Ani DiFranco
Acoustic / Folk / Alternative
Albany, NY
You do not have the current Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to upgrade Adobe Flash Player
You do not have Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to install Adobe Flash Player
About
http://www.righteousbabe.com
Seventeen years ago, Ani DiFranco released her first album. Since then, she has established herself as one of the most influential and inspirational artists of her generation. DiFranco wears many hats including singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer. Her empowering spirit is evident through her songs that tackle barbed political and sexual issues with uncommon insight and compassion. On September 11, Righteous Babe Records will release Canon, the first retrospective album of Ani's illustrious and storied career. The double-disc will feature songs from her albums spanning 1990-2006 as well as five re-recorded tracks. Included are new recordings of the Dilate gems "Shameless" and "Napoleon", the latter featuring long-time collaborator Todd Sickafoose, new drummer Allison Miller as well as singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur and Afghan Whig/ Twilight Singers frontman Greg Dulli. Vibraphonist Mike Dillon and Astral Project member David Torkanowsky contribute to fresh, inspired versions of "Your Next Bold Move" and "Overlap," while "Both Hands" finds Ani playing with her current live band (Sickafoose and Miller), with added percussion from Torkanowsky. Since the early 1990s, DiFranco's innovative guitar style, signature percussive finger picking, expressive vocals and incisive lyrics have earned her a loyal, dedicated fanbase and consistent critical acclaim. The self-described "little folksinger" has released nineteen studio albums and has produced records for artists such as Dan Bern, Utah Phillips and Janis Ian. DiFranco has collaborated with everyone from Prince and Cyndi Lauper to Dar Williams and Maceo Parker. She continues to sell out venues all over the world including NYC's Carnegie Hall. In 2005, DiFranco made CMJ's list of of the 25 most influential artists of the last 25 years, along with U2, Nirvana, Radiohead and The Pixies.
DiFranco's 2006 release, Reprieve earned a slew of accolades. Entertainment Weekly called it "beautifully committed music--the kind that's as essential now as it has ever been."
Since releasing her first recording in 1990, Ani DiFranco has established herself as one of the most influential and inspirational artists of the modern era. DiFranco's innovative guitar style, signature percussive fingerpicking, expressive vocals and incisive lyrics--along with a constitutional inability to be anything less than totally real--have earned her a loyal, dedicated fan base and ongoing critical acclaim. The empowering spirit of this one-of-a-kind singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer is evident in songs that tackle barbed political and sexual issues with uncommon insight and compassion. With DiFranco, what you see and hear is what you get--the act of making music is inseparable from the process of living her life.
In recent months, while taking time off from the road following the January 20 birth of her first child, daughter Petah Lucia, Ani has been handpicking the songs for her first-ever studio career retrospective, Canon, to be released September 11 on her Righteous Babe label. The two-CD set contains three-dozen songs spanning the years 1990-2006, as well as five re-recorded tracks. Until now, 1997's Living in Clip, a live recording containing songs chosen by Ani from throughout her career, had served as the default overview of this prolific artist's body of work. Essential though Living in Clip remains (Addicted to Noise called it "a profound collaboration with her audience--the essence of the rock & roll ideal"), the DiFranco oeuvre has been begging for a treatment that takes a healthy bite out of the whole enchilada. That makes this expansive new collection as welcome as it is definitive. In conjunction with the release of Canon, Seven Stories Press will publish Verses, DiFranco's first book of poetry. The volume, which will be illustrated with her artwork, will also be available September 11.
It turns out that Ani is as dedicated to her community as she is to her art. For the last several years, she and her manager Scot Fisher have been renovating a long-neglected landmark building in their hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., saving it from the wrecking ball. Newly rechristened Babeville, it's now a state-of-the-art performance space and contemporary arts center, as well as the headquarters of Righteous Babe. "Changing the world becomes plausible if you just focus on your immediate surroundings; your home life, your relationships, your workplace, your community," she once said; Babeville is a physical manifestation of that assertion.
Ani began her recording career in quintessential lo-fi/DIY fashion by pressing up 500 cassettes to sell at her shows; it was the first of a steady outpouring of artful and boldly personal recordings, marking her as perhaps the most prolific artist of her generation. Altogether, her 19 official albums have sold more than 4 million copies--and she's done it in classic troubadour fashion, one fan at a time, via word of mouth and sheer charisma, rather than through radio play or marketing campaigns.
Everything Ani has released, from that self- titled cassette 17 years ago to her most recent album, 2006's Reprieve, has drawn critical accolades. Over the years, Rolling Stone has described her as "breathtakingly talented," "fiercely independent," "iconic" and "one of the few artists around who can really paint the rainbows." Entertainment Weekly called Reprieve "beautifully committed music--the kind that's as essential now as it has ever been." Fittingly, though, it's DiFranco's fans who have the most illuminating things to say about her. "One of the things I love so much about Ani,"
Stats
- Plays today
- 0
- All-time plays
- 68
- Profile views
- 1,396
Mindy, Sep 28, 2007:
Your concert in Minneapolis was amazing, my friend and I had a blast. We hope to catch you again!