JennJoy's Full Review: The Beauty Of The Rain [Digipak] by Dar Williams
This review is part of the Three-Legged Writeoff, where members pair up to offer up as many reviews as they can handle on the 5th and 6th of July. Check out my partner in crime (er, music), teamfreak16's contributions or find the complete list of participants here: http://home.earthlink.net/~epskids.
Dar Williams started out playing the coffee-house folk circuit and gained a rabid little following with her five albums released since 1993. In that time, I’ve only heard a few of her songs, most notably “The Christians & the Pagans” from her 1996 album Mortal City, but The Beauty of the Rain is the first one I’ve given a complete listen to. Based on the few songs I’ve heard and what I’ve read about Dar, I expected her music to along the same vein as most other female folkies.
What I found on The Beauty of the Rain was a much more eclectic mix of radio-friendly songs that feature an all star cast of guest musicians and focus more on rock and pop then folk. Since I haven’t heard any of Dar’s other releases, I have no sense of whether this style change has been slowly evolving from her first album or if it is more of a play for mass appeal. Either way, while I’m not absolutely floored by my first experience with a Dar Williams album, I am pleasantly pleased. This is a damn fine album that I’ll be putting on whenever I’m in a mellow, sing-along mood.
The music here is extremely pretty – soft instrumentation, Dar’s solid voice, and beautiful lyrics. The eleven songs are mellow and flow so easily from one to the next you won’t realize the album is ending when you get there. That isn’t to say that all of the tracks sound exactly the same, they just mesh together really well. All of the tracks are extremely radio-friendly as well, which I believe is due to the move away from purely folk music.
The album starts off with The World’s Not Falling Apart, a track which reminds me a lot of Shawn Colvin. The track is a mellow pop number and features Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band) on bass and Michael Kang (Sting Cheese Incident) on the fiddle. These two musicians are just the beginning of a long list of industry notables that contribute to The Beauty of the Rain in one way or another. Closer to Me has a folk-country flair with the addition of Bela Fleck’s banjo which complements the vocal tapestry quite nicely. I Saw a Bird Fly Away is one of my favorite tracks because it melds styles so effortlessly – bluegrass, folk, rock, pop, and more. John Popper of Blues Traveler fame lends his distinctive vocals and harmonica here and John Medeski (Medeski, Martin & Wood) offers up some keyboard work.
The Beauty of the Rain is an all-around decent album with only a few tracks that are less than stellar. Even though I’m not blown away it’s enough to make me want to check out some of Dar Williams’ previous releases. Dar really pulled out all of the stops with this one as far as guest musicians are concerned and all of the arrangements just work perfectly. If this is the direction her future efforts will take (less solo work) I’d love to see her start putting together her own touring band. This a great album for fans of some of the more laid-back female singer-songwriters out there, just don’t let her previous “folk” label scare you off.
Track Listing:
The World’s Not Falling Apart
Farewell to the Old Me
I Saw a Bird Fly Away
The Beauty of the Rain
Mercy of the Fallen
The One Who Knows
Closer to Me
Fishing in the Morning
Whispering Pines
Your Fire Your Soul
I Have Lost My Dreams
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