GARDINER — Dar Williams will appear on Friday, Sept. 27, at Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, Water Street. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the program will start at 7:30.

Every new album from Williams represents her thoughts and feelings about her own life and larger forces in the world. But her ninth studio record, “Emerald,” marks a particularly dramatic confluence between her experiences and broader contemporary culture — and what it means to be a songwriter at this moment in history.

In the past few years, Williams has been involved in a wide range of different efforts and projects: teaching a course titled “Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy” at her alma mater, Wesleyan University; working with children at several summer camps; leading songwriting workshops; getting involved with the workings of her village; and writing a book about the ways she’s seen towns becoming more independent and prosperous over her 20 years of touring.

“I’m now experiencing the fruits of the alternative culture I was part of in the ‘90s,” she said. “I think I’ve made choices about how I lived my life, outside of the world that was going to fit me among the mainstream norms, and I chose to stay with my friends, to stay with my culture.

“That turns out to have been the sturdiest structure I could have built for myself. And that’s in my songs; it’s in my teaching. I’m a believer in what can happen when we make music together.”

Tickets are $45 for all seats in advance and $48 at the door the night of the show. Tickets are available at Johnson Hall’s Box Office from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, at 207-582-7144 or by visiting www.johnsonhall.org.