Submission by Kaysey Crump, TNG contributor

Earlier this week Dar Williams released her latest project, a two disc set, Many Great Companions. The first disc contains new versions of some of her most popular songs and includes collaborations with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Larkin, and Sean and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek. The second disc is a compilation of songs titled “The Best of Dar Williams.”

I spoke with Dar briefly about her career, her work, and her family while she attempted to calm her crying daughter and answer questions for her six year-old son. To say that she is multi-talented is an understatement.

Dar Williams Many Great Companions was released on October 12^th, she is currently on tour. For more information visit www.darwilliams.com.

The New Gay: The first disc of your new release, Many Great Companions, features several collaborations with different artists. Can you tell me how this album came to be?

Dar Williams: It came together very organically, which is just a very nice thing. My record company was willing to let me re-record a lot of songs that I wanted to re-record, so I went in and did twelve and then we talked about bring a few friends in. This is before we knew it was going to be called Many Great Companions. So I approached Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty (Larkin), and Sean and Sara (Watkins). I heard these stripped down versions of the songs, and that’s how it happened.   It felt like it was really time to just strip these songs down to the work itself and to allow whoever’s voice to sing them.

TNG: Did you have certain people in mind when you thought of re-recording certain songs?

DW: Yes, and that’s really what led it. If I had known that it was going to be called Many Great Companions then I would have called up fifty friends and asked them to be a part of it, but as it stood I didn’t know that it was going to become this project that had a lot to do with the very social and human career that I’ve had. When we were choosing a title I had the lyrics and the performances to start with and then when we came up with the title I felt like it was incredibly appropriate. My career has been a career that has been completely defined by the people in my life, including audiences and musicians.

TNG: So I assume you had worked with all of the artists on the album previously?

DW: No, I was just about to head out on tour with Sean and Sara and I had never worked with them before.

TNG: Sidenote, I love Nickel Creek.

DW: Ha, yes I love Nickel Creek too.

TNG: How did it feel to re-record these songs? Did you feel that you were interpreting them differently now than when you first wrote them?

DW: Yes, absolutely, they all felt different now. It was great. I actually tried to do everything I could, you know, running around the studio parking lot, crossword puzzles, talking to Gary (Louris) the producer, so that I could just distract myself from the monumental feeling of going back to record something for the first time in fifteen years.

I’m very grateful to my record company for footing the bill to re-record. The song “When I Was a Boy,” I barely recognize the voice I sang it in, so it felt very good. And, it had traveled. It had been thousands of miles. You know I’ve travel thousands of miles with those songs so at some point you have to believe that there is some different element in the delivery, because you’ve experienced it differently now.

TNG: Are there any songs that are hard for you to play now, or that you don’t particularly like playing?

DW: No everything is okay. There are songs that are younger, or that have a younger sensibility. I definitely understand, or I sort of have to look back fondly on that slightly inexperienced and a little more self-righteous young woman that wrote that song.

TNG: How did you select the songs that were going to be on the album?

DW: I made a list and three different entities made lists and there was a nice overlap. No catfights.

TNG: Are you excited to start the tour?

DW: Well actually I kind of have. We’re releasing the album later than we thought. I’m not sure but there’s a chance I’m responsible for that. We had booked some shows earlier. I’ve already done four shows at a small club in Boston, Club Passim. I invited a few friends who had produced an album of mine. An ex-boyfriend came who had dumped me. I told the audience all about that. Melissa Ferrick came on Sunday and ended up turning everything upside down which was awesome. So it’s already been what I hoped it would be, which is not a giant parade of friends, but just a couple friends here and there that are really helping with the theme of companions that really made this journey possible. I’m excited for the next shows.

TNG: How do you balance having a family and touring?

DW: Haha, really badly, tonight at least! At its best, it’s the best. Music and children are a really great combination. This life, having a career and having kids, where that intersects is very positive. When it’s like two full-time jobs, that’s when it’s difficult. Touring requires a lot of adaptability or dealing with whatever flies into your face, and of course nutritional needs all around. Ha, I’m working on the nutrition.

TNG: How many kids do you have?

DW: Two, I have a six year-old son and a one and a half year-old daughter that we adopted last year.

TNG: Do they travel with you when you tour?

DW: My son is in first grade, so no, but here and there we will bring them. They will most certainly be on the Cayamo Cruise. We did a trip that started in Denver and ended in Seattle in August. That was exciting and totally worth it, but I’m not sure that I would repeat that. Again, at its best it’s the best. It’s a really wonderful experience and they’re both musical kids so it’s a very nice thing to share with them.

TNG: How do you write songs? Have your methods changed over the years?

DW: Now I have more faith that I know what to do to put myself in the place that I can clear out my mind to write than when I used to follow all of these little rules. Sometimes I’ll come up completely dry and I’ll think, “Shoot, I should have just been one of those people that sits down for two hours a day in front of a blank page.” But sometimes I can feel like “Here I am at the inspiration well, there’s the inspiration,” and feel really mad at myself because I don’t use it. Or I can be in a place where the inspirations not there and I have to record in two months. I end up having to trick myself in a lot of different ways but I do know that museums inspire me. That and coffee.

TNG: Thank you so much for talking with me today!

DW: Thank you.

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