{"id":3201,"date":"2011-08-09T02:06:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T09:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3201"},"modified":"2011-08-09T02:06:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T09:06:54","slug":"dar-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/dar-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"DAR WILLIAMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DAR<\/h1>\n

DAR WILLIAMS<\/h1>\n

How a back-to-basics move led to a reevaluation of her rich musical history<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For years, Dar Williams had been thinking about rerecording some of her older songs in stripped-down arrangements. When she at last undertook the project, she was surprised at how much she had changed since starting her career nearly two decades ago. \u201cListening to the original recordings, I thought, \u2018Wow, I don\u2019t sound like the same person anymore,\u2019\u201d Williams explains. \u201cMy voice has changed, I\u2019ve changed and my understanding of how those songs have lived out in the public has changed. But the combination of those things is also what made me want to rerecord them with just voice and acoustic guitar. A segment of my fan base wanted this very badly, and it\u2019s something I was happy to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Great Companions<\/em> gathers those new bare-bones recordings onto one disc, and pairs them with a second CD featuring some of Williams\u2019 best-known songs in their original forms. She produced the new recordings with fellow singer-songwriter Gary Louris at a small studio in upstate New York, hewing close to the spirit of the original arrangements while giving the new tracks a soft-lit, intimate vibe. She welcomed a few guests, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Larkin and Nickel Creek\u2019s Sean and Sara Watkins. \u201cMary Chapin Carpenter is amazing with harmonies,\u201d Williams says. \u201cHer participation alone was enough to make the project worthwhile. And it was similar with Patty.\u201d Larkin adds a second guitar to the updated version of Williams\u2019 \u201cWhen I Was a Boy.\u201d \u201cThat is arguably the most important song on the album,\u201d Williams observes. \u201cPatty has such gravitas, I thought, \u2018This reinterpretation is meant for her to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams first balked at the idea of including the additional best-of disc, describing the experience of revisiting her old recordings as a bittersweet one. But her manager convinced her it was the right thing to do. \u201cHe pointed out that those original versions are what people listen to,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s those versions that people turn to when they\u2019re getting past a heartbreak, or something else that\u2019s difficult.\u201d Throughout her career, Williams says she has strived to avoid one thing in her songwriting: \u201cBlame,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cEven when I was young I knew that things like hypocrisy and betrayal were inevitable, and that they were really more sad than something worth railing against. I\u2019m glad I made that decision early on. Otherwise there would be 15 songs about ex-boyfriends that I\u00a0could never perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAR WILLIAMS How a back-to-basics move led to a reevaluation of her rich musical history For years, Dar Williams had been thinking about rerecording some of her older songs in stripped-down arrangements. When she at last undertook the project, she was surprised at how much she had changed since starting her career nearly two decades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2328,1175,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3203,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}