Coming In September: PROMISED LAND

Dar Williams will release her first album of original material in over three years, PROMISED LAND, in September. With clean, driving production by Brad Wood (Pete Yorn, Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins), the album features 12 songs that showcase Dar's signature wide range of stories and social themes on songs including "It's Alright," "The Easy Way," and "Buzzer." Dar also does a cover of "Midnight Radio" from the acclaimed rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as well as a cover of the Fountains of Wayne song "Troubled Times." Lending support on the album are such renowned artists as Suzanne Vega, Marshall Crenshaw, and Gary Louris (of the Jayhawks).

In Stores Now!

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Track Listing

When I Was a Boy The Ocean The One Who Knows The Christians and the Pagans February Iowa The Babysitter's Here As Cool As I Am Spring Street If I Wrote You Mercy of the Fallen Are You Out There The Beauty of the Rain The Easy Way (New Dar Song) After All Ripple (Grateful Dead Cover)

Check out a clip from the live DVD
Dar and the band performing "As Cool As I Am"

One of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of her generation, Dar Williams has been engaging audiences with her musical artistry since the early 1990s when she rose from the Northeast coffeehouse circuit to the national spotlight. A native of New York’s Hudson Valley, where she still resides, Williams maintains in her life and music a strong system of values, idealism and community involvement.

Having released seven albums, including 2005’s critically acclaimed MY BETTER SELF, her first-ever DVD, Live at the Bearsville Theater, provides abundant evidence of Williams’ tuneful gifts, charming humor and empathic nature. Playing her acoustic guitar, Williams presents sixteen songs, including most of her best-known works, in solo fashion or accompanied by her longtime backing band. Williams offers to the Bearsville audience triumphant renditions of favorites from her early career like the sing-along classic “Iowa (Traveling III),” “The Babysitter’s Here,” “When I was a Boy,” “As Cool As I Am” and the gorgeous “February,” along with recent songs like the resplendent “Spring Street,” “Beauty of the Rain” and a new song “The Easy Way.”

Throughout her career, Williams has toured with artists such as Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, etc. Few performers create a bond from the stage with an audience like Williams does. Because her songs succeed with storytelling—intimate, honest and whimsical travails and triumphs—listeners lean forward to catch the details, which are copious and meaningful.

Williams' devotion to activism remains strong as ever. Her causes celèbrés range from environmental protection to social action; she has helped spearhead grassroots organizations around the country alongside her legions of fans. In 2005 she inaugurated a program called the Echoes Initiative that allows her to formally partner with various local organizations to help raise funds and awareness for their missions. Dar has also branched off into the publishing realm as an author of two novels for young readers, Amalee and Lights, Camera, Amalee, both published by Scholastic Press. Williams continues to tour regularly; a new album is due out in 2008.

(Layout ideas by Mike Industries - tweaked and polished by Dave Bias .)