Dar Williams has become a major force on the New England folk scene. An idiosyncratic songwriter who writes folk songs from a unique, often insightful perspective, Williams takes pains to avoid the coy and the quirky; her songwriting and performing style has been compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, but with a few acidic and at times hilarious twists.

Williams, a native of Mount Kisco, N.Y., is a classic made-for-coffeehouses artist, writing about the world around her, her encounters in it, and the conclusions she’s drawn; she’s as comfortable rhapsodizing about a favorite babysitter (“The Babysitter’s Here,” from her self-released debut, The Honesty Room) as she is inveighing against the evil political monolith (see “Empire,” from 2005’s accalimed My Better Self).

At the core of Williams’ work is a belief in the innate ability of people to make a better world, the product of countless observations in her travels and conversations with her fans. If anything, her optimism has intensified as she’s crisscrossed America during the tough times of recent years. “My big secret,” she says, with a twinkle in her eye, “is that we are gonna make it — but we’ll be the last to know.”

“Williams has a vocal style quite like that of Joan Baez (who happened to be one of Williams’s early supporters): a variable, semi-operatic, vibrato-laced, high-pitched tone full of passion.” – Bershire Living Magazine