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A lot of the songs are pretty unmasked. If you listen to “As Cool As I Am,” it’s not all that different from what you were hearing from Ani DiFranco and some of the other indie women artists of the time. It was still in that context, still seen as folk music.

Dar Williams

I have odometer readings, kids; all sorts of measurements of what I’ve been doing for the last 20 years. I get it. I get that it was a while ago.
DAR WILLIAMS

Kids Reading Years
We have evolved to understand that language of power that’s taken too much.
DAR WILLIAMS

Language Much Taken Too
It’s a collective truth that slavery is wrong, that child labor is wrong, that gross inequality is wrong. God didn’t send it.
DAR WILLIAMS

Child Children Labor Slavery
The summer ends and we wonder who we are And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree I passed the farms that made it
DAR WILLIAMS

Goodbye Passed School Summer
You fly all over the country opening for these other people. You pay a publicist to get some press while you’re establishing yourself and you will be solvent in this career forevermore.
DAR WILLIAMS

Carer Extra Fly Layer Publicist
If you’re looking for can-do, earthy-crunchy attitude then you’ve got to go to Wisconsin.
DAR WILLIAMS

Attitude Crunchy Wisconsin
And where does magic come from? I think that magic’s in the learning.
DAR WILLIAMS

Come Learning Magic Thinking
There was one tour where I thought, “If I can’t get this feeling back of being excited to be on the stage, then I will quit.” Because I have friends who have dialed it in and I watch their concerts and shake my head. I’m sure the audience can tell, too.
DAR WILLIAMS

Dialed Feelings Quitting Watches
I am happy to do political fundraisers. I always hope that my friends will be, too. It’s part of who you are and you shouldn’t feel ashamed of what you believe in.
DAR WILLIAMS

Ashamed Believe Political
[Mortal City ] was also the beginning of the reality of the fact that I was going to have little pieces of my personality identifying with all of these different parts of the country.
DAR WILLIAMS

Cities Country Reality
What happened on “As Cool As I Am” was, you know how in the ’90s, “the personal is political, the political is personal”? That was a really big thing.
DAR WILLIAMS

Choices Political Real
Things are important to you and then they recede within a day. That’s the only thing that keeps me from believing that there’s going to be any one organic big wave; although the Americana (music) thing has been happening for a while.
DAR WILLIAMS

Believing Country Important Music Things
At this point, I feel like I have roots in a lot of places. I have friends who have put down roots, in Seattle and San Francisco and Portland, and I feel very close to them.
DAR WILLIAMS

Country People Portland Roots
Choices you made about how you recorded and what instruments you used and how much real versus how much synthetic. Those were choices that were seen as very political at the time.
DAR WILLIAMS

Choice Make Political Time
God looks like a guidance counselor, God’s got that smile. God says, ‘How could this be? That’s really odd I guess I’ll have to check my records, silly me, you know, I’m only God.’
DAR WILLIAMS

Looks Records Silly
The best, most solid place to stand as you look at our present situation is on a foundation of history. The Roman Empire, the British Empire, and the Nazi empire all have things in common.
DAR WILLIAMS

Empires Foundation Looks
One of them looked at me and shook her head, like “Don’t do that.” I think she was doing it to say, “It doesn’t work.” She didn’t say anything but it was this cautionary moment. I knew it didn’t work. There are just so many other words to choose from.
DAR WILLIAMS

Look Moment One Shook Work
And you bring your words, But you’re just like them, You’re unprepared ‘Cause you don’t know the terrain
DAR WILLIAMS

Causes Knows Terrain
When we learn about ourselves, we can evolve.
DAR WILLIAMS

Bout Evolve Ourselves
We all do the wrong thing. And then we have to wake up the next morning and live with the fact that we have done things that are wrong.
DAR WILLIAMS

Done Morning Up Wake
A song versus an album is not like a scene versus a play.
DAR WILLIAMS

Albums Play Song
A lot of the songs are pretty unmasked. If you listen to “As Cool As I Am,” it’s not all that different from what you were hearing from Ani DiFranco and some of the other indie women artists of the time. It was still in that context, still seen as folk music.
DAR WILLIAMS

Artist Different Song
Now that I believe in God, I have an extra layer of saying I’ll write about what I write about and assume that I’m being offered the opportunity to illuminate something important. But when you think you are too important, you become some sort of fascist.
DAR WILLIAMS

Believe Opportunity Writing
What was nice about the nineties is that it was an example of music that responded to a desire of the times. It spoke to the social conditions of the times.
DAR WILLIAMS

Friday Nice Night
I really value people besides parents who nurture kids.
DAR WILLIAMS

Kids Parent People
I really lucked out with that song [“As Cool As I Am”]. Men were becoming much more comfortable with all the different facets and parts of their identity, including their gentler, funnier, sillier, nurturing parts. They started showing up.
DAR WILLIAMS

Identity Men Song
Slavery doesn’t have any positives.
DAR WILLIAMS

Any Positives Slavery

A lot of the songs are pretty unmasked. If you listen to “As Cool As I Am,” it’s not all that different from what you were hearing from Ani DiFranco and some of the other indie women artists of the time. It was still in that context, still seen as folk music.

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Popular Authors

A lot of the songs are pretty unmasked. If you listen to “As Cool As I Am,” it’s not all that different from what you were hearing from Ani DiFranco and some of the other indie women artists of the time. It was still in that context, still seen as folk music.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Dar Williams Quotes