Dar Williams discusses the title of her latest CD, "The Green World," a concept she learned during a Shakespeare class at Wesleyan.

"The closed world represented court life in Elizabethan England which set all the patterns of the day. It was the orderly part of life," explains Williams. "The green world was different. It was unpredictable and chaotic. It was an unmediated place literally represented by the forest, the wilderness, where you learned things you don't necessarily want to know about yourself. Then you would bring the lessons you learned back to the closed world, ultimately spurring the process by which civilizations change. In that respect, the closed world can only renew itself and grow with the green world's influence."

How can you not love that?