The Beauty of the Rain [Digipak]

Personnel: Dar Williams (vocals, guitar); Alison Krauss (vocals, fiddle); John Popper (vocals, harmonica); Cliff Eberhardt (vocals); Eric Bazilian (guitar, mandolin); Steuart Smith (guitar, 12-string guitar, piano); Bela Fleck (banjo); David Mansfield (violin); Michael Kang (fiddle); Chris Botti (trumpet); Rob Hyman (piano, Hammond B-3 organ, melodica); John Medeski (Hammond B-3 organ); John Medeski (keyboards); Steffan Lessard, William Wittman, Stewart Lerman, Paul Sokolow (bass); Steve Holley, Sammy Merendino (drums); Carol Steele (percussion).
Recorded at the Shinebox, New York, New York.
Personnel: Dar Williams (vocals, guitar); John Popper (vocals, harmonica); Cliff Eberhardt, Alison Krauss (vocals); Steuart Smith (guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow, harmonica, piano); Eric Bazilian (guitar, mandolin); Stewart Lerman (guitar, keyboards); Bla Fleck (banjo); David Mansfield , Michael Kang (violin); Rob Hyman (melodica, piano, reed organ, Wurlitzer organ, keyboards); Chris Botti (trumpet); John Medeski (piano, Clavinet); Steve Holley, Sammy Merendino (drums); Carol Steele (percussion).
Audio Mixers: Steve Addabbo; William Wittman.
Recording information: DBM, Ruckersville, WV; Elmstreet Studios, Conshohocken, PA; Pilot Sound, New York, NY; Shelter Island Sound; The Sanctuary, Nashville, TN; The Shinebox, New York, NY.
Photographers: Ronald K. Fierstein; Ken Schles.
Dar Williams' fifth album THE BEAUTY OF THE RAIN finds the singer-songwriter getting around the loneliness of being "a girl with a guitar" and chronicling her move from New York City to Massachusetts by breaking out her little black book to reel in a number of famous names. The result is a fuller-sounding album minus the kind of forced chemistry that occurs when it's an artist's label rather than the artist who arranges such an all-star affair. This organically flowing record benefits from the contributions of people like Alison Krauss (the harmony-brushed "The One Who Knows"), Blues Traveler's John Popper (a chugging "I Saw a Bird Fly Away"), and trumpeter Chris Botti (the subdued title cut).
Other guests are more content to blend into the musical background, be it Bela Fleck (a twangy "Fishing in the Morning") or Medeski, Martin & Wood organist John Medeski (the stirring "Farewell to the Old Me.") RAIN also finds Williams delivering a chilling reading of the Band's "Whispering Pines" and forming a rare songwriting partnership with former Hooter Rob Hyman (the lightly trilling "Closer to Me.")