Singer-songwriter Dar Williams has two good reasons to stay home.

She and her husband, Michael, who were already the parents of a 5-year-old son, adopted an Ethiopian girl in September.

Williams, whose daughter recently turned 1, has stayed off the road the past few months, choosing to be with her family.

The 43-year-old musician, however, is starting to venture from her home in New York's Hudson Valley and will perform Friday evening at the Capitol Theatre in York.

Plans call for a sporadic touring schedule over the next few months and then she will hit the road "full-on" for the rest of the year, meaning more time away from her family.

"It's not the worst century to be a touring artist," Williams says during a telephone interview from her home. "We can Skype, we can phone call, there's a lot of ways to connect ourselves up.

"It's easier than I thought it would be -- to have a family and tour."

Like most musicians these days, Williams makes her money from concerts, not albums.

Though Williams -- who has been with Razor & Tie Records since the company released her debut album, "The Honesty Room," in 1993 -- does extremely well for a singer working outside the boundaries of mainstream music, she doesn't sell enough CDs to keep her off the road.

"It's not like people aren't hearing your music; it's just they're hearing it on pirated CDs," she says. "People have asked me to sign burned CDs. My rule of thumb is, I'd prefer that they bought my music but you can put me on any compilation you want. The mixtape is probably a force greater than any PR machine out there."

Williams, who writes adult-themed songs that are often witty and sometimes wry and delivers them with a strong, clear soprano, released her last album, "Promised Land," in 2008.

She says she's started collecting songs for her next album.

"I write five or six songs a year and I'm also writing other things that I don't want to talk about because they probably will fail miserably," she says. "I'm at a place in terms of my life where I can take this time off to try other media and genres."

She says she doesn't plan to start recording until early next year, meaning there will be at least a three-year gap between albums.

That's a typical release schedule for Williams these days, though the albums used to come quicker. Her second album, "Mortal City," and third, "End of the Summer," came in succeeding years in 1996 and 1997.

"I'm OK with that," she says of three years between albums. "Even when things were burning hottest in the industry, an album a year can be hard to put out."

Even without a new album to support, Williams knows she can always draw a crowd to her concerts.

"I love performing," she says. "It felt like a grind once -- at the end of a tour there were a few weeks where I wasn't feeling a lot of joy on-stage. It was upsetting me to the point where I thought I should leave my profession. You can't be an impostor up there. But I got it back and I've had it back ever since."

And after being on tour, Williams knows she always will have something to take home to her children.

"It brings me home more grateful, more inspired, more ready to take on the challenges and more excited about the world," she says. "I think that's a good thing to bring to kids."

Dar Williams

Friday at 8 p.m. $30

Capitol Theatre, Strand-Capitol

Performing Arts Center

50 N. George St., York

846-1111 www.strandcapitol.org