Dar Willimas seeks truths Singer-songwriter explores religion, nature on new CD

In an earlier time, Dar Williams would have been a seeker of truths. Instead, she’s a rising young singer-songwriter, who uses her music to frame her philosophical ponderings. Williams will be performing at 7:30 p.m. both Friday at The Grand in Ellsworth and Saturday at Camden Hills High School.

Williams does such exploring on her current album, “The Green World.” A nod to Shakespeare, it was a natural path to take for the former religion and theater major at Wesleyan University.

“It was the best of both places that I inhabited in college,” Williams, 33, said by phone from New York City. “I experienced ‘the green world’ as a theater major, this world of the psyche filled with nature and chaos. Yet the album is infused with all the things I encountered in religion, how various religions deal with that green space, and I came up with characters to explore these spaces.”

That would explain the album’s disparate topics, including a 17th century messianic cult, Vietnam-era activists Daniel and Philip Berrigan and an 8-year-old pretending to be a ship’s captain.

Her fourth album is Williams’ first since 1997.

“I wanted to make a beautiful album, and I wanted it to be lush and melodic, with lots of harmony, counterpoint and joy,” she explained. “Then I forgot that I wanted that, as we went to work. But everyone had it in the back of their minds, so the result is that I got what I wanted.”

She’s been touring hard for the past three years, but expect Williams to drop off the road for six months soon. In addition to songs for her next album, she has got songs for other performers, a musical composition for dancers, a novel and two screenplays that she wants to tackle.

“It would be great to take time off to look at them,” she said. “I have a fear of not being able to create in other media, but I would like to try.”

Williams got her start in the early ’90s in the Boston-Cambridge area, which has long been a breeding ground for musicians.

“When I was there, there was seven open mikes a week if you wanted to find them,” she said. “Promoters, if they sensed you were starting to go someplace, would match you up to tour with other artists. There were two radio stations playing folk music. It was a fabulous training ground.”

Williams has toured with Richard Thompson and Ani DiFranco, among others. What’s the best advice that she’s ever heard?

“Ferron once said something [about her career choice] that was great,” she said. “‘It’s a life.’ Sometimes it feels like a very unusual way to live, but it’s a life, a very different life.”

Opening for Williams will be Freedy Johnston. A singer-songwriter who is often grouped with alternative-country artists or folkies, Johnston doesn’t quite fit either category, which may explain why he is not headlining his own tour. His critically acclaimed 1997 release, “Never Home,” featured first-rate songs that are like mininovels set to irresistible melodies and hooks. His most recent record, 1999’s “Blue Days Black Nights,” is equally strong.

– Bangor Daily News reporter Tom Groening contributed to this report.

Tickets for the Dar Williams show, with Freedy Johnston opening, are available at the Grasshopper Shops in Ellsworth, Bangor and Rockland, Wild Rufus in Camden, Mr. Paperback in Belfast and The Music Bar in Bar Harbor. Tickets are also available for the Ellsworth show at The Grand box office in person or at 667-9500.