea that the world isn't coming apart, but people are communicating more."

The Beauty of the Rain finds Dar Williams' songwriting at its most refined, and her story-telling skills at their sharpest. The album paints a beautiful portrait of an artist whose growth has abounded unfettered, and whose insight continues to turn personal experiences into universal experiences to which both dedicated fans and new listeners can relate.