Ani DiFranco

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Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco in concert in Eugene, OR, July 2005
Ani DiFranco in concert in Eugene, OR, July 2005
Background information
Birth name Angela Marie Difranco
Born September 23, 1970 (1970-09-23) (age 37) in Buffalo, New York
Genre(s) Urban Folk
Instrument(s) Guitar, bass guitar, vocals, percussion, piano
Years active 1990–present
Label(s) Righteous Babe
Website www.righteousbabe.com

Ani DiFranco (pronounced /ˈɑːniː/) (born Angela Maria Difranco on September 23, 1970) is a Grammy Award winning [1] singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She is known as a prolific artist (having released nineteen albums)[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and is widely celebrated as a feminist icon.[12][13][14]

Contents

[edit] Biography

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York to mother Elizabeth and father Dante, both graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[15][16] She started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum,[17] at the age of nine.

In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, "Righteous Records" (renamed Righteous Babe Records in 1994),[7] with just $50.[citation needed] Prior to the renaming of Righteous Records to Righteous Babe Records, DiFranco worked with manager Dale Anderson, a writer for the Buffalo News, who later started another record label called Hot Wings Records when the two parted ways. Hot Wings released the work of Buffalo area female musical performers with styles similar to that of DiFranco. Early Releases of her CDs produced prior to 1994 are labeled with the original Righteous Records label. Her self-titled debut album was issued on the label in the winter of 1990. Later, she relocated to New York City, where she took poetry classes at The New School and toured vigorously.

DiFranco identified herself as bisexual for much of her career [18][19], although in her personal life she never expressed any interest in dating women. In 1998, she married sound engineer Andrew Gilchrist in a Unitarian Universalist service in Canada, overseen by U.U. minister Utah Phillips. Numerous media sources reported that her fans felt betrayed by her union with a man.[20] DiFranco and Gilchrist divorced five years later.

In 1998, DiFranco's drummer, Andy Stochansky, left the band to pursue a solo career as a singer-songwriter. Their rapport during live shows is showcased on the 1997 album Living In Clip.

DiFranco's father died early in the summer of 2005. However, she continued her summer tour.

In July of that year, DiFranco developed tendinitis and took a hiatus from touring. (DiFranco had toured almost continuously in the preceding fifteen years, only taking brief breaks to record studio albums.) Her 2005 tour concluded with an appearance at the FloydFest World Music and Genre Crossover festival in Floyd, Virginia. DiFranco returned to touring in late April 2006, including a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 28 and a performance at the renowned Calgary Folk Music Festival on July 30, 2006.

DiFranco gave birth to a daughter, Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano [21], at her Buffalo home on January 20, 2007. The child's father is DiFranco's boyfriend Mike Napolitano,[22] the co-producer of DiFranco's 2006 release Reprieve.

She has continued touring into 2008 with a backing band consisting of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass, Allison Miller on drums, and Mike Dillon on percussion and vibes. DiFranco is returning to the Calgary Folk Music Festival in July 2008.

[edit] Recognition

On July 21, 2006, DiFranco received the "Woman of Courage Award"[23] at the National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference and Young Feminist Summit in Albany, New York. Past winners have included singer and actress Barbra Streisand and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. DiFranco is the first musician to receive the award, given each year to a woman who has set herself apart by her contributions to the feminist movement.

DiFranco has been toasted by the Buffalo News as the "Buffalo's leading lady of rock music." The News further said: "Through the Righteous Babe Foundation, DiFranco has backed various grassroots cultural and political organizations, supporting causes ranging from abortion rights to gay visibility."[24]

Since 2003, DiFranco has been nominated four consecutive times for Best Recording Package at the Grammy Awards, one of which she won, in 2004, for Evolve.

[edit] Musical style and the "folk" label

DiFranco's guitar playing is often characterized by a signature staccato style,[25][26] rapid fingerpicking and many alternate tunings. She delivers many of her lines in a speaking style notable for its rhythmic variation. Her lyrics, which often include alliteration, metaphor, word play and a more or less gentle irony, have also received praise for their sophistication.

Although DiFranco's music has been classified as both folk rock and alternative rock, she has reached across genres since her earliest albums. DiFranco has collaborated with a wide range of artists including pop musician Prince, folk musician and social activist Utah Phillips (on "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere" in 1996 and "Fellow Workers" in 1999), funk and soul jazz musician Maceo Parker and rapper Corey Parker. She has used a variety of instruments and styles: brass instrumentation was prevalent in 1998's Little Plastic Castle, a simple walking bass in her 1997 cover of Hal David and Burt Bacharach's Wishin' and Hopin', strings on the 1997 live album Living in Clip and 2004's Knuckle Down, and electronics and synthesisers in 1999's To the Teeth and in 2006's Reprieve.

DiFranco herself noted that "folk music is not an acoustic guitar — that's not where the heart of it is. I use the word 'folk' in reference to punk music and rap music. It's an attitude, it's an awareness of one's heritage, and it's a community. It's subcorporate music that gives voice to different communities and their struggle against authority."[27]

[edit] Lyrics and politics

Although much of DiFranco's material is autobiographical, it is often also strongly political. Many of her songs are concerned with contemporary social issues such as racism, sexism, sexual abuse, homophobia, reproductive rights, poverty, and war. The combination of personal and political is partially responsible for DiFranco's early popularity among politically active college students, some of whom set up fan pages on the web to document DiFranco's career as early as 1994. DiFranco's rapid rise in popularity in the mid-1990s was fuelled mostly by personal contact and word of mouth rather than mainstream media.

DiFranco has expressed political views outside of her music. During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, she encouraged voting for Ralph Nader in non-battleground states.[citation needed] She supported Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic primaries. Kucinich appeared with her at a number of concerts across the country during the 2004 and 2008 primary seasons. [28] [29]

On the subject of religion, DiFranco has stated:

"Well, I'm not a religious person myself. I'm an atheist. I think religion serves a lot of different purposes in people's lives, and I can recognize the value of that, you know, the value of ceremony, the value of community, or even just having a forum to get together and talk about ideas, about morals — that's a cool concept. But then, of course, institutional religions are so problematic."[30]

[edit] Label independence

Ownership of Righteous Babe Records allows DiFranco a great deal of artistic freedom. For example, on her 2004 album Educated Guess, DiFranco played all of the instruments, provided all of the vocals, and recorded the album by herself at her home on an analog 8-track reel to reel. She was also involved in much of the artwork and design for the packaging. The only other person involved in the record's musical production was Greg Calbi, who mastered it.[31]

References to her independence from major labels appear occasionally in DiFranco's songs, including "The Million You Never Made" (Not A Pretty Girl), which discusses the act of turning down a lucrative contract, "The Next Big Thing" (Not So Soft), which describes an imagined meeting with a label head-hunter who evaluates the singer based on her looks, and "Napoleon" (Dilate), which sympathizes sarcastically with an unnamed friend who did sign with a label. A long standing rumor, apparently begun by Spin Magazine in 1997, suggests that the friend addressed in "Napoleon" is the musician Suzanne Vega; both DiFranco and Vega have denied this.[citation needed]

DiFranco has occasionally joined with Prince in discussing publicly the problems associated with major record companies. Righteous Babe Records employs a number of people in her hometown of Buffalo. In a 1997 open letter to Ms. magazine[32] she expressed displeasure that what she considers a way to ensure her own artistic freedom was seen by others solely in terms of its financial success.

[edit] Recent work

Ani DiFranco, RZA, and Steve Albini at The New Yorker festival in September 2005.
Ani DiFranco, RZA, and Steve Albini at
The New Yorker festival in September 2005.

On September 11, 2007, she released the first retrospective of her career, titled Canon and for the first time, a collection of poetry in a book titled Verses.

DiFranco's album Reprieve was released on August 8, 2006. It was previously leaked on iTunes for several hours around July 1, 2006, due to an error saying it was released in 2002. [33]

DiFranco performed with Cyndi Lauper on "Sisters of Avalon", a track from Lauper's 2005 collection The Body Acoustic.

She also collaborated with fellow folk singer Dar Williams on "Comfortably Numb", a Pink Floyd cover song from Williams' 2005 album, My Better Self.

In 2002 her rendition of Greg Brown's "The Poet Game" appeared on Going Driftless: An Artists' Tribute to Greg Brown.

[edit] Forthcoming studio album

In April 2008, DiFranco commented on the status of her new album, Red Letter Year stating:

I’m really excited. I have a new band I’m working with, and they’re all over it. Actually, there are a lot of people. I have more guests and friends and other artists involved this time around than I have in a long time. It’s fuckin’ sprawling, this record. I’ve been working on it for a while now, taking a little bit more time because I’m on baby time now. My pace is a little bit slower, which I think is great in terms of making records. I think it will benefit the end result.[34]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Live albums

  • 1994 - An Acoustic Evening With
  • 1994 - Women in (E)motion (German Import)
  • 1997 - Living in Clip
  • 2002 - So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
  • 2004 - Atlanta - 10.9.03 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2004 - Sacramento - 10.25.03 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2004 - Portland - 4.7.04 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2005 - Boston - 11.16.03 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2005 - Chicago - 1.17.04 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2005 - Madison - 1.25.04 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2005 - Rome - 11.15.04 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2006 - Carnegie Hall - 4.6.02 (Official Bootleg series - available in stores)
  • 2007 - Boston - 11.10.06 (Official Bootleg series)
  • 2008 - Hamburg - 10.18.07 (Official Bootleg series)

[edit] EPs

[edit] Demos

[edit] Videos

  • 2002 - Render: Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco
  • 2004 - Trust
  • 2008 - Live At Babeville

[edit] Poetry

  • 2004 - "Self-evident: poesie e disegni"
  • 2007 - Verses

[edit] Samples

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/evolve/grammy.asp Evolve Wins the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
  2. ^ Brian Orloff (Apr 25, 2006). Ani DiFranco Salutes New Orleans. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  3. ^ Sarah Rouleau (December 28, 2007). 'Canon' will satisfy most DiFranco fans. The Reporter Online. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  4. ^ David L. Coddon (August 10, 2006). Giving us all a 'reprieve'. San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  5. ^ John Malkin (October 31, 2004). Art Is Activism. AlterNet. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  6. ^ Ian Story (January 20, 2005). Ani DiFranco buckles down for her new album 'Knuckle Down'. The Ohio State University Lantern. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  7. ^ a b Gene Stout (August 21, 2006). DiFranco makes time for radical sabbatical: Indie rocker records new album and prepares for motherhood. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  8. ^ Activist Ani: Singer/Songwriter DiFranco delivers ‘Reprieve,’ a political wolf in melodic sheep’s clothing. Southern Voice (June 9, 2006). Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  9. ^ Leslie Flynn (February 3, 2005). D.I.Y outlook fuels DiFranco's music. Daily Texan. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  10. ^ Andrew Hampp (June 24, 2006). Singer's new songs leave fans unable to follow along. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  11. ^ Mark Brown (August 17, 2006). Just plain folks: Ani DiFranco gives her New Orleans neighbors a soulful 'Reprieve'. The Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  12. ^ Sound Bites. Daily Texan (September 17, 2002). Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  13. ^ Lori Leibovich (March 27, 1998). Mother Who Think: Hey hey, ho ho, the matriarchy's got to go. Salon. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  14. ^ Fame hasn't changed the way DiFranco works: Independently. The Sacramento Bee (April 14, 2000). Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  15. ^ Ani DiFranco
  16. ^ Ani DiFranco Biography - Discography, Music, Lyrics, Album, CD, Career, Famous Works, and Awards
  17. ^ Notes on the album Open Ended Question
  18. ^ Ani DiFranco, Folksinger and Entrepreneur by Kris Scott Marti, November 28, 2004
  19. ^ [1] by Achy Obejas, The Advocate, Dec 9, 1997
  20. ^ Biography of Ani DiFranco on gotpoetry.com
  21. ^ "Introducing Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano" Celebrity Baby Blog. July 3, 2007.
  22. ^ Dowd, Kathy Ehrich. "Singer Ani DiFranco Welcomes a Daughter." People. January 23, 2007.
  23. ^ Rolling Stone news
  24. ^ Hearey, Owen. "'Righteous Babe' announces she is pregnant", Buffalo News, 2006-07-22, pp. D1. Retrieved on 2008-05-11. 
  25. ^ Facts about Ani
  26. ^ Ani DiFranco, Living in Clip by Jon Steltenpohl
  27. ^ Rock Troubadours by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
  28. ^ Brian Orloff (September 16, 2004). DiFranco Knuckles Down. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
  29. ^ Lauren Gitlin (August 27, 2003). Ani, Willie Support Kucinich. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  30. ^ Rothschild, Matthew. "Ani DiFranco - folk singer - Interview", The Progressive, 2000-05-09. Retrieved on 2008-04-10. 
  31. ^ Educated guess article
  32. ^ Interview with Ms. Magazine
  33. ^ I-tunes Mislabeled Release Date as 2002
  34. ^ The Santa Barbara Independent Ani DiFranco Talks Past, Present, and Future Projects
  35. ^ MMguide.musicmatch.com Retrieved on 06-06-07

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Ani DiFranco
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
An Acoustic Evening With · Living in Clip · Women in (E)motion · So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter · Atlanta - 10.9.03 · Sacramento - 10.25.03 · Portland - 4.7.04 · Boston - 11.16.03 · Chicago - 1.17.04 · Madison - 1.25.04 · Rome - 11.15.04 · Carnegie Hall - 4.6.02 · Boston - 11.10.06 · Hamburg, Germany - 10.18.07
Compilation albums
EPs
Demos
Related articles


Persondata
NAME DiFranco, Ani
ALTERNATIVE NAMES DiFranco, Angela Marie (birth name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION musician and activist
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1970 (1970-09-23) (age 37)
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo, New York
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH