Book Review What I Found in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musician’s Guide to Rebuilding American’s Communities by Dar Williams

One of my fave singer/songwriters, Dar Williams, wrote a book I read last year called: What I Found in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musician’s Guide to Rebuilding American’s Communities - One Coffee Shop, Dog Run, & Open-Mike Night at a Time.

This is a book examining the struggle and thriving of communities in the face of “postindustrial identity crises” - examining how and why some towns flourish and come to life through their art, food, history, and community bridge-building.

The book is broken into threes sections, spaces, identity building, and translation. The areas in the USA she focuses on are: Beacon & Finger Lakes, NY; Moab, UT; Wilmington, DE; Phoenixville, PA; Carrboro, NC; Middletown, CT; Gainesville, FL; and how you can bring positive proximity to your town.

I believe that all the good stuff in the world is from the potentials and possibilities of human connection. Dar is a great person to articulate and observe, not only the political, economic, and social upheaval across the USA, but through her travels as a musician, she shows the way that all communities and the people within them can learn from other successes.