Keillor companions Robin and Linda Williams heading north for two shows

Robin and Linda Williams have kept up an amazing pace of creating fresh music. Their songs explore such topics as commitment, heartbreak, moving on and unexpected joys and sorrows.

All of them mix a country roots feel with the couple's award-winning harmony singing, which they will share Thursday at Jefferson Community College and Friday in Saranac Lake at the Waterhole-Upstairs Music Lounge.

In 35 years as a duo, the husband-and-wife team hasn't run out of things to write about. For that, Mrs. Williams said, she can partially thank author and radio host Garrison Keillor.

Robin and Linda Williams are regular guests on Mr. Keillor's radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," heard on National Public Radio stations.

"We discovered a lot about writing from Garrison over the years," Mrs. Williams said from her home in Middlebrook, Va., in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. "We learned to do what a true writer does — which is to write a lot."

All 12 songs except for one on the couple's latest CD, "Buena Vista," were written by Robin or Linda Williams. The only nonoriginal one is the classic "That's the Way Love Goes" by Lefty Frizzell. The album, released Sept. 16, was recorded in Nashville, Tenn., and produced by Grammy-winning artist Tim O'Brien.

"Buena Vista" is the Williamses' first studio album since their 2005 Christmas release, "The First Christmas Gift." They write a lot and are also inspired by a lot. Subjects of "Buena Vista" range from the timely tale of shady financial dealings ("When a Thread Gets Caught") to "Visions of Mother and Dad," which was inspired by Mrs. Williams's late parents.

The title track is about a village in Virginia, near where the couple live. It's based on a true story told by a friend and involves a drunkard whose answering machine gives away evidence to his lover that he's cheating on her.

"It took us a long time to write that song because it's so complicated," Mrs. Williams said. "At one point, we thought, 'This shouldn't be a song. It should be a novel.'"

The narrator in "Buena Vista" promises to visit and bring some hope to the subject, who is laid up in traction in Buena Vista.

"You want to reach out to these people, and that's how we ended it," Mrs. Williams said.

"Maybelle's Guitar and Monroe's Mandolin" was inspired by a trip the couple took to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum in Nashville where they saw Maybelle Carter's guitar and Bill Monroe's mandolin.

"It speaks to the music that has come before us and is so inspirational," Mrs. Williams said. "The roots music of this country is very dear to us."

"I'm Invisible Man" was inspired by seeing the numbers of homeless people in big cities, which proved to be eye-opening for the rural couple.

"In big cities, people walk over them like they're not there," Mrs. William said.

"Visions of Mother and Dad" is a song the couple created for a "Prairie Home Companion" Thanksgiving-themed show.

"Garrison wanted us to come and sing songs of home," Mrs. Williams said. "I had just lost my mother, and my father died 11 years earlier. It's just getting down to the emotions you have about your parents."

Mr. and Mrs. Williams met in 1971 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., while Linda was teaching school and Robin was a full-time musician on the national coffeehouse circuit.

"Both of us realized this was somebody pretty special, and we didn't want to lose the feeling," Mrs. Williams said.

Their career as a duo gained momentum in the Minneapolis, Minn., folk scene. It's there they met Mr. Keillor and began working on his radio show in 1975.

"That was long before it became a weekly treasure," Mrs. Williams said.

Mr. Keillor also wrote Robin and Linda Williams and their music into the script of the 2006 movie, "A Prairie Home Companion."

"That was a real honor that he thought of us," Mrs. Williams said.

She added that Mr. Keillor often calls upon the couple on short notice. "We fit in with what he has in mind for that show," she said. "Garrison likes for things to be spontaneous and for people to get out of their comfort zone."

The couple's Watertown and Saranac lake stops are part of a tour that will take them to other stops in New York before heading to the Midwest and back to Virginia.

Mrs. Williams said she and her husband feel blessed to have such a career.

"It's very satisfying," she said. "We feel so fortunate to have found each other and this little niche of music."

WHAT: Robin and Linda Williams and Their Fine Group.

WHEN/WHERE: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at Sturtz Theater at Jefferson Community College and at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at Waterhole-Upstairs Music Lounge in Saranac lake.

COST: Tickets for the JCC show are $5 for JCC students; $12 for other students, senior citizens, members of the military and JCC Alumni Association members; and $15 for all others. Tickets for the Saranac Lake show are $12 for Music Lounge members and $15 for nonmembers.

ON THE NET: www.robinandlinda.com