Singer Dar Williams continues to follow a road less traveled—one that has led her to become a pioneer in the music business. She frequents folk festivals, playing with the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, and Ani DiFranco. Themes of her songs include religion, sexual orientation and gender issues.
Her latest endeavor, Emerald, debuts May 12. Also, she continues her more-than-two-decade career in the music industry with a PledgeMusic campaign. She collaborates with performers like Jill Sobule, Richard Thompson and Angel Snow, among others, on this latest project.
Windy City Times: When did people start calling you "Dar?"
Dar Williams: My mom loved Jane Austen so she wanted to call me Darcy. My sisters thought it was complicated so they just called me Dar. It was the '70s, so a very androgynous time; it was a boy or girl name. A lot of people thought I was a boy, which turned out to be a very profitable mistake.
WCT: You have a song [titled] "When I Was a Boy."
Dar Williams: Right—so with that haircut, people just thought I was a dude.
WCT: You have talked about gender roles throughout your music in the past. After touring with artists such as Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls, did you notice a surge in LGBT fans after that?
Dar Williams: Yes and no. It was a funny thing because mentioning gender, I thought the '90s were a gender decade, with a lot of exploration. The women's music movement was not only a lesbian women's music movement but it was driven by women who were welcome in the gay community. A lot of straight boys and girls were given an opportunity to look beyond orientation to what it means to be male or female and that kind of gets into trans. It grew into women saying, "I'm straight, but I like to get under a hood of a car and change my own oil."
I had my own following but a lot of people thought I was gay. Playing with Ani and Indigo Girls aided in that.
In the '90s, I was traveling with a queer woman who was very butch. We were playing a concert together and looking for a place to stay in Georgia. No on offered us a place to stay. I knew it was homophobia because if I had been traveling with a husband it would not have been a problem.
I decided after that to not identify. I was determined to not write songs that say "he" or "she." A lot of people thought I was a lesbian until I came out as straight when I became engaged to a dude. It was good timing because the gay community was looking for allies then.
The New York Times twisted things and made it seem like I was looking for the almighty lesbian dollar. I thought, "Are you kidding? These women are massage therapists and ceramicists!"
People took up for me after that article and I loved it when they came up to me and said so. I was riding the tide of gender exploration and loving it!
I have always been a big cheerleader for the LGBT community and I have to thank Ani and Indigo Girls for widening that audience.
WCT: I remember, back in the '90s, selling your music independently at Tower Records.
Dar Williams: Tower was the most indie of the records stores back then. Whether you were independent by choice like Ani or doing your own thing, Tower left a door open for artists. There was a guy in Tower Boston who would make a pyramid of my CDs to display when I had an album coming out.
WCT: Emerald is your ninth studio album that you are working on?
Dar Williams: Yes—this one is done with crowdsourcing instead of a label. I worked with my label, Razor and Tie, for 20 years so I was very close to them and it wasn't easy to leave. I feel the music business is really screwed right now, except for the larger labels who take a percentage of interest in streaming entities. I didn't want to put myself into their sinking ship. I have the opposite, a community that is rising. We have to go forward helping each other and going at it together. I knew how to do a lot of these things like book my own travel so I knew how to take care of myself. I feel that the flawed glamor machine of the a music label is gone. All we have left is the great careers we have built and the people we have met along the way.
For me, it is a happy story because I have incredible fans and it is going really well. People are preordering the album because they trust me.
WCT: How did you meet Jill Sobule?
Dar Williams: She and I met at a radio event decades ago. When I started to write this song, "FM Radio," I knew I had to write it with her. This began a conscious back and forth of what we remember about the '70s. Jill was totally onboard as long as we mentioned Patty Hearst!
Doing the song has put me back in touch with her. She is the bomb. She has an endless energy for life and music.
We have always had a funny thing because she wrote a song called "I Kissed a Girl" and I wrote a song "When I Was a Boy." One time a person yelled out for me to sing her song, but that is a common mistake.
WCT: Do you have a large band coming with you on the road?
Dar Williams: It is a trio and very rocking. My favorite configuration has always been a trio. This is a very good one. On all of the string instruments is Josh Kaler but we are going to bring a drum with us just to see what happens because he also plays drums. On keyboards is Bryn Roberts. They are both great singers so we will bring in all of the harmonies.
Jill is coming also; she is my opening act. She is doing it as a favor for me. I am going to snag her for as much as she will do the tour with me!
See Williams and Sobule perform at Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St., on April 25 at 8 p.m.
