Dar Williams

Dar Williams isn't any fun, even when she tries to be funny. Friday night at the Keswick Theatre, the onetime theater major played the part of a sensitive folksinger, but her I-me-mine giggly patter dwelled on her latest hair color, her Wesleyan days, and her recent trip to exclusive Bhutan. She introduced "Spring Street" with predictable starving-artist pap, while to the left of ax-man Steuart Smith stood eight carefully tended guitars. And she imposed a strict class structure on stage: Her four bandmates received full introductions; the roadies, as befits the help, got first names only.

A homogeneous-looking crowd of well-dressed people showed up at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts Saturday night for a triple bill of Richard Thompson, Bruce Cockburn and Dar Williams, plus newcomer Maia Sharp. The big difference in the crowd was age: Thirty- and fortysomethings rubbed elbows with a sizable contingent of teenage girls. Little wonder, considering that teenagers play a role in many of Williams' lyric-heavy songs and in her growing audience as well. On Saturday, accompanied by cellist Stephanie Winters and her own four-chord acoustic strumming, Williams delivered two such adolescent vignettes - "The Babysitter's Here" and "Are You Out There.

She started four years ago on a tiny Massachusetts label, Waterbug Records, singing charming acoustic story-songs in her flexible, clear soprano. With some help from a Web page and a buzz in Internet chat rooms, that first CD, The Honesty Room, was picked up by independent label Razor & Tie. It has sold 53,000 copies - stunning for a folk album on a smallish label. With her newest release, End of the Summer, which hit stores this week, Dar Williams is one of the most recognized, most talked about new artists in contemporary folk.

Music Loudon Wainwright III/Dar Williams. Ever since his 1970 self-titled debut album, Loudon Wainwright III has used songs to examine the aging process. Wainwright, 66, tackles mortality on Older Than My Old Man Now, his current CD. - Tom Wilk Loudon Wainwright III and Dar Williams perform Sunday at the Landis Theater, 830 E. Landis Ave, Vineland, N.J. Information: 856-691-1121, www.landistheater.com . Film Close Encounter with Carrie Rickey. Director Robert Zemeckis will chat with critic Carrie Rickey about his latest film, Flight, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater.

The new Philadelphia-based Sliced Bread Records label (co-founded by legendary folk DJ Gene Shay) goes two-for-two with this tasty set of folk-pop by hometown guy John Flynn, produced by Ben Wisch. A seasoned singer/strummer with something to say and a polished way of saying it, Flynn pleads with an anorexic waif not to disappear into "Thin Air" and derides our unquenchable lust for possessions on "Who's Whose," pondering "Do you own the stuff you own or does the stuff you own own you. " When operating in a ballad mode, his achingly pretty tunes and vaguely Western delivery make Flynn come off like a latter-day Gordon Lightfoot with his ode to "Emily [Dickinson]

"The gods are smiling on public radio," proclaimed Dar Williams from the stage at Penn's Landing, where the second and final day of WXPN-FM's Singer-Songwriter Weekend was taking place in the nicest, least sticky weather in a week. For the most part, the music was low-heat too, perfect for dancing with a toddler on your shoulders, drinking a smoothie, or gazing at boats racing down the Delaware River. Local country-rockers the Rolling Hayseeds started off the afternoon at 3 and, in contrast to the norm with multi-band bills, there was actually a sizable crowd to hear them.

It would be pointless, pandering, and perhaps even unprofessional to reduce the Keswick Theatre's Saturday-night gathering of first-rate female singer-songwriters to a competitive event. So let's get started. Mary Chapin Carpenter - the bill's best-known participant, with a name up on Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, and Catie Curtis - organized the evening as a "guitar pull. " The foursome sat on stage in a row and for 2 1/2 hours took turns playing songs on acoustic guitar. Their roles emerged immediately: Carpenter was In Charge; Curtis, Charming; Colvin, High Maintenance; and the non-C-name, non-earth-tone-wearing Griffin, Creative Little Sister.

Folk veteran Joan Baez showed that she was more than just an icon at her Friday night Electric Factory performance. She managed to present the music's history and her three-decade career with a sense of relevance and a dose of humor. While many of her younger, would-be counterparts use folk's spare structures as a backdrop for trite, journal-entry confessions, Baez succeeds at transcending the coffeehouse and its Hallmark card PC sentiments. For an hour and a half, she brought the genre back to its original purpose: telling a good story.

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE Richard Thompson (pictured), Dar Williams and Bruce Cockburn present an evening of real-life songs SATURDAY at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue. Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets: $25-$30. Info: 215-878-7707. ONE WITH NATURE The Please Touch Museum, 210 N. 21st St., continues its June Bugs theme SATURDAY and SUNDAY with a 10:30 a.m. program about springtime butterflies, ladybirds and flowers. Afterward, children will transform themselves into beautiful spring creatures during activity time.

Living up to its expansive new name, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts will be promoting a whole lot more than the usual 18 classical concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra this summer. With the aim of increasing attendance from last year's 175,000 patrons to more than 500,000 this warm-weather season, the Mann is upping its operating budget from $2.5 million to $4.7 million, and bringing in big-name jazz, pops and children's shows, too, announced Peter Lane, the facility's recently appointed executive director, at a press conference yesterday.

Music Loudon Wainwright III/Dar Williams. Ever since his 1970 self-titled debut album, Loudon Wainwright III has used songs to examine the aging process. Wainwright, 66, tackles mortality on Older Than My Old Man Now, his current CD. - Tom Wilk Loudon Wainwright III and Dar Williams perform Sunday at the Landis Theater, 830 E. Landis Ave, Vineland, N.J. Information: 856-691-1121, www.landistheater.com . Film Close Encounter with Carrie Rickey. Director Robert Zemeckis will chat with critic Carrie Rickey about his latest film, Flight, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater.

Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is spreading the message that honeybees are stressed out. The species, whose plant pollinating is crucial to food production, is fighting pesticides, mites, and land development that has turned the insects' buffet into an office park. The bees can't take it. So Williams, not only a veteran folk-music songstress but also the daughter of a beekeeper, is doing her part to help save the species - one summer camp at a time. Her crusade has taken her to day and overnight camps from Nova Scotia to Michigan.

In Concert 9 S. Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr; 610-864-4303. www.brynmawrtwilightconcerts.com . Dar Williams. $10; free for children 16 and under. 6/9. 7 pm. Main Line School of Rock. $10; free for children 16 and under. 6/10. 7 pm.   632 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford; 610-388-6221. www.chaddsford.com . Rory Sullivan & the Second Season. 6/10. 2 pm.   N. Pattison Ave.; 215-685-1500. www.phillies.com/ . UCP Motor Cars. $250.

Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff. POP . . . plus 7th Annual Elvis Birthday Bash: Mike Albert appears as the "Vegas Elvis," Scot Bruce in his slimmer, trimmer, "teen idol" persona. Both backed by the Big E Band. Uh, thank you very much. Keswick Theatre, Easton Road and Keswick Ave., Glenside, 8 tonight, $29.50-$46.50, 212-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com . The Smithereens: Our favorite New Jersey "Invasion" band serves up their take on British jangle rock.

Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff. POP . . . plus The Hooters: They're like family for many Philadelphians. So it's fitting that the Hooters are bringing it home for the holidays with a show and a new five-track EP. Another blast from the Philly past, Beru Revue, is in the warm-up slot. Electric Factory, 7th and Willow streets, 8:30 tonight, $49.70, 215-627-1332, www.electricfactory.

Sunday Days of rage Overshadowed as '60s pop-culture icons by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones have long since fulfilled their claim to be the "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" in the most emotional, visceral sense. Gimme Shelter , the Maysles Brothers' 1970 documentary about the Stones' final tour in the 1960s, captures both the band's rawness and the event that famously marked the end of the hippie era, the killing of a fan by Hell's Angels during a free concert at Altamont Speedway in Northern California in December 1969 while a bewildered Mick Jagger implored the crowd to remember peace and love.