Dar Williams

清新的民谣风格，气质独特的嗓音，富有韵味的歌词，Dar Williams绝对是90年代的Folk代表人物。到目前为止，她的专辑在allmusic上全都获得了4星或以上的评价。
Williams出生于纽约的Mount Kisco，但是在Chappaqua跟她的两个姐姐Meredith和Julie一起长大。在一次采访中，她把自己的父母描述为“崇尚自由、有爱心的人 ”，并且在自己的早期职业生涯中给予了自己巨大帮助。Williams在9岁是就开始弹吉他，2年后，她创作了自己的第一首歌。然而，年轻时期她更感兴趣的是戏剧，并且在Wesleyan University主修戏剧和宗教。
Williams在1990年移居到了波士顿的Massachusetts，开始进一步发展自己的表演生涯。她在波士顿歌剧公司担任了一年的舞台经理，同时开始一边写歌、录制Demo、上声乐课。她的声乐老师鼓励她试试去咖啡屋进行现场表演，但是这个时期的波士顿民谣环境非常恶劣，以至于她在表演时受到了极大阻力，最致命的是，她还要和自己的怯场斗争……1993年，Williams搬到了Northampton。
在Williams的早期职业生涯中，她因为Joan Baez而获得了一定的知名度，因为后者录制了一些她的歌（她还和Joan Baez在Baez的专辑《Ring Them Bells》里合作了二重唱）。很快，咖啡馆、公共广播以及互联网上大量的歌迷让Williams更加出名。
Williams的第一张专辑《The Honesty Room》是以自己的厂牌“Burning Field Music”发行的。其中邀请到的客串包括Nerissa 、Katryna Nields和Gideon Freudmann。没过多久，Waterbug Record就找上门，收录了这张专辑。1995年，Williams转会到了Razor & Tie，她在这个厂牌下发行的第一张专辑——1996年的Mortal City受到了广泛的关注，因为她和Joan Baez的巡演节目也收录其中。这张专辑再次请到了Nields姐妹和Gideon Freudmann客串，并且受到了民谣艺术家John Prine、Cliff Eberhardt 和Lucy Kaplansky的关注。有了这次成功，Razor & Tie在Williams发行97年的专辑《End of The Summer》时重新发行了《The Honesty Room》。Williams的职业生涯也获得了更大的发展，《End of The Summer》也因为它独特的风格和独立的厂牌，获得了更高的评价。
1998年，Williams,、Richard Shindell 和Lucy Kaplansky组成了全新组合Cry Cry Cry，并以此向他们所敬仰的民谣艺术家致敬，这个乐队以自己的名字发行了一张翻唱专辑，并且在1998年到2000年期间开始巡演。
Williams总共在Razor & Tie旗下发行了4张录音室专辑（(The Green World (2000), The Beauty of the Rain (2003), My Better Self (2005), 和 Promised Land (2008))，还有一张现场（Out There Live (2001))。
Williams也借给她的才华和支持原因的各种，创立了Snowden环境信托基金，并参与了许多慈善演唱。她在Alcatraz的演唱会上与Baez和Indigo Girls一同表演，来支持囚犯人权团体Bread and Roses。
2002年5月4号，她和她大学时的好友Michael Robinson结婚，他们的儿子Stephen Gray Robinson，于04年4月24日出生。Williams目前居住在纽约的Hudson Highlands。
Dar Williams has become a major force on the New England folk scene. An idiosyncratic songwriter who writes folk songs from a unique, often insightful perspective, Williams takes pains to avoid the coy, and the quirky; her songwriting and performing style has been compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez but with a few acidic and, at times, hilarious twists.
She was born in Mount Kisco, NY, but raised in Chappaqua the daughter of medical writer/editor Gray Williams and Marian Ferry, an active figure in Planned Parenthood. Her parents were educated at Yale and Vassar respectively. Raised in a decidedly liberal arts atmosphere, Williams began studying guitar at age nine and wrote her first song at eleven. In high school she was interested in athletics, but an ankle injury led her to audition for the musical Godspell. She became active in drama and by her senior year, after composing more music and writing plays, considered herself a playwright. She blames an Existential Crises at age 16 for her creativity and sharp sense of humor.
In her sophomore year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Williams spent a few months in Berkeley, CA, where she wrote songs and performed at the Starry Plough. After earning a B.A., she moved to Boston in 1990 to find a career in the arts where she dabbled in everything from directing plays and operas to performing. By the years end she was stage manager for the Opera Company of Boston. She also began taking voice lessons and it was her teacher, Jeannie Diva, who encouraged Williams to try the coffeehouse circuit. Williams tried hard, especially between late 1992 and early 1993, but things didnt pan out, so she abandoned Boston for the relaxed folksy, artsy atmosphere of Northhampton, MA, home of many prominent universities.
Williams claims to draw much inspiration from her home community. Her love of the folk scene stems from her admiration of its integrity toward honesty and real emotion, and a creative freedom not found in more popular music genres. She loves trying to use traditional methods to express the realities and foibles of contemporary life. After several self-released cassettes, Williams made her proper debut in 1993 with the independent Honesty Room to considerable critical acclaim for both her beautiful soprano voice and her lovely, intriguing songs. She signed to Razor and Tie Records the following year who reissued the album. Her second album, Mortal City (1995) has been similarly praised, and was followed by 1997s End of the Summer. Williams performs on the college and coffeehouse circuit and has also been winning rave reviews for festival appearances, including the Newport Folk Festival and the Mississippi River Music Fest, St. Louis; she issued Cry, Cry, Cry in 1998. The Green World followed two years later. Over the next few years, Williams remained a major facet on the concert trail; she also recorded songs during this two year trek across America and Europe. She hooked with Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews Bands Stefan Lessard, trumpet player Chris Botti and others for the impressive The Beauty of Rain, which appeared in February 2003. My Better Self, Williams most personal set of her career yet, followed two years later.