Fall Stars: Folk
Dar Williams. The onetime local folk darling celebrates a new CD titled -- with trademark winking optimism -- ''My Better Self." The songwriter calls it at once her most personal and most political recording, and it features guest vocals by Marshall Crenshaw and Ani DiFranco. But then, Williams has always displayed a rare gift for making the personal political. Her new songs provocatively weigh the tension between her personal contentment as a wife and mother and her concern about a world she sees in deepening crisis. She performs at Sanders Theater Sept. 22-23. Call 617-666-2900 or visit www.multistage.org.
Nickel Creek. The most inventive and edgy band in bluegrass is also among its most popular. The California trio's new CD ''Why Should the Fire Die?" displays their fleet-fingered instrumental virtuosity, swashbuckling sense of fun, and growing maturity. Time magazine says ''to hear Nickel Creek is to hear the vibrant reinvention of a classic form." The band's intent, however, is never to gussy up the old music but to play it honestly. It performs at the Orpheum Oct. 6. Call 617-931-2000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
Crooked Still, Halali, and Jake Armerding. If you've been wondering what all the fuss is about ''neotraditionalists" shaking up folk, this is the show to catch. Crooked Still is doing for American traditional music what Solas has done for Irish music: developing a modern arrangement vocabulary without disrupting visceral melodic grace. Halali is a trio of Boston fiddle queens: Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and Lissa Schneckenberger. Armerding may be the finest pure musician among the local songwriter ranks, a blend of traditional savvy and urban street smarts. They perform at the Somerville Theatre Nov. 5. Call 617-628-3390 or visit www.songstreetproductions.net.
Utah Phillips. Now 70, the raconteur, songwriter, and radical firebrand is as influential among folk performers today as Pete Seeger was in the '60s. His saying ''You can make a living, not a killing, in folk music" is an oft-repeated mantra on the circuit, as is his more sober assessment that ''The only way to end up with a million bucks in folk music is to start out with two." He has released a four-CD song-and-story collection, ''Starlight on the Rails: A Songbook," that is equal parts greatest-hits collection and sharp-eyed oral history. He plays Club Passim Nov. 6. Call 617-492-7679 or visit www.clubpassim.org.
A Woman's Heart. The 1992 anthology CD ''A Woman's Heart" spent almost half a year at number one on the Irish charts, and helped inspire the treacly phenomenon Celtic Woman. The Woman's Heart concert focuses on the female experience in Irish music. It features Mary Black, Ireland's most popular recording artist; delightful Celtic-country star Maura O'Connell; accordion powerhouse Sharon Shannon; and hot new Irish songwriter Cara Dillon. ''A Woman's Heart" comes to the Berklee Performance Center Nov. 12. Call 617-876-4275 or visit www.worldmusic.org.
