The acclaimed songwriter Dar Williams is never content simply to sing. Her visit to Midcoast and DownEast Maine later this month will center on a July 18 evening performance at the 758-seat 1932 Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor. But Williams is also holding two of the “Town Talks” she’s been hosting across the country since she wrote a book about lessons in community-building gleaned in hundreds of towns she’s visited as a touring musician since the 1990s.
The Criterion show will include a mix of songs from her new album, “Hummingbird Highway” (Righteous Babe Records), and her deeper songbook.
On Friday July 17th at 7 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Belfast, Williams will trade songs and stories with a selection of Maine songleaders of known for their focus on music as a mending and nurturing presence in our towns: Molly Gawler, Matthew Hawkins, Doug Kolmar and Mehuman. Matt Murphy, the general manager of WERU Community Radio, will facilitate.
On Saturday the 18th at 1 p.m., she’ll appear at Hidden Barn Books in Bar Harbor to lead a conversation with local leaders and innovators fostering community resilience and thriving: Johannah Blackman of A Climate to Thrive, the Bar Harbor Story blogger and author Carrie Jones, Puranjot Kaur, a founder of Open Table MDI and John Zavodny of Maine Seacoast Mission. The journalist and songwriter Andy Revkin will facilitate.
For more information and ticket links for each event visit www.bagaducemusic.org.
These events are possible in partnership between WERU-FM Community Radio, Bagaduce Music, The Criterion Theatre and Harper House Music Foundation.