PLEASE NOTE: This event will be taking place at our alternative home for the evening: BUSH HALL, 310 Uxbridge Road, London W12 7LJ.
Dar Williams has been called “one of America’s very best singer-songwriters” by The New Yorker. She’s released ten studio albums and authored four books including her latest, “What I Found In A Thousand Towns,” to be released in September.
Known as much for her staunch progressive ideals as her raw acoustic energy, Williams has been captivating audiences with her sheer elegance and honesty in her folk-pop songwriting since the ’90s. Williams’ growth as an individual over her two-decade-long career has gone hand-in-hand with her evolution as an artist, touring along the way with such distinguished peers as Joan Baez, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, Loudon Wainwright III and Shawn Colvin among others.
Dar’s most recent album, Emerald, “deals as bluntly as ever with the shadowy, subtle corners of humanity” according to Rolling Stone, and was recorded with friends such as Richard Thompson, Jill Sobule, Jim Lauderdale, the Milk Carton Kids, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Suzzy Roche, the Hooters and others in various studios across the U.S. It is a sparkling collection of new original material, inspired collaborations and some surprising covers such as B.A.D.’s “Johnny Appleseed” making this album one of her best yet.
“Dar Williams, one of America’s very best singer-songwriters… Her songs are beautiful. Some are like finely crafted short stories. They are, variously, devastatingly moving, tenderly funny, subtle without being in any way inaccessible, and utterly fresh—not a cliche; or a clunker in her entire songbook.” -The New Yorker
Support from Ruth Theodore: Ruth Theodore’s songs fascinate audiences with their gripping honesty and distinctive lyricism. Over an array of unconventional guitar tunings, Ruth sings stories of the known universe with captivating vocal dexterity and poetic originality.
Ruth moves almost recklessly between pacey political passages, stomping slide guitar, and enchanting piano pieces that conjure the compositional freedom of a young Keith Jarrett, with the timeless qualities of such artists as Carole King and Nina Simone. Turning her music on its head at every opportunity, Ruth’s natural lyricism and deliberate turn of phrase is that of a skilled writer in command of, and having fun with, the idea of contemporary songwriting.
Ruth’s fourth studio album ‘Cactacus’, which she recorded with producer and bassist Todd Sickafoose (Anais Mitchell/Ani Difranco), was released through Aveline Records in September 2016. Ruth travelled and played her way through California and up into Oregon to work alongside a stellar cast of musicians including organist Rob Burger (Tom Waits, Willie Nelson), percussionist Mathias Kunzli (Regina Spektor, Lauryn Hill), and Violinist Jenny Scheinman (Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed).
“Occasionally recalling Kate Bush and Ani DiFranco, this is a beautiful, sad, wonderful LP” – MOJO ★★★★
“… [an] impressive ability to excite audiences with her truly original, fascinating and thoroughly entertaining music….. a wealth of poetry, satire and pure, natural artistry. ‘Cactacus’ is a wonderful, captivating album.” – Folk Radio UK
