Who is Dar Williams: Independent Music

Photo Credit: McWonTheLottery

Dorothy Snow Williams was born in Mt. Kisco, NY in 1967 to parents Gray Williams, a medical writer, and Marian Ferry, a senior member of Planned Parenthood, who raised Dar and her two sisters with a liberal New England upbringing. Dar majored in theater and religion at Wesleyan College and spent a few months at Berkeley.

In 1990 she moved to Boston and started working as a stage manager for a local opera. She began voice lessons and started getting her toes wet in the coffeehouse musician's circuit. In 1993, she self-released her first album, The Honesty Room, and moved to Northampton, MA. She began to flourish as singer-songwriter with a growing following in New England.

In 1995, she signed under the label Razor & Tie and re-released The Honesty Room, followed by the well-received Mortal City 1996. Around this time, she opened for Joan Baez and was part of Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair, a traveling women's music festival. These high-profile appearances brought her to national attention in alternative, folk, and women's music circles. She released End of the Summer in 1997.

Below are her albums through 2000, plus four videos of her early music. Browse these to enjoy some early Dar, or jump to the second half of this Dar Williams bio.

Photo Credit: Mike Evans

In 1998, Dar Williams formed a group with singer-songwriters Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky, Cry Cry Cry. They performed covers for some of their favorite folk songs, released under an album by the same name.

From 2000 onwards, Dar has returned to releasing her own albums under the Razor & Tie label, often collaborating with guest musicians from Ani DiFranco to Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band. Much of Dar's music has become fuller, richer, employing more instruments and a more polished sound compared to the simple folk singer and acoustic guitar style of her early years. She deals a little less often with heavy issues and plays a little more in the pop rock arena, but folk roots and reflective wit remain the bedrock of her music.

Dar Williams strongly supports environmental causes, throwing benefit concerts for the Nature Conservancy and Clearwater, and founding her own Snowdon Environmental Trust.

She has penned two books: The Tofu Tollbooth, a guide to green and organic food stores (recently updated), and a Scholastic book for grades 5-7, Amalee, a first-person narrative about a girl whose four "goofy" friends help her when her father, a single parent, comes down with a serious illness.

On the personal front, Dar Williams has moved back to New York, married old friend Michael Robinson in 2002, and gave birth to their first child, Stephen Gray Robinson, in 2004.