By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Dar Williams
The most ambitious summer outdoor concert series – the one filled with name acts – is the 2025 Concerts Under the Stars series in King of Prussia, which is now in its 39th season.
One of the highlights will be provided by Dar Williams this weekend.
Presented and produced by Rising Sun Presents!, the summer-long series will again take place at the scenic Upper Merion Township Building Park (175 West Valley Forge Road, King of Prussia, www.concertsunderthestarskop.com) – except for this weekend.
In July, the series will start with a trio of shows at Heuser Park (which is located at 694 West Beidler Road in King of Prussia) — Lotus and Circle Around the Sun on July 3, Indigo Girls, Dar Williams and Milk Carton Kids on July 5 and Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain Stringband on July 6
These are the only three concerts at this venue and together they make for a blockbuster weekend.
The main event takes place on July 5 – the River Roads Music Festival featuring Dar Williams, Indigo Girls and The Milk Carton Kids.
The festival, which gets underway at 1:30 p.m., also features sets by Sunny War, The Nields, Raye Zaragoza and Sug Daniels.
Williams, who is a longtime resident of the Hudson Valley, has been a fan favorite in the Philadelphia area for decades. She is the founder of the River Roads Music Festival.
Williams posted this statement — “The River Roads Festival has been a wonderful new home for my music and musical friends, my deep love for American rivers, and alliances with good organizations that keep our rivers clean and healthy. The Philly area, particularly King of Prussia, is my first home, the first place that welcomed me thirty years ago, and River Roads will be there soon. I can’t wait!”
For the Indigo Girls, it will be a final warmup for their three-month national “Yes We Are Tour” with Melissa Ethridge which starts on July 25 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
For the Milk Carton Kids, it will be the first of six festivals on their schedule for summer 2025.
A little over a year ago, Williams was in Chester County — sharing the bill with Bruce Cockburn at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.
Back then, Williams was out on a support tour – but not a tour in support of a new album.
Williams was touring in support of a newly released book, “How To Write A Song That Matters,” which was released via Hachette Books.
She was also on the road playing her music at venues around the East Coast.
This summer, Williams has just one show on her music calendar — the River Roads Music Festival.
“I have two songwriting retreats scheduled for this summer,” said Williams, during a phone interview Tuesday evening from her home in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Williams’ “2025 Writing A Song That Matters In Person Retreats” will be held July 7-11 and August 4-8 at Guest House in Chester, Connecticut.
At some point in 2025, Williams will take to the road in support of her next album which is due for release later this year.
“I recorded my new album last year and that took a bit of time,” said Williams.
“It was produced by Ken Rich and recorded at Grand Street Recording in Brooklyn.”
Grand Street Recording, which is located in Williamsburg and owned by Rich, is billed as, “the most creative recording environment in Brooklyn.”
“It’s a basement studio where everybody keeps their gear,” said Williams. “It’s amazing with walls of guitars and other instruments.
“We recorded everything digitally. We also did a couple tracks with David Chalfont at a studio in Northampton, Massachusetts.”
One of the many artists who has recorded albums at Grand Street Recording is Ani DiFranco.
In April, Williams signed a recording deal with Righteous Babe Records – a label that is owned by DiFranco.
Williams’ history with DiFranco runs many years deep — from performing together in their early years at Canadian and U.S. folk festivals to collaborating on recordings such as “Comfortably Numb” on Williams’ album “My Better Self.”
They have met on many stages and share similar passions for their audiences, the causes they embrace, and, of course, the music that brings it all together.
According to DiFranco, “Dar and I go back a lot of decades, and I’m so pleased to be able to offer her and her music shelter now, in this stormy world. We celebrate and welcome Dar into the Righteous Babe fold!”
Williams agrees, “This is such an important time to be a part of a musical community that stands with a larger community. I’m thrilled and grateful to be joining Ani in this world she has built.”
Williams entered the recording process with 11 songs and emerged with 10 for inclusion in the album.
“Most of the songs are fairly recent,” said Williams. “There are three songs that I began writing during the pandemic.
“There is definitely a theme. It is about civilization – how we live and create beautiful things – how do we really do it.
“One of the songs – ‘Maryland, Maryland’ – deals with (Maryland congressman) Jamie Raskin. It has a lot to do with January 6. It’s a state song for Maryland. Jamie Raskin is my friend – and my hero.”
Williams, who has recorded more than 20 albums, released her most recent album, “I’ll Meet You Here,” in October 2021 on BMG’s recently launched Renew label. Her most recent album prior to this was “Emerald,” which came out in 2015.
“There was a gap between albums because I did a book,” said Williams, a well-respected speaker/author/singer-songwriter.
“After I released ‘Emerald’ in 2015, I stopped writing songs for a while. I didn’t start writing songs again until 2017. Then, I recorded ‘I’ll Meet You Here’ in 2019.
“I was going to release it in 2020. But because of the pandemic, I moved the entire release up a year. It was just a year off and now it’s really full out.
“I recorded the album in North Jersey at a studio near Weehawken with producer Stewart Lerman. The core of the recording was done in a couple weeks in November 2019. Then, I did an intensive week in January 2020 with Stuart Smith, who plays with the Eagles.
“I sent a scratch track of the title song to Larry Campbell in Woodstock. I wanted to do it as a duet with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and Larry Campbell.”
Campbell produced the track and played guitars, pedal steel and twangy baritone guitar. Later, they had to postpone a mid-March mixing date because Campbell said he wasn’t feeling well anyway which turned into a serious case of COVID-19.
“I had a schedule conflict, so we had to postpone the mixing date with Larry for day,” said Williams. “He was getting really sick and then found out he had COVID. He got very sick with COVID. We were very lucky because if we had done the mixing session, a lot of people could have contracted the disease.”
Despite encountering some speed bumps along the way, Williams was finally able to put the album out.
“The album officially came out on October 1, 2021” said Williams. “We had a few singles that came out prior to the album release and that helped.”
The album has 10 songs including nine originals.
Even when Williams isn’t focusing on music, she still stays very busy.
“I’m working on a novel,” said Williams, who also handles the duty of being a mother to a young child. “I’ve also been writing songs.
“I just taught a college course at Wesleyan University. Teaching at a university was great. I’ve also done some songwriting retreats and that’s been great too. I like to have different avenues rather than just recording and touring.”
One of those avenues has been writing books.
Williams published two young-adult novels with Scholastic in the mid-2000s, along with a green blog for Huffpost, before she tackled her urban-planning study, published in 2017 – “What I Found in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musician’s Guide to Rebuilding America’s Communities — One Coffee Shop, Dog Run & Open-Mike Night at a Time.”
In that book, Williams muses on why some towns flourish while others fail, examining elements from the significance of history and nature to the uniting power of public spaces and food. Drawing on her own travels and the work of urban theorists, Williams offers real solutions to rebuild declining communities.
“What I Found in a Thousand Towns” is more than a love letter to America’s small towns, it’s a deeply personal and hopeful message about the potential of America’s lively and resilient communities.
“It’s not a memoir,” said Williams. “It’s what I had seen from tours in my travels at towns that had found a way to be resilient – hometown pride and a world welcome. I followed that thread and tried to figure out what it was.
“I call it ‘positive proximity’ – a state of being in a town where people know that living side-by-side is beneficial…that the more they follow that proximity, the better life can be.
“I wrote about how to build positive proximity, how to maintain the benefits of positive proximity and how to sustain positive proximity.”
In her book, Williams looks at two area towns – Phoenixville and Wilmington.
“The Phoenixville chapter is about what happens when a town digs into its history and builds on that,” said Williams. “It is a town that has become a vibrant place because of that.
“The Wilmington chapter is about waterfronts – about how towns can come back to life by developing their waterfront areas with parks, restaurants and public spaces.”
Williams headed in an entirely different direction on her new book, “How To Write A Song That Matters.”
“I wanted to write a book that was written by a performing songwriter,” said Williams. “There is a broad and magical way that songs live in the world. Songs bring people back to times in their lives with new eyes.”
Video link for Dar Williams – https://youtu.be/4-0tPKPbypk.
The River Roads Music Festival will start at 1:30 p.m. at Heuser Park.
General admission tickets are $65 for adults and $40 for children (ages 2-12).
The 2025 Concerts Under the Stars series July schedule at the main venue will also feature: 9, Leftover Salmon and Infamous Stringdusters; Phosphorescent, 10; Legendary Wailers and Jeffrey Gaines, 11; Trevor Hall, 19; The California Honeydrops, 20; The High Kings, 23; Grace Potter, 24; Tom Hamilton, 25; “Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew: Remain in Light,” 23; and Rachel & Vilray, 30.
August gets off to a booming start with local/national favorites Low Cut Connie on August 1, Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets on August 2 and “Paul Simon’s Graceland Experience” on August 8.
The rest of August includes: 13, Andy Frasco & the U.N.; 17, John Oates and Mutlu; and 30, Splintered Sunlight.
Two shows are listed for September – Mdou Moctar on the 13th and Robert Randolph on the 14th.
On July 3, Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) will host Philadelphia Blues Society Night featuring Mark Margolies Band.
Margolies has been passionately playing guitar since he was 13 years old.
“I got into music when I was a youngster,” said Margolies, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
“I started with piano when I was nine. My mother was a classically trained pianist. I switched to guitar when I was 16.”
Growing up he learned to play what he heard on the radio.
“Eventually, I found my way to blues from rock-and-roll on the radio,” said Margolies. “I also discovered jazz as well.
“My influences were B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Kenny Burrell, Buddy Guy and Jimmy Vaughan.”
Mostly self-taught, Margolies started playing professionally shortly after graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia in 1985.
In 2022 he released his first album of contemporary Blues music titled, “Can’t You See.” His album has been played on SiriusXM radio and on other radio stations around the country.
“The album was produced by Mikey Junior, a local blues artist,” said Margolies. “We recorded the album at Soundplex Studio in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
“It was a process. There were a couple sessions for just rhythm – drums, bass, guitar – to get laid down. Later, we added vocals, sax and special effects. It took about six months. I met Mikey Junior at the Twisted Tail Blues Jam in South Philly.”
The Twisted Tail Blues Jam is an open blues jam hosted by Mikey Junior & Friends every Sunday evening at The Twisted Tail, which is located at 509 South Second Street.
“I started going there 10 years ago and got to be good friend with Mikey Junior,” said Margolies. “I used his expertise to make the album. He chose the musicians.
“I wrote some of the songs and some are just covers of blues from the 1950s on. I try to find songs that other musicians are covering and then we put our own spin on it.
“There is a lot of improv on the album – especially with the sax. The saxophone adds a jazz feel.”
Margolies’ live band features different musicians than those who were used on the album.
“My band has Gary Brooks on sax, Sam Goldstein on drums, Rando Branning on bass, Tom Donovan on drums and I’m on guitar,” said Margolies.
“I put the band together after the CD came out. We’ve been together for about three years now.”
Margolies and his band have several upcoming shows in Chester County – at The Creamery in Kennett Square on August 1 and September 5 and at the Brothers on the Brandywine Beer Garden Music Festival in Coatesville on September 13.
“We play The Creamery about six times a year,” said Margolies. “And I have been playing Jamey’s House of Music usually three times a year. I also go to the Sunday jam there a lot.”
Video link for Mark Margolies Band – https://youtu.be/83kWOByQ86I.
The show at Jamey’s on July 3 will start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25.
On July 5, Jamey’s will host Bob Beach and Paul Wilkinson.
Clarence Spady will perform with the Philly Blues Kings at the Sunday Blues Brunch & Jam on July 6.
This event features many of the top regional and national players every week and welcomes amateurs and weekend warriors to join on stage to celebrate the beautiful heritage of the blues.
The open mic jam runs from 1-3 p.m. with the featured band playing a set from noon-1 p.m.
There is a diverse group of local jazz musicians with national reputations who perform together with various lineups at outdoor venues in Philadelphia throughout the summer.
One of those concerts is scheduled for July 3 at Hawthorne Park, which is located at 12th and Catherine streets in South Philadelphia.
The Jazz at Hawthorne Park series will present a concert by an all-star quartet featuring Kevin Valentine, Jim Holton, Shane Aaserud and Byron Wooke Landham.
The show faced a weather postponement early this summer. Then, the weather wiped out a show that was rescheduled for June 26.
The message on Hawthorne Park’s Facebook page read, “3rd time’s the charm, right?!
“Jazz in the Park re-re-scheduled for Thursday July 3rd at 7pm featuring vocalist Kevin Valentine
“Come start your 4th of July weekend with Hawthorne Park!”
“I’m the music director and I play piano,” said Holton, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon from his home in Overbrook.
“I compose a lot. I’m a freelance cellist and pianist.
“I gig almost every night. I’m at the Manayunk Brewing Company every Tuesday night and every Monday I’m playing at the Moshulu.”
Holton has music in his heart, music in his soul, music in his upbringing and music in his DNA.
“I come from a whole family of musicians,” said Holton, whose father was on the faculty of Kennett High School, Radnor High and Norristown High.
His father was a clarinetist and saxophonist – and a jazz musician. Holton listened to his father’s albums and accompanied him to Manhattan’s West Village to hear shows at clubs featuring acts such as Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.
Mary Holton, his mother, was a singer and pianist. His sister Mary Robaire was an accomplished violinist and also a successful stage actress on Broadway. His grandfather was a violinist, pianist and music teacher.
Holton spent most of his summers as a youth at the New England Music Camp in Maine, where his parents were part of the faculty.
Holton studied cello as a child and sang in the Cathedral Boys Choir of St. John the Divine in Harlem. He went to England to sing with the Royal School of Church Music at the Canterbury Cathedral.
He graduated from Radnor High School, attended Mansfield University of Pennsylvania for one year and transferred to the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts. One year later, he transferred to Temple University.
As an adult, Holton has worked as a pianist, cellist, composer, arranger, and educator. He has performed extensively in the Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York areas with many groups that include critically-acclaimed Rhythm & Brass, Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, and Joe Suddler’s Swing Machine.
Holton has also worked with artists Tim Warfield, Greg Osby, Clifford Adams, Larry McKenna, Tyrone Brown, Justin Faulkner, Charles Fambrough, John Swana, Mickey Roker, and Cornel Rochester.
He has done session work for a long list of varied artists – including playing on a Grammy-nominated soundtrack, composed by Dr. Maurice Wright, for the documentary film, “Strokes of Genius.”
For Holton, performing live is the best expression of his musical talents.
“Inspiring people is my goal,” said Holton. “The better the music is, the more powerful the message is. I want to be a conduit for the music, so it flows through you. I want people to feel it.”
Video link for Jim Holton – https://youtu.be/ZgT01LpCQrg.
The show on July 3 at Hawthorne Park will start at 7 p.m.
The concert features free admission.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will host the Dirk Quinn band on July 5.
The Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) will host the Hayley Jane Band on July 9.
The Rose Tree Summer Festival (Rose Tree Park, Route 252, Media, www.delcopa.gov/departments/parks) is a summer-long series of free outdoor shows now through August 10 at the scenic park just north of Media.
The following is the season schedule for Delaware County’s 50th Annual Rose Tree Concert Series:
JULY: 3, The Plants; 5, Tupelo Honey; 6, Blackbird Society Orchestra; 9, Angry Young Band; 10, Triple Rail Turn; 11, FuseBox; 12, Upper Darby Summer Stage; 13, Jersey Beach Boys; 16, Eco del Sur; 17, The Rockdale Boys; 18, Live Wire; 19, PA Symphonic Winds; 20, The Beat Tells; 23, Jamison Celtic Rock; 24, Merion Concert Band; 25, Barry Harris; 26, Van Halen Nation; 27, The Discoteks; 30, Lolly Hopwood & Friends; and 31, Mysterious Ways U2 Tribute.
AUGUST: 1, New Orleans Fish Fry; 2, Lonnie Shields & Jesse Loewy; 3, The Core – Music of Eric Clapton; 6, Reggae Thunder; 7, Cool Confusion; 8, Del’s Groove; 9, Barbershop’s Best; and 10, Six-String Soldiers.
