Dar Williams is a longtime Ark favorite who finds the personal in the political and the universal -- and sets folk commitment to great pop tunes. Dar has always kept audiences guessing. Are her songs autobiographical? They're so vivid, and they seem so personal, that you assume they must be. But Dar says that she prefers to write about and for other people. Her songs tell stories of politics, religion, sexuality, and family, and the grassroots activism she has practiced in the small upstate New York town where she lives has often found its way into her music. Opening for Dar is the Northampton, Massachusetts songwriter Stephen Kellogg, whose creativity has been fueled partly by a near-death experience in a plane in Florida. "Kellogg's music is semi-gritty, melodic alt-country," says the Boston Globe. "Think early Wilco, Whiskeytown, or Tom Petty. Relaxed, yet passionate."