Honesty Room
Dar Williams's success as young '90s folkie isn't hard to discern. She has a consistent lyrical intelligence, an evocative, if sometimes cloying soprano, and a steady, graceful finger-style guitar skill.  But, what's more, she has tapped into a yearning for immediacy and sincerity among her college-age (and mostly female) audience.  Williams's first record is her sparest, simplest and best.  The subject matter ranges from geopolitical fears, family turmoil, and gender angst, and her finest song remains "When I Was a Boy," a story of what it means to become a man or a woman: it should strike any listener with a shock of recognition.--Roy Francis Kasten