Dar Williams w/ Ruth Theodore at Aladdin Theater
Schedule
Sat, 04 Apr, 2026 at 08:00 pm
UTC-07:00Location
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR, United States, Oregon 97202 | Portland, OR
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TICKETS 🎟️ truewest.info/Dar26On Sale Friday, September 12th at 10am PT
This Event is All Ages and General Admission
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Dar Williams:
“It’s a highway, filled with deep, exotic colors and beautiful delicate things as well as the perils that come from moving so fast,” says Dar Williams, describing modern life. On her 13th album, Hummingbird Highway, out September 12 on Righteous Babe Records, Williams celebrates the colors she glimpses from her vantage as a touring musician. “I was a kid from the suburbs who listened when her hippie teachers said to get out in the world,” Williams muses. Hummingbird Highway is the latest chapter in a richly unfolding story. Drawing on her experience as a playwright, Williams populates her latest album with nuanced characters that come alive in the space of a few minutes.
Since 2013, Williams has been leading songwriting workshops where she teaches students to let songs find their own trajectories. While writing the breezy bossa nova “Tu Sais Le Printemps,” (single release 7/29/25) Williams questioned why she was writing a light, flirty song amidst many gloomy news stories. “I was having coffee with some of my fellow retreat leaders and Beth Nielsen Chapman, telling them about my ‘frilly’ song, and Beth said, ‘That's just what I want to hear right now!’ It was a nice moment to follow my own advice and let the song find its way.”
With help from Williams’ collaborators, the other songs found their paths as well. Mainly produced by Ken Rich at Brooklyn’s Grand Street recording (with two tracks produced by Dave Chalfant in Western Massachusetts), the Hummingbird Highway sessions were a microcosm of the interdependence that provided inspiration from inception to full production. These songs are ecosystems that thrive on co-creation. Through gray skies, snow pigeons, and petitions to stem industrial pollution, the character moves through shifting mindsets to work towards “what we see; what we breathe in time.”
Longtime listeners know that Williams and her music are always up for those kinds of conversations that glimpse the brightest colors, woven into the larger context of time. “As I've gotten older, I feel more comfortable holding a lot of different threads in my hand to create more complicated patterns. Time has given me a better ability to hold a bunch of colors and temperaments and see what happens, where they become interesting new stories and also where I need to stop and untangle the themes and characters. It's daunting, and I've learned that, you know, daunting is fine, just keep going.”
Ruth Theodore:
British folk-rocker Ruth Theodore playfully pushes the boundaries of gender and genre with a sense of joyful rebellion, a touch of 1920s vaudeville theatre, and a healthy dose of punk-rock attitude. Now signed to Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe records with plans for a new album to be released in mid-2026.
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Where is it happening?
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR, United States, Oregon 97202Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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