Dar Williams: The Beauty Of The Rain : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A decade ago, Dar Williams was an idiosyncratic coffeehouse folkie with sharp songwriting and a mildly numbing voice. Seasons change, but Williams remains both ambitious and pleasingly plain-spoken. Her slavish cult of fans includes a host of worthy collaborators -- Dave Matthews Band's Stefan Lessard and Medeski, Martin and Wood's John Medeski among them -- who add flesh to this impressive album, Williams' sixth. Whether ushering out a lover ("Closer to Me" ) or extolling the virtues of the bucolically mundane ("Fishing in the Morning"), Williams is an earnest and unadorned vocalist. She knows how to rise to the occasion: Her alto shines in the presence of Alison Krauss ("The One Who Knows"). It does the same alongside John Popper, on the surprisingly affecting "I Saw a Bird Fly Away." And importantly, she seems more at ease than ever.

JON CARAMANICA
(From RS 917, March 6, 2003)