STRINGS ATTACHED COLLABORATION SERIES SEASON FIVE

FEATURING

DAR WILLIAMS Friday, August 19, 2005

STRINGS ATTACHED Will Taylor – viola, , Steve Zirkel – bass, trumpet Charles Prewitt – cello Martin Norgaard – violin Chris Searles – drums Eddy Hobizal –

The Program

Fool on the Hill Are You Out There As Cool As I Am Blue Light of the Flame Comfortably Numb Echoes February Iowa So Close to My Heart Teen for God You Rise and Meet the Day The River The Hudson Irish Melody Gospel Medley Dragonfly

There will be a 20 min intermission tonight

Enter the raffle tonight for a chance to win: Signed CDs from the Artists Free Intelli-Seat from Intellibed of Austin

We recommend you fill out the raffle ticket as you wait for the show to begin. There will be a raffle just after the intermission. The bookshop downstairs will be open tonight to sell tickets to our next concert.

Thanks to Tony Kyle for photographing our concerts. See his photos at ChanceImages.photoreflect.com or reach him at 997-9174.

Photos from Season One of the Strings Attached Collaboration Series taken by Robert McGee are at our website StringsAttached.org

If you used a credit card tonight, please note that it will appear on your bill as "Will Taylor Music". Thanks to Longhorn Collision! Longhorn Collision Center is a full-service collision repair facility located at 1607 South Lamar, just 1 mile south of Town Lake. Look for the blue roof. It is locally owned and operated by Larry Seiler, one of the Strings Attached volun- teers. Longhorn Collision provides free wireless internet access so you can check your email or surf the web while you wait for an estimate, a rental car pickup, or a quick repair. Our work is covered by a Limited Lifetime Warranty. So if you have a fender bender, call 441-DENT. We'll straighten things out!

Dar Williams was born in Mount Kisco, N.Y., but raised in Chappaqua the daughter of medical writer/editor Gray Williams and Marian Ferry, an active figure in Planned Parenthood. Her parents were educated at Yale and Vassar respectively. Raised in a decidedly liberal arts atmosphere, Williams began studying at age nine and wrote her first song at eleven. In high school she was interested in athletics, but an ankle injury led her to audition for the musical Godspell. She became active in drama and by her senior year, after composing more music and writing plays, considered herself a playwright. She blames an 'Existential Crises' at age 16 for her creativity and sharp sense of humor.

In her sophomore year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Williams spent a few months in Berkeley, CA, where she wrote songs and performed at the Starry Plough. After earning a B.A., with a double-major in theatre and religion, she moved to Boston in 1990 to find a career in the theatre where she dabbled in everything from directing plays and operas to performing. She became the stage manager for the Opera Company of Boston and began taking voice lessons with, Jeannie Diva, who encouraged Williams to try the coffeehouse circuit. Dar recorded two early tapes, All My Heroes are Dead and I Have No History. Things didn't exactly take off, and in 1993, Dar left Boston for the relaxed, artsy atmosphere of Northampton, Mass.

Things turned around and in 1993, she released The Honesty Room under her own label, Burning Fields Music. It was later picked up by Andrew Calhoun's "wonderful sanctuary for singer/songwriters, Waterbug Records," and in 1995 re-released, with two new tracks, by Razor and Tie. And she's made believers out of a lot of other people in the years since her first , The Honesty Room, hit the national airplay charts. Here are a few of those believers: Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn, who toured with Dar as "Real Life Songs". Joan Baez, who has recorded three of Dar's songs and toured with her in the U.S. and Europe. Ani DiFranco, who toured Australia with Dar earlier in 1998. Pete Seeger - who did the Conan O'Brien show with Dar - The Indigo Girls, with whom Dar played a now-legendary show at Alcatraz to benefit the prisoner-rights group Bread and Roses. and Sara McLachlan, who brought Dar on two years' worth of the Lilith Fair.

In 1996, she released , which many fans say is her best album. With songs real and moving. But also full of humour and understanding of the nature of the human spirit. "As Cool As I Am" is about overcoming the power struggles in personal relationships. The holiday gathering in the "Christians and the Pagans" is a lesson to us all.

Dar has brought the idea of "folk" music to a new generation - she has a fanatical following at colleges and schools in the U.S. and Canada. Dar Williams has hit a wellspring of support with her post-modern humanity. "Wisdom flows through her songs in delirious, wordy rushes of truth," says The New York Times. In 1998, Dar's song "What Do You Hear In These Sounds" (her ode to therapy) charted on MTV's cutting edge channel M2; she filled Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; and in the States she became on of the Top 50 Grossing touring acts. She's sold well over a quarter-million records. Dar was the highest-charting independent artist on Triple-A radio for her 1997 album End of the Summer. And her concert appearances are routinely standing-room-only.

Dar's collaboration with highly-regarded singer/songwriters and , - a collection of cover songs by contemporary singer/songwriters - has received rave reviews from the press. Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-, calling it an "eclectic, unrushed trasure trove of gorgeous acoustic covers stripped to their folk essence." Robert Earl Keen, whose "Shades of Gray" appears on the disc, called it "the best cover anybody's ever done of a song of mine."

Dar says she draws inspiration from her home community. Her love of the folk scene stems from her admiration of its integrity toward honesty and real emotion, and a creative freedom not found in more popular music genres. She loves trying to use traditional methods to express the realities and foibles of contemporary life. Dar writes about what life is like, really like. She doesn't fake it. She doesn't pose; she doesn't preen; she doesn't take on and put off attitude like a change of clothes. People believe Dar Williams because she tells the truth.

It's hard to figure when she has the time to do it, but Dar has published two editions of The Tofu Tollbooth, her directory of natural-food store for travellers. As well, she donates her time and efforts to causes she believes in, such as a solar-powered music festival in Vermont; The Nature Conservancy and Clearwater for whom she is doing a series of benefit concerts along the Hudson River, and the movement to legalize industrial hemp (her song, "Play the Greed" is the lead single for the fund-raising cd Hempilation 2: Free the Weed, featuring artists as diverse as George Clinton, Fun Lovin' Criminals, and Willie Nelson).

As the Seattle Rocket put it, "There were Deadheads and now there are Darheads. This is NOT your father's ." - - -

Lyrically MY BETTER SELF is a political album, in the most personal way. It combines songs of love and hate with tales that illustrate some of the many social and environmental issues that Dar Williams holds dear to her heart. "I'm thinking about where we are right now in history," Williams says."The other common theme to this record is that the songs all put stuff I find important out on the table. Less metaphor and more me. As to the album's name," she goes on, "it's best illustrated by the image on the cover, that your better self is not always the one you plan out or even motivate yourself to be."

"As much as I love to control what I write and perform, I know my better self is not an intentional construction," Williams explains. "It's a spontaneous creation that I stumble across while I try to tell the truth," she candidly admits. "I hope my audiences have seen that. I try to keep a window open in performance and in recording just as I do in songwriting." Intelli-Bed Gel Mattress Store & Sleep Lab Revolutionary, patented gel technology that provides an unique sleep environment that reduces pressure while maintaining superior support. Come to our store for a FREE personal pressure mapping of your body on all the leading sleep surfaces. 10710 Research Blvd, Suite 320 Next to Brick Oven in the Arboretum area – call 306-1833 for directions Dar took a new approach in the recording of this album. "I wanted to bring in members of my touring band who I have never recorded with before, along with the team I'd worked with on my last two ," Williams explains. Featured are Ben Butler (), Steuart Smith (guitars - currently with The Eagles), Steve Holley (drums/percussion), Julie Wolf (keyboards), Mike Visceglia (bass) and Rob Hyman (keyboards). "They each had their own ideas of how to go about recording this album so my role was to stay out of their way as much as possible. When I got home from the studio and listened to it," Williams continues, "I heard all these little things they had added to make a song come together and build momentum. I was really excited to hear these incredible details that were put in without my really noticing at the time." She sums it up by saying, "There was just this generosity of spirit to the recording."

MY BETTER SELF was recorded in Woodstock, New York's Allaire Studios' "cathedral of sound" and consists of ten original tracks and three aptly chosen cover songs. The album, produced by Stewart Lerman (The Roches, Loudon Wainwright), includes amazing guest performances by Soulive, Ani DiFranco, Marshall Crenshaw and Patty Larkin. It continues an evolution in the sound and vibe from Dar's previous albums. The songs on this record are filled with blasts of guitar, xylophones meshing with organs, and interesting musical nuances that stretch across the record's landscape. In a way, this can be described as an updated version of a classic '70s record, the type that headphones were created for.

One of the three carefully chosen cover tunes on MY BETTER SELF is the innovative rework- ing of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" in a stunning duet with Ani DiFranco. "I always thought a woman should record it," Dar Williams explains, "So I decided to do it, but I thought it needed another woman. Ani was my dream choice and she just nailed it," Williams says. "The song is a commentary on who we are in the aftermath of the last election, no matter who you voted for. On one level it is about a dream which seems to have died in our society and the ultra convenient numbing I am witnessing these days."

COMING SEPT 20th, 2005 A NEW CD ENTITLED "Collaborations" Released Nationally by local label Heart Music Performances by: , Shawn Colvin,Slaid Cleaves,Guy Forsyth, Jimmy La Fave, Libby Kirkpatrick, Ruthie Foster, Patrice Pike, Sara Hickman, Ian Moore, Barbara K

CD Release Party - 8pm OCT. 1st, 2005 Guests: Patrice Pike, Libby Kirkpatrick, Kacy Crowley Suzi Stern, Kellye Gray, Tucker Livingston, and Abra Moore Tickets Available Tonight in the Bookshop

Proceeds from the CD and Release party will benefit CASA of Travis County

Collaboratios Tour with Libby and Patrice Sept. 30 Dallas Oct. 4th Houston Oct. 5th Corpus Christi Oct. 6th San Antonio Oct. 7th Ft. Worth Oct. 8th Wichita blank for ads Interested in Strings Attached for your party, wedding, or event?- Call 775-2371 or visit our website for more info: MusicforaWedding.com

Next Concert of the Season Jimmy La Fave November 18, 2003 7:30 and 10:00 pm STRINGS ATTACHED BIOS Skilled as a performer, , arranger and producer, Will Taylor’s music has challenged, delighted and inspired audiences for many years. Some of Taylor’s featured credits include shows and tours with Eddie Harris and the Turtle Island String Quartet, as well as 14 years with the Austin Lyric Opera orchestra. As a solo artist, he has released three international recordings: Reel Life (1993, Amazing), Simple Gifts (1995, Igmod), and Live from Austin (1996, Cymekob,Inc.). A diverse sample of the artists Taylor has worked with include: 8-1/2 Souvenirs, Toni Price, Betty Elders, David Rice, Mitch Watkins, Rez Abassi, Nora York, Suzi Stern, James Polk, and Podunk. The self-titled Strings Attached CD, produced by Taylor and released in December of 2000, features collaborations with Ian Moore, Sara Hickman and Barbara K. Taylor also arranged the majority of tunes and performed with Strings Attached on Sara Hickman’s 2002 release, Faithful Heart.

Martin Norgaard is the author of the groundbreaking method books Jazz Fiddle Wizard and Jazz Fiddle/Viola/Cello Wizard Jr. for Mel Bay Publications. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education with a jazz emphasis at The University of at Austin. Norgaard taught jazz and commercial strings at Belmont Univer- sity and Vanderbilt University in Nashville for six years and was director of the Belmont Jazz String Quartet and Jazz String Septet, which have been featured at IAJE 2001, MENC 2002 and ASTA 2003. Norgaard is a frequent clinician at state and national conventions of ASTA, TMEA, OMEA, IMEA, MENC, and IAJE and has taught at summer workshops such as the IAJE Teacher Training Institute, the South Carolina Suzuki Institute, the Augusta Heritage Festival and Vanderbilt's International Fiddle School.

Shawn Sanders is a founding member of Strings Attached and a much sought-after cellist in Austin and Central Texas. He and his cello have also played in England, Sweden, Japan and Thailand, as well as Canada and the USA. In addition to an active performing career, he also teaches privately and is a faculty member at Temple College, Texas Lutheran University, and Austin Community College. Holding degrees from DePauw University, Eastman School of Music, and The University of Texas at Austin, Sanders has played with artists as diverse as Pavarotti and Ray Charles, Yo Yo Ma, John Denver, Smokey Robinson, Don Henley, Dionne Warwick, and Willie Nelson. A naturalized Texan, Sanders currently divides his time between performing, teaching, composing and arranging, two dogs, and restoring a 1920s-era house. Sanders' association with Will Taylor dates back more than 20 years, with the elder usually reminding the younger to behave himself in the U.T.String Project.

As a 30-year veteran of the Austin music scene, Steve Zirkel is known for his ability to expertly span a wide range of musical genres. His first instrument was the trumpet, but he has achieved noteworthy proficiency on keyboards, fretless and fretted electric bass, and a variety of other instruments. After studying jazz on scholarship at The University of Texas at Austin, he became a pillar of the Austin jazz and popular music performance scenes with the likes of Passenger, Kellye Gray, Beto y los Fairlanes, Harry Sheppard, DaveCatney, and Mitch Watkins. He toured the US and Canada with

Interested in partnering with us? Looking to reach our audience? Call Will at 775-2371 or email him at [email protected] for info. Leonard Cohen, culminating with an appearance on Austin City Limits, about which show the Austin American-Statesman quoted Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona describing the Leonard Cohen performance as “possibly the best show [they] ever filmed.” Included among Zirkel’s many other credits are performances on over 28 albums and cds to date, including a recording with Jerry Jeff Walker, in addition to associate-producer roles on six of those recordings.

As a drummer who cooks up enough heat to clear the kitchen, Brad Evilsizer seriously challenged and inspired the local Austin scene when he moved to Texas from Aurora, Colorado, in 1995. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Evilsizer studied at Wichita State University and the University of Colorado, where he was awarded a degree in Music Engineering. Evilsizer has shared the stage with the likes of Ernie Watts, Ian Moore, Mitch Watkins, Tony Furtado, Soul Hat, Glenn Rexach and Clay Moore, performs frequently with La Tribu, and teaches at the Austin School of Music. Evilsizer also appears regularly with Will Taylor and Strings Attached, including powerful performances on the Strings Attached 2000 cd release and on Sara Hickman’s 2002 release, Faithful Heart.

Eddy Hobizal has been involved with music-making from early childhood, beginning with classical piano lessons at age 5 and leading to jazz education at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts under the direction of Dr. Robert Morgan. While at HSPVA, he won third place at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competi- tion in 1989, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. During that same year he also appeared on the Mickey Mouse Club Show in Orlando, Florida, which was aired on the Disney Channel. Mr. Hobizal has performed and recorded with such Texas talents as Sebastian Whittaker, Sara Hickman, Guy Forsythe and Eliza Gilkyson. In 2003, Hobizal released a CD of original material entitled Anamnesis. He currently teaches at the Austin School of Music. Visit his website at http://eddyhobizal.com

Cellist Charles Prewitt has has concertized as a soloist, chamber musician, and an orchestral player from Maine to Texas since 1978. He got his B.M. from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign in Cello Performance. Mr. Prewitt is Director of the Prague Cello Corporation" in Portland, Maine, and Artistic Director of "Musica da Camera Concerts." In January of 1996 he appeared at Colby College as "Acting Cellist" of the Portland String Quartet. In 1985, as part of St. Luke's Celebration of J.S. Bach's 300th Birthday, he was broadcast on Maine Public Radio. Since then he has presented annual solo recitals for the "Prague Cello Corporation."

Mr. Prewitt's current performance schedule features "Bach to the Future," a series of solo cello concerts including the "6 Suites for Unaccompanied Cello" by J.S. Bach and various pieces by of the 20th Century.