When we last checked in with singer-songwriter Dar Williams, she was pretty steamed.

It was the autumn of 2008, a few weeks after the Republican National Convention, but a few weeks before the presidential election, and she was still outraged by the speech Sarah Palin had given at the convention — one that, to quote Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, was “full of snorting, snarling invective.”

Williams’ response to such a spectacle is relevant because Williams - playing next Wednesday, Aug. 26, at The Ark - has always been passionate about social and political issues and has worked as an activist for various causes. Those sensibilities were evident on her 2008 album “Promised Land,” which explored subjects like unquestioned obedience to authority, the tragedy of this kind of obedience, and “the reality of fascism,” as she put it.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Williams at the time. “What Palin said up there was just so fantastically wrong. She was just so openly nasty, and when she laughed at Barack Obama because he believes in habeas corpus, that just really upset me.”

So, we thought that this would be a good time to check back in with an artist who holds such passionate views - especially given the furor over health-care reform, like imaginary "death panels." Not to mention the mobs that have disrupted town hall meetings by shouting down everyone else and bellowing lies, Williams laments.

“That kind of right winger, you know, they would mock and say nasty things if a Coast Guard boat rescued drowning puppies, since the boat is ‘paid for by taxpayer money,’” says Williams with a laugh. “To see all of this fear-based, hate-spewing, mean-spirited behavior, and hear that kind of language, and hear those kinds of lies — and for them to shout down the congressmen trying to inform them — I just find that to be appalling, and un-American.

“But even though Obama has had to endure that kind of ugliness, and even though the Right has made such a huge, ridiculous deal about Bill Clinton helping to secure the release of those two journalists, and all of the other nasty stuff the right is throwing out there, I am still hopeful and optimistic about what this administration can accomplish.

“Because, true democracy, and true change, and true sustainability — and true community strength — is very hard-won. In order to get things done, and see true change, we have to unhinge ourselves from the special corporate interests, like the big insurance companies; we have to unclog those drains. That will take work, and we have to show we are up to that,” says Williams during a recent phone interview.

And as a parent, Williams takes umbrage with the incessant whine from the right that Obama is an “elitist.” “Since when is being ‘elite’ a dirty word?”, she asks.

“We should be fighting so that every student gets an ‘elite” education. And in order to get past these scarring differences, we have work hard to elevate the discourse beyond the nastiness we saw at those town hall meetings, and try to attain a kinder and more intellectually curious standard in these debates.”

In recent years, Williams’ passion for education and for the future that awaits today’s children has begun to seep into her work — and into her choice of projects.

Presently, she is working on a musical for children, “which is different than the next thing I would do, ordinarily, which would be to start working on a new album,” says Williams. “I’m still figuring out where to take it, where it should be staged, but this feels like something I should be doing.” The musical, explains Williams, is set on “a very creative island, where the music is inspired by the sound and rhythms of the tides and the wind.”

But the ecosystem becomes unbalanced, and they lose the tide and wind, “so they lose their ability to make music and poetry, and are only able to speak in numbers.”

Heavy stuff.

But Williams is also simultaneously working on her next album, albeit more slowly than usual. The content of some of the songs, she says, is inspired by Greek mythology. “I’ve been reading the Greek myths to my son, so that stuff has been coming up in a couple of my new songs: the interaction between the gods, their temperaments and their interests. Some of these myths are spooky and insightful.”

Of all the Greek gods, Williams’ favorite is Hermes — who, she notes, was “the god of travelers and thieves and a messenger to the underworld. I’ve become very interested in messengers and the inspiration they bring, which comes in flashes, and which the messenger then leaves behind “I’ve become interested, I guess, in wisdom, and how it comes to us.”

Which, it wound seem, is an apt desire, given today’s turbulent social and political landscape.

Dar Williams performs "The Easy Way" earlier this year:

Listen to Dar Williams "It's Alright" (MP3). Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com. PREVIEW Dar Williams, w/ Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers What: Socially-conscious folk-pop. Where: The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. When: Wednesday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m. How much: $36 Details: 734-761-1451 or The Ark web site.