Dar Williams

A delightful show in a venue that felt like just the right size. Selby Town Hall; an attractive smaller venue of “up to 150”, offers first come, first served seating. I arrived only 30 mins prior to show time, but the front row was open so I took a center seat. Heather Maloney (new to me) was a lovely opener for Dar. Her stories & songs of loss touched me deeply. A duet cover of “Woodstock” by she & Dar was an unexpected bonus during Heather’s set. Dar’s set was everything I hoped for & more. A consummate story teller & songsmith, she even dressed the part, in jewelled tones evocative of her new album’s namesake. When someone suddenly took ill & her set had to be paused, Dar pivoted with admirable ease. She began taking requests, while also expressing concern for the unfortunate party & reassuring us that this happens fairly frequently (as a seasoned performer, her calm demeanour kept things relaxed while staff assisted the person). It would have been helpful for the venue staff to provide more updates to give Dar a better idea of how long she needed to pause, but I understand they had their hands full assisting the person who became ill. When she was able to resume her set, Dar combined songs from Hummingbird Highway seamlessly with past classics requested by the audience. I particularly enjoyed Sacred Mountain & What Bird Did You See. As this tour is one to promote her new album, I think Dar may have been surprised by the number of requests for older material. As an immigrant to the UK from the US, I wish I’d thought to tell her after the show that obtaining new music from niche US artists can be a prohibitively expensive process for folks in the UK (sadly, not everyone knows about Bandcamp). Despite grappling with the last vestiges of a cold she caught in Dublin, Dar & her voice rallied for the rest of the set & 2 encores. I’ll treasure the memory of Dar, Heather, & the whole audience singing Iowa together forever. The show was wonderful & I’m so glad I went!