WANT TO GO?

"Mountain Stage"

With Dar Williams, Appalachian Voices, Jeff Daniels, Carsie Blanton and Tracy Bonham

WHERE: Culture Center Theater

WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday

TICKETS: Advance $14, at the door $20.

INFO: www.mountainstage.org or 800-594-TIXX

Williams, who performs Sunday on "Mountain Stage," last appeared on the show in 2003, along with Rodney Crowell and James McMurtry. In between that show and the one Sunday evening, Williams got married, gave birth to a son and a daughter, recorded four albums, wrote two books and became "the lady who rakes her yard."

Over the phone from her home in southern New York state, the singer giggled about that last one. A couple years ago, before she got married, before she became a mother, even before she recorded her past four albums, she was at a Christmas party in the town where she lives.

As she was being introduced, people said, "Oh, yes. We know you. You're the one who didn't rake last fall."

Williams tried to explain. She was on tour for her album, "The Green World."

"They couldn't care less," she laughed.

Williams understands better now. Part of it, she says, has to do with accepting and embracing her entrance into middle age. Williams is now 43.

"I'm really fascinated at how, in your 40s, you have a lot of power. It's amazing what we do with it. It's amazing how reckless we are and how insufficient it is in the face of all the indignities of life itself."

But there's a lot of possibility.

"If you want to do something," she said, "you know the people to get it done."

The rest has to do with becoming a parent and taking an interest in the community where your family lives, she said.

"You can look cool and act cool, but there's no escaping the community bulletin board and being part of that," she said, "and I'm pretty deep in there now."

These days, Williams spends more time at home. She rakes her leaves in the fall. She also grows sweet peas along her fence and invites the kids on their way to school to stop and eat them.

Williams lives in Westchester County, New York, an upscale area on the Hudson River. She goes to community meetings and gets involved in local issues. She takes her son to Big Truck Day in town, goes to kid-friendly finger-painting events by the river and wanders through the farmers' market, occasionally spotting famous and semi-famous people shopping for vegetables.

"You can outsource this," she said, referencing her domestic life. "but what's it all for?"

Some of the "rock 'n' rollers," she notices, look a little worse for wear in the morning light, as they're dropping their kids off at day care or getting a cup of coffee. She understands them, but doesn't necessarily want to be them. She doesn't see the point of having a family and being a part of a community if she's never there.

Williams sounds happy and inspired. As a songwriter, she often has drawn on everyday people in quirky situations and written about quirky people in everyday circumstances. Her body of work is filled with thumbnail character sketches, stories and musical parables.

All around her, it appears, there's still plenty of material.

As for Williams, she's not hitting the road quite as much. Her next album, she says, is more of a fresh look at previous material, but she's still writing and amused that, more recently, so many of her songs have been loosely about Greek gods.

"I wondered why," she said, "and I guess it's because the Greek gods had so much power and yet they were so jealous and so petty and destructive. They were filled with pure celebratory power -- it's just like people in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

"We get confused, I think, and tangled up."

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.