Dar Williams books a January night at the Birchmere

After a 2026 world tour behind Hummingbird Highway, the songwriter plays Alexandria's 500-seat listening room on Saturday, Jan. 23.

A Saturday in late January, a 500-seat room on Mount Vernon Avenue, and a songwriter who has spent most of 2026 on the road. That's the plan Dar Williams fans in Northern Virginia can put on the calendar now.

Dar Williams plays the Birchmere in Alexandria on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2027, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $63.45 through Ticketmaster. The show was announced Oct. 14, so the regulars have had a few weeks' head start.

She's arriving after a long year. Her 13th album, *Hummingbird Highway*, came out in September 2025, and early this year she announced a world tour behind it (announcement here). That run started in New Jersey in February, including a Feb. 5 date at the Newton Theatre, and Grateful Web's tour roundup lists stops in Chicago, Nashville, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boulder and New York. This fall she took the songs across the Atlantic. UK listings include the Hive and a Mid Sussex Music Hall date in Hassocks, and the leg ended in London in early October.

So the Birchmere show is not a new-album launch. It's a chance to hear these songs after more than a year of being played every night, which is often when a set gets interesting. By January, *Hummingbird Highway* will be well broken in, and the older songs will have had a year to sit beside it.

The room suits her. At 500, the Birchmere is small enough that a quiet verse carries to the back, and its audience is known for listening, not talking over the music. For a songwriter whose shows depend on stories between songs as much as the songs themselves, that matters. This is a sit-down, pay-attention kind of night.

By January, Hummingbird Highway will have had more than a year of road under it.

A few tips. With 500 seats and a Saturday slot, this is the kind of show that can sell out before the holidays, so don't count on picking up tickets the week of. A 7:30 start leaves room for dinner nearby before the show. Winter weather in late January can make the drive in unpredictable, so give yourself extra time.

If you've been following her since the early records, you know what a Dar Williams night offers: songs about small towns, families and the places we live, delivered with enough humor to keep things light. If you've never gone, the Birchmere in January is about as good an introduction as Northern Virginia offers.

Put it on the calendar now. January will be here sooner than it feels.

Sources: Dar Williams Releases New Album "Hummingbird Highway" and Announces 2026 World Tour (righteousbabe.myshopify.com); Dar Williams announces Hummingbird Highway tour dates for 2026 (Grateful Web) (gratefulweb.com); The Newton Theatre presents Dar Williams (New Jersey Stage) (newjerseystage.com); Dar Williams plus support Heather Maloney (The Hive) (events.hiveonline.org.uk); Dar Williams at Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks (ticket247.co.uk); Ticketmaster: Dar Williams at Birchmere (ticketmaster.evyy.net)