Ani DiFranco

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Pop & Rock Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Ani DiFranco Similar Pop & Rock Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Ani DiFranco (; born Angela Maria DiFranco on September 23, 1970) is an American Grammy Award -winning singer , guitarist , poet , and songwriter . She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.

Biography

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York , to Elizabeth and Dante DiFranco, who had met while attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT . She started playing The Beatles|Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum, at the age of nine.

In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, Righteous Babe Records|Righteous Records . Early in her career DiFranco worked with manager Dale Anderson, a writer for the Buffalo News , who started another record label called Hot Wings Records, after the two parted ways, that released similar sounding material. Her Ani DiFranco (album)|self-titled debut album was issued on the label in the winter of 1990. Later, she relocated to New York, New York|New York City , where she took poetry classes at The New School and Concert tour|toured vigorously for the next 15 years, essentially pausing briefly only to record albums.

Righteous Records was renamed Righteous Babe Records in 1994.

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 .

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

Her father died early in the summer of 2004. Review in Paste. September 2006. In July 2005, DiFranco developed tendinitis and took a hiatus from touring. Her 2005 tour concluded with an appearance at the FloydFest World Music and Genre Crossover (music)|Crossover festival in Floyd, Virginia . She 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 Calgary Folk Music Festival on July 30, 2006.

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

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

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

Red Letter Year was released on September 30, 2008. Says DiFranco about the album:

"When I listen to my new record, I hear a very relaxed me, which I think has been absent in a lot of my recorded canon. Now I feel like I’m in a really good place. My partner Mike Napolitano co-produced this record – my guitar and voice have never sounded better, and that’s because of him. I’ve got this great band and crew. And my baby, she teaches me how to just be in my skin, to do less and be more.", "Ani DiFranco to Release New Album Red Letters". Retrieved on 08-15-08

DiFranco performed a live webcast from Ex'pression College for Digital Arts on June 24, 2010. She debuted a selection of new material, including the songs "Which Side Are You On? " (a reworking of the Florence Reece song with different lyrics penned by DiFranco), "Life Boat", "Unworry", "Promiscuity", "Splinter", "Amendment", "See See..." and "Hearse".

In 2010, DiFranco sued Hip hop music|hip-hop horrorcore artist Ron Braunstein|Necro for sampling her song, "Used to You" in a response track called "The Asshole Anthem" on his DIE! album. Due to the lawsuit, the album was reissued without the track.

She has continued touring through 2011. As of 2008 her backing band consists of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass, Allison Miller (drummer)|Allison Miller on drums, and Mike Dillon (musician)|Mike Dillon on percussion and vibes. DiFranco returned to the Calgary Folk Music Festival in July 2008.

She is also a poet and has been featured on Def Jam's poetry hour.

DiFranco plans to release an album of new material on January 17, 2012, titled "¿Which Side Are You On? ". Collaborations with Pete Seeger , Ivan Neville , Cyril Neville , Skerik , Adam Levy , Righteous Babe recording artist Anaïs Mitchell , CC Adcock , and a host of New Orleans-based horn players known for their work in such outfits as Galactic , Bonerama , and Rebirth Brass Band have been confirmed.

She and her husband currently reside in New Orleans .Huff, Quentin B. . Accessed 18 December 2008.Farley, Christopher, John. Wall Street Journal , December 5, 2008. Accessed 18 December 2008.

Relationships

DiFranco identifies herself as bisexual , by Kris Scott Marti, November 28, 2004, by Achy Obejas, The Advocate, December 9, 1997 and has written songs about love and sex with women and men. She addressed the controversy about her sexuality with the song "In or Out". In 1998, she married sound engineer Andrew Gilchrist in a Unitarian Universalist service in Canada , overseen by folk singer Utah Phillips . DiFranco and Gilchrist divorced five years later.

DiFranco gave birth to a daughter, Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano, Celebrity Baby Blog. July 3, 2007. at her Buffalo home on January 20, 2007. She married the child's father Mike Napolitano,Dowd, Kathy Ehrich. People . January 23, 2007. also her regular producer, in 2009.

Critical reception

DiFranco has been a critical darling for much of her career, if not always a commercial one, with a career album average of 72 on Metacritic . Accessed on October 1, 2011.. 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 (term)|gay visibility."

Starting in 2003, DiFranco was nominated four consecutive times for Grammy Award for Best Recording Package|Best Recording Package at the Grammy Awards , winning in 46th Grammy Awards|2004 , for Evolve (Ani DiFranco album)|Evolve .

On July 21, 2006, DiFranco received the Woman of Courage Award Winners|"Woman of Courage Award" at the National Organization for Women|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 , U.S. Democratic Party|D - California|Calif. DiFranco is one of the first musicians to receive the award, given each year to a woman who has set herself apart by her contributions to the feminist movement.

Music

Guitar style and collaborations

DiFranco's guitar playing is often characterized by a signature staccato style, 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 musician Prince (musician)|Prince , who recorded two songs with DiFranco in 1999 ("Providence" on her To the Teeth album, and "I Love U, but I Don't Trust U Anymore" on Prince's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic album); 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 rapping|rapper Corey Parker (singer). She has used a variety of musical instrument|instruments and styles: brass instrument ation 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' "; string instrument|strings on the 1997 live album Living in Clip and 2004's Knuckle Down ; and electronics and synthesiser s in 1999's To the Teeth and 2006's Reprieve (album)|Reprieve . Samples from the track "Coming Up" were used by DJ Spooky in his album Live Without Dead Time, produced for AdBusters Magazine in 2003.

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." by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

Lyrics, politics and religion

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, particularly those of the Left-wing politics|left wing , some of whom set up fan pages on the World Wide Web|web to document DiFranco's career as early as 1994. DiFranco's rapid rise in popularity in the mid-1990s was fueled mostly by personal contact and word of mouth rather than mainstream media .
DiFranco has expressed political views outside of her music. During the U.S. presidential election, 2000|2000 U.S. presidential election , she actively supported and voted for Green Party (US)|Green Party candidate Ralph Nader .HackWriters.com article: "". Rolling Stone magazine article: ""Salon.com article: "". She supported Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2004|2004 and 2008 Democratic primaries . Kucinich appeared with her at a number of concerts across the country during both primary seasons. DiFranco went on to perform at the 2008 Democratic National Convention .

Early in her career, DiFranco considered herself an atheist . 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."

Since becoming a mother and releasing her Red Letter Year album in 2009, DiFranco has talked in concert about "finding religion". At concerts she has stated that her song "The Atom" is an "alternative Christian proposal". In "The Atom" she sings ”Oh holy is the atom/ The truly intelligent design/ To which all of evolution/ Is graciously aligned.” In Reno in 2008 prior to singing "The Atom", she said "I've kind of gotten religion lately, I took a sweet religion, one I am sort of familiar with and sprayed a can of patriarchy-off and this is what I came up with."

Label independence

DiFranco was one of the first independent artists to own her own label, which has allowed her a considerable degree of creative freedom over the years, including, for example, providing all instrumentals and vocals and recording the album herself at her home on an analog 8-track reel to reel , and handling much of the artwork and packaging design for her 2004 album Educated Guess . She has referenced this independence from major labels in song more than once, 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 (Ani DiFranco album)|Dilate ), which sympathizes sarcastically with an unnamed friend who did sign with a label.

DiFranco has occasionally joined with Prince (musician)|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 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.

Discographyanchor|Discography

Studio albums

1990 – Ani DiFranco (album)|Ani DiFranco

1991 – Not So Soft

1992 – Imperfectly

1993 – Puddle Dive

1994 – Out of Range

1995 – Not a Pretty Girl

1996 – Dilate (Ani DiFranco album)|Dilate

1998 – Little Plastic Castle

1999 – Up Up Up Up Up Up

1999 – To the Teeth

2001 – Revelling/Reckoning

2003 – Evolve (Ani DiFranco album)|Evolve

2004 – Educated Guess

2005 – Knuckle Down

2006 – Reprieve (album)|Reprieve

2008 – Red Letter Year

2012 - ¿Which Side Are You On?

Compilations

1993 – Like I Said: Songs 1990–91

2007 – Canon (album)|Canon

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)

2009 – Saratoga, CA – 9.18.06 (Official Bootleg series)

2009 – Chicago – 9.22.07 (Official Bootleg series)

2010 – Live at Bull Moose Music (Limited edition)

EPs

1996 – More Joy, Less Shame

1999 – Little Plastic Remixes (limited distribution)

2000 – Swing Set

Demos

1989 – Demo tape (Ani DiFranco)|Demo tape (unreleased)

Videos

2002 – Render: Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco

2004 – Trust

2008 – Live at Babeville

Poetry

2004 – "Self-evident: poesie e disegni (Ani DiFranco book)|Self-evident: poesie e disegni"

2007 – Verses (Ani DiFranco book)|Verses

Other contributions

2004 – WFUV: City Folk Live VII – "Bliss Like This"

2006 – Jason Karaban – "Doomed to Make Choices"

2008 – The City That Care Forgot (Dr. John album)|The City That Care Forgot – Contributed backing vocals to the title track of Dr. John 's 2008 album.

2009 – Jason Karaban – "Sobriety Kills"

2010 – Anais Mitchell – "Hadestown"

2011 – Twilight Singers – "Blackbird and the Fox"

2011 – Every Mother Counts – "Present/Infant" (Remix)

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco Photo by: www.artistdirect.com


1. Cyndi Lauper 2. Box Tops 3. Rachael Sage 4. Eric Johnson 5. Regina Spektor

Pop & Rock Music Artists

Ani DiFranco

Biography

Biography

Relationships

Critical reception

Music

Guitar style and collaborations

Lyrics, politics and religion

Label independence

Discographyanchor|Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Live albums

EPs

Demos

Videos

Poetry

Other contributions

See also

References

External links

Copyright Citations