National folk act
Ani DiFranco
Going up
Another year, another 12 months in Ani
DiFranco's continuing march toward world domination. Everybody loves Ani --
girls, boys, lesbians, straights, folkies, punks, even PBS, which earlier this
year tapped her to narrate River of Song, its documentary about the many
musics made along the mighty Mississippi. DiFranco herself is a river of song,
having released an astonishing 12 discs in nine years, all on her own Righteous
Babe label. Fame finally caught up with the righteous babe in 1998, as she
released Little Plastic Castle (at the time, her best-selling record
yet) and addressed on it her ambivalence toward both her acceptance by a
mainstream not sure what to make of her and the overprotective fans jealous
that their private thrush was leaving the nest. Not that DiFranco sold out or
turned her back on either the fans or the kind of songs she had always created:
an austere, starkly personal, often witty, always beautifully sung acoustic
music played with hardcore intensity. But she also dipped her toes into hip-hop
(on Castle's lengthy jam, "Pulse") and funk (on 1999's similar jam, "Hat
Shaped Hat"). The first weeks of this year saw the release of her
highest-profile album yet, Up Up Up Up Up Up, which is clearly the
direction in which DiFranco's career is moving.
-- Gary Susman
AniDiFranco.org -- The White Girl With the Hair
An Ani DiFranco fan page
Another Ani DiFranco fan page
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