Dar Williams at Woodlands Tavern

Its a highway, filled with deep, exotic colors and beautiful delicate things as well as the perils that come from moving so fast, says Dar Williams, describing modern life. On her 13th album, Hummingbird Highway, out September 12 on Righteous Babe Records, Williams celebrates the colors she glimpses from her vantage as a touring musician. I was a kid from the suburbs who listened when her hippie teachers said to get out in the world, Williams muses. Hummingbird Highway is the latest chapter in a richly unfolding story. Drawing on her experience as a playwright, Williams populates her latest album with nuanced characters that come alive in the space of a few minutes.

On the title track, Williams sings from the perspective of a child speaking to her peripatetic and sometimes struggling parent. Blooming columbines, china blue teapots, and cinnamon bark number among the treasures in her life, despite the pirates that she imagines populating her worldly parents life. The pirates can be all sorts of things living inside and outside your head. The child, for better or worse, knows that there is joy, unpredictability, and instability on the home front. Shes rooting for the joy.

Since 2013, Williams has been leading songwriting workshops where she teaches students to let songs find their own trajectories. While writing the breezy bossa nova Tu Sais Le Printemps, (single release 7/29/25) Williams questioned why she was writing a light, flirty song amidst many gloomy news stories. I was having coffee with some of my fellow retreat leaders and Beth Nielsen Chapman, telling them about my frilly song, and Beth said, Thats just what I want to hear right now! It was a nice moment to follow my own advice and let the song find its way.