Greetings!

Dar is busy touring and we need volunteers to help make her shows a success.  If you are interested in being a Street Team member to help distribute posters and fliers in your hometown, please email: dartour@gmail.com.

Here are the details:
1.  We will give all volunteers a free pair of tickets and a meet and greet with Dar.
2.  If you are interested, please notify us as soon as possible.
3.  The subject line must start with YOUR specific city (very important) and please only select from cities noted below.
4.  Please provide us with your mailing address.
5.  You will be notified ASAP, if you are selected to join.

Thank you very much for your support and your help in getting the word out!

Here are the shows for which we need help:

10/15    NYC - City Winery
10/16    Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
10/17    Natick, MA - Center for the Arts
10/18    Londonderry, NH - Tupelo Music Hall
10/24    Albany, NY - The Egg
11/4    Castaway's - Ithaca, NY
11/5    Sellersville, PA - Sellersville Theater
11/6-7    Alexandria, VA    Birchmere

Greetings!

Dar is about to head out on tour and we've set up a special tour blog where you can stay up to date on everything that's happening on the road. Jordan, Dar's percussionist, will be posting blogs, videos, and Twittering throughout the tour and rehearsals.

www.DarWilliamsTour.tumblr.com
www.twitter.com/DarWilliamsTour


See you on the road!

Greetings from Dar's management!

Dar is busy touring through the East Coast, and we need volunteers to help make her shows a success.  If you are interested in being a Street Team member to help distribute posters and fliers in your hometown, please email: dartour@gmail.com.

Here are the details:
1.  We will give all volunteers a free pair of tickets and a meet and greet with Dar.
2.  If you are interested, please notify us as soon as possible.
3.  The subject line must start with YOUR specific city (very important) and please only select from cities noted below.
4.  Please provide us with your mailing address.
5.  You will be notified immediately, if you are selected to join.

Thank you very much for your support and your help in getting the word out!

8/6     Amagansett, NY - Talkhouse
8/7     Lowell, MA - Summer Concert Series
8/8     Freeport, ME - LL Bean Series
8/9     Norfolk, CT - Infinity Hall
8/11    Charlottesville, VA - Is Venue
8/13    Richmond, VA - Capital Ale House
8/14    Carborro, NC - Arts Center
8/15    Atlanta, GA - Eddie's Attic
8/16    Birmingham, AL - Workplay
8/18    St. Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill
8/19    Lawrence KS - Liberty Hall
8/21    Minneapolis, MN - Minneapolis Zoo
8/22    Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
8/23    Chicago, IL - Old School of Folk Music
8/25    Bloomington, IN - Bluebird Theatre
8/26    Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
8/28    Annapolis, MD - Ram's Head
8/29    Mt. Olive, NJ - Vasa Park

When you are, say, in labor, and the maternity ward nurses dismiss your fears that you ate too much fish during your pregnancy, you tend to feel grateful, like you owe them something. This happened to me five years ago on Cape Cod, which might explain why I'm involved in two great fundraisers here over the next two weeks.

The first, on July 8th, is a solo concert for Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (W.H.A.T.), a first rate regional theater on Cape Cod. In the eighties, a friend predicted the rise of all sorts of regional excellence, and W.H.A.T. is a sign of the times (along with the local food movement and many new and great concert venues). They bring everything from local to international theater to all ages here in the far reaches of Cape Cod.

The second concert, July 18th, is for the renovation of Preservation Hall, which will become an arts and community center in downtown Wellfleet. I'm doing a guest appearance with the Ibis Chamber Music group; they have arranged a few of my songs that we'll perform during their concert. It's always an honor to hear ones songs arranged for strings, and as far as worthwhile capital raising goes, Preservation Hall promises to be the crown jewel of this forward looking community (that already has an award winning library!).

Both concerts are at the Congregational Church in Wellfleet (it's not a calendar typo).

Also in July, I'll be at the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville with Bryn Roberts on keyboards and (for the first time) Jordan Hamlin on everything else! Barring the discovery of a strange allergy, we'll be together through the August tour as well, a rocking, motoring trio.

See you on the road!

About the Concert in New Paltz, New York on June 27th:

I'm very excited about this one because of what it is and where it is. The concert I'm doing is a benefit for Habitat for Artists and Ecoartspace, and there are three ways to attend, in my opinion:

1. Come for the concert. Nick Panasevich is opening. Some people in our town worked on his album, and they've created a well-deserved buzz for him around here! Also, the concert's in a very nice theater on the SUNY New Paltz campus.

2. Come for concert and cause. Habitat for Artists and EcoArtSpace both put art in the middle of the sustainability movement. There is a confluence of art and sustainable community in the Hudson Valley (it sounds boring, but it's actually groundbreaking and cool), very much present in the corridor from New Paltz to Kingston. Local artists have designed packaging for the seed-sharing collective. Simon Draper has a deal to set up artist "Habitats" (small free-standing buildings made from aesthetically rendered reclaimed materials) in the middle of Stonykill Farm. Artists are digging into centuries of history and agrarian pride with a 21st century sense of place, but they are also connecting their work to the actual towns, growers, and artisans, which strengthens this land-and-neighbor-based movement. About 10 yards from the theater is the Samuel Dorsky Museum with the exhibit Ecotones and Transitional Zones. Hudson Valley artists take the growing concept further in this great exhibit.

3. Come for concert, cause, and city. New Paltz has an awesome state school, my favorite farmer's market (Tagliaferro…though on Thursdays), rocks and rock climbers (many of them single, for those who are looking…), and my favorite farm, Veritas. There are bushels of pick-your-own everything, good shopping, and a former mayor who decided to officiate gay marriages years before it was/will be legal in New York and got in loads of trouble for it.

The Past Four Months in Bullet Points, Or, Shall I Say, Emphasis Daisies.

Looking back a bit…

* The R.E.M. tribute in March was wonderful. In the green room of Carnegie Hall we CHEERED when Patti Smith forgot her lyrics and was so charmingly embarrassed about it. WE were all so relieved we'd (mostly) remembered our lyrics, only to see how classy it was to forget them. There was a very beautiful moment at the City Winery aftershow party when Glen Hansard was performing "The One I Love", saying he used to sing it on the streets, and Mike Mills joined him on the stage, singing "Fi-yaaaah--- fi-yaaaah". So we had a dreamlike evening, only to miss the train and truly piss off our pregnant (!!) babysitter when we got home at 2:30.

* The Pete Seeger birthday concert at Madison Square Garden… I'll say this: if the stage was a campfire of blazing talent, including Pete himself, the audience was the glorious campfire choir. I was on the stage, I was backstage, and I was in the audience. Backstage there was wonderful cameraderie -- I think I speak for others when I say my greatest starf**ker moment was wanting to hug Oscar the Grouch -- but there was also bustle and bodyguards. Eighteen thousand people singing was the STAR of the evening. As Pete and the new testament say, there are seeds that fall on good soil. Pete's birthday was the overwhelming power of the seeds that grew in good soil and raised healthy children and grandchildren in the same soil. I think we all needed this night.

* Between R.E.M. and MSG, I toured in California with Melissa Ferrick, and I love her. Every once in a while, you have excellent company on the road (or The Road, if you will). Think of how great it was to commune over the dirty socks in the middle of one dressing room, or the insane comment of our friendly promoter at another venue, or, conversely, how much we loved Katrina at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, or how awesome Myrna, of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Michigan Womyn's Music Festival but visiting her girlfriend in the Bay Area and therefore doing our sound at the Great American in San Francisco, is??? I was also completely invigorated and inspired by Melissa's music, and that's good for me on every Road.

* After the tour with Melissa in California and before Pete's birthday was the celebration of 100 years of the Progressive at Madison, Wisconsin's Orpheum Theater which was the highlight of my year. After my set, I described my time on stage to Melissa as "pure joy." It was one of the most meaningful, fun nights of my performing career. Much love and thanks to the Indigo Girls, Catie Curtis, Ani DiFranco, Melissa, Matthew Rothschild, Hamill on Trial, Peter Mulvey, Animal, Sheila, and all our handlers. There was a lot of power in the Orpheum, and, again, so much of that radiated from the audience. It was like surfing on a giant wave of progress.

As I say to my five year old son…
May The Force Be With You,
Dar

PS: I'll try to track down some pictures!

Are you feeling as demoralized as I am never hearing the impact that our collective transit-over-car miles, solar panels, cloth bags, green roofs, local food movements, tree plantings, tree plantings by Disney, wind farms, donations towards solar cookers over dung ovens and compact fluorescent lightbulbs are having on global warming? I was a real nerd for a long time when it came to the environment. Now, instead of pretending I'm an eccentric lady with sticks in her hair who's CRAZILY passing on a pile of napkins and double cups at the cafe, I say no thanks and get smiles of approval and understanding. I see smaller cars and daring town initiatives. I know the world is changing. I travel everywhere, and I see it EVERYWHERE. But what, of all things, has brought down our emissions, says the New York Times? The recession.

I'm celebrating Earth Day on Friday (yes, the 24th) to celebrate a great People's Endeavor. I'm part of an Earth Day lineup outside Grand Central Station where my train line, Metro North, runs. A train line is not what this Earth Day concert is about, but it's why I'm doing it. A year ago, I called Metro North and said I was helping an 11-year-old (not a total lie. I have one...within) write a report about Metro North's fuel consumption. I got a great call with statistics that I, an actual busy grown-up, lost. But Metro North carries 80 million passengers a year, and I did figure out that each of these people used, on average, half a gallon of gas and a few kilowatt hours of electricity per ride. On top of this, millions of cars don't need new parking lots, parking meters, pavement, and basic infrastructure that exceeds that of train stations. It takes me 3 gallons of gas to get to the city in a car that gets 44 mpg (stalkers, get out those calculators!).

I say, hoorah for trains. They are the least subsidized, most fuel efficient form of public transportation. Please join me in NYC on Friday. I'm through with thinking I'm going to read about the impact that our actions have. I'll just approach things sacramentally, starting with my wonderful, local commuter rail, Metro North.

Best Wishes,
Dar

PS: Also excited about celebrating The Progressive's 100th Anniversary in Wisconsin and Pete Seeger's birthday at Madison Square Garden. More on that later. Also did a STELLAR tour with the amazingly and multi-talented Melissa Ferrick in California. I love her, on stage and off.