Jim Croce Songs

Dar Williams: Big Sister

A girl sits on the edge of her bed. She’s overwhelmed by the looming adult world before her, wracked with the confusion that comes with trying to figure out her place in it. Or, really, if she even wants any part of it at all. Hell, she’s still not even sure exactly who she is yet, much less what everyone else wants of her. Her head and her heart combine to form a churning cauldron of a million conflicting thoughts, about society, sexuality, politics, spirituality, careers, the planet. She feels like she’s drowning. And very much alone. But songs help. Especially beautifully crafted, movingly sung songs that come from the perspective of someone who’s been right where she is now and made it through—and become a stronger, more aware, and more self-assured person in the process. Songs like “It’s Alright,” “As Cool as I Am,” “The Great Unknown,” and “Buzzer.” Dar Williams’s songs. One of pop folk’s leading singer-songwriters, Williams is beloved for her questioning and deeply personal narratives; tunes whose wry, minutely focused observations—often quite humorous in their irony—pinpoint the poetry and paradoxes of everyday life. Her steadfast stance and frequent addressing of gender issues have made her a paragon of the so-called women’s music movement, a mantle she never consciously courted but one she’s worn with pride since the identity-straddling “When I Was a Boy,” from her 1993 debut, The Honesty Room “I’ve always been a feminist, but I really lucked out by being embraced by such a passionate and seriously committed audience so early on,” says Williams, who lives in Cold Spring with her husband, Michael Robinson, and their two children. “I guess [“When I Was a Boy”] sort of came out of me being a tomboy as a kid in the ’70s, and picking up on the androgyny of everyone with their Dorothy Hamill/John Denver hairdos.” . “We had a lot of classical albums, a lot of show tunes, all alphabetized. I loved the Beatles, Jim Croce, Crosby, Stills and Nash; poets who wrote melodic, story-based songs. I remember really being into my vocabulary books when I was in sixth grade, and I guess that’s when I really started to fall in love with words.”  Williams began learning guitar at age nine and wrote her first songs soon after, yet by high school she’d become more interested in sports. But when an ankle injury landed her on the bench she took to theater, writing plays and stage music.