Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	(B)[3]
Mojo	[4]
musicOMH	(positive)[5]
The New York Times	(positive)[6]
PopMatters	(6/10)[7]
Q	[8]
Rolling Stone	[9]
Slant	[10]
Spin	A−[11]
Uncut	[12]

Knuckle Down is the fourteenth studio album by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco. It is the first album that DiFranco has collaborated with a producer; Joe Henry. The record is also her first studio album to feature a string section. It is considered among her most accessible records, and compared to the stark Educated Guess, it is more abundantly produced.^[13]

Track listing[link]

1. "Knuckle Down" – 4:34
2. "Studying Stones" – 3:53
3. "Manhole" – 3:45
4. "Sunday Morning" – 4:49
5. "Modulation" – 4:31
6. "Seeing Eye Dog" – 4:02
7. "Lag Time" – 5:13
8. "Parameters" – 5:58
9. "Callous" – 5:46
10. "Paradigm" – 4:33
11. "Minerva" – 4:55
12. "Recoil" – 5:08

Personnel[link]

• Ani DiFranco – guitar, vocals
• Jay Bellerose – percussion, drums
• Andrew Bird – violin, Glockenspiel, whistling
• Tony Scherr – electric guitar
• Todd Sickafoose – Wurlitzer, string bass
• Patrick Warren – piano, sampling, Chamberlin
• Julie Wolf – melodica
• Noe Venable – vocals
• Niki Haris – vocals

Production[link]

• Ani DiFranco – producer, design
• Greg Calbi – mastering
• S. "Husky" Hoskulds – engineer, mixing
• Jason Mott – engineer, assistant
• Danny Clinch – portrait photography
• Eric Frick – photography
• Brian Grunert – design

Charts[link]

Album

References[link]

Roger Dean Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country/pop hits "King of the Road", "Dang Me" and "England Swings", all from the mid-1960s Nashville sound era.

After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the United States Army, Miller began his musical career as a songwriter in the late 1950s, penning such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price. He later started a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the late-1960s, but continued to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit "Old Friends" with Willie Nelson in 1982. Later in his life, he wrote the music and lyrics for the 1985 Tony-award winning Broadway musical Big River, in which he also acted.

Miller died from lung cancer in 1992, and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame three years later. His songs continued to be recorded by younger artists, with covers of "Tall, Tall Trees" by Alan Jackson and "Husbands and Wives" by Brooks & Dunn, each reaching the number one spot on country charts in the 1990s. The Roger Miller Museum in his home town serves as a tribute to Miller.

Early life[link]

Roger Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the third son of Jean and Laudene (Holt) Miller. Jean Miller died from spinal meningitis when Roger was only a year old. Unable to support the family during the Great Depression,^[1] Laudene sent each of her three sons to live with a different one of Jean's brothers. Thus, Roger grew up on a farm outside Erick, Oklahoma with Elmer and Armelia Miller.^[2]

As a boy, Miller did farm work such as picking cotton and plowing. He would later say he was "dirt poor" and that as late as 1951 the family did not own a telephone.^[3] He received his primary education at a one-room schoolhouse. Miller was an introverted child, and would often daydream or compose songs. One of his earliest compositions went: "There's a picture on the wall. It's the dearest of them all, Mother."^[1]

Miller was a member of the National FFA Organization in high school.^[3] He listened to the Grand Ole Opry and Light Crust Doughboys on a Fort Worth station with his cousin's husband Sheb Wooley. Wooley taught Miller his first guitar chords and bought him a fiddle. Wooley, Hank Williams, and Bob Wills were the influences that led to Miller's desire to become a singer-songwriter. He began to run away and perform in Oklahoma and Texas. When he was 17, he stole a guitar out of desperation to write songs; however, he turned himself in the next day. He chose to enlist in the Army to avoid jail. He later quipped, "My education was Korea, Clash of '52." Near the end of his military service, while stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, Miller played fiddle in the "Circle A Wranglers," a military musical group started by Faron Young.^[1] While Miller was stationed in South Carolina, an army sergeant whose brother was Kenneth C. Burns from the musical duo Homer and Jethro, persuaded him to head to Nashville after his demobilization.^[2]

Career[link]

Nashville songwriter[link]

After his discharge, Miller traveled to Nashville to begin his musical career. Once there, he met with Chet Atkins, who asked to hear Miller, and even loaned him his guitar after learning that he did not own one. Out of nervousness, Miller played the guitar and sang a song in two different keys. Atkins advised him to come back at a later date, after a little more work. Miller remained in Nashville and worked as a bellhop at the Andrew Jackson Hotel, to make ends meet; he soon became known as the "singing bellhop," Meanwhile, he was hired by Minnie Pearl to play fiddle in her band,^[4] and later met up with George Jones, who introduced him to music executives from the Starday Records label for an audition. The label was impressed with Miller and awarded him with a session in Houston, accompanied by Jones. Jones and Miller collaborated, writing "Tall, Tall Trees" and "Happy Child."^[1]

After getting married and having a child, Miller decided to put his Nashville career on hold and left for Amarillo, Texas to become a fireman.^[1] He did not altogether abandon his musical career; although he worked as a fireman during the day, he spent the nights performing gigs. Miller later recounted that during his career as a fireman, he saw only two fires, a "chicken coop" and another that he "slept through." After the latter, the department "suggested that...[he] seek other employment." Miller met with Ray Price, and was hired as a member of his Cherokee Cowboys. He moved back to Nashville, and penned the song "Invitation to the Blues," which was covered by Rex Allen and later by Price, for whom it became a number three hit on country charts.^[6] Miller signed with Tree Publishing on a salary of $50 a week. He wrote: "Half a Mind" for Ernest Tubb, "That's the Way I Feel" for Faron Young; and his first number one, "Billy Bayou," which along with "Home" were recorded by Jim Reeves. Miller became one of the biggest songwriters of the 1950s. However, Bill Anderson would later remark that "Roger was the most talented, and least disciplined person that you could imagine" citing the attempts of Miller's Tree Publishing boss, Buddy Killen to force him to finish a piece. He was also known to give away lines, inciting many Nashville songwriters to follow him around since "everything he said was a potential song." (Killen)^[1]

Recording career[link]

Miller signed a recording deal with Decca Records in 1958. He was paired with singer Donny Little, who would later gain fame under the name Johnny Paycheck, to perform the Little-penned "A Man Like Me", and later "The Wrong Kind of Girl." Both songs were honky tonk and did not chart. His second single with the label, featuring the B-side "Jason Fleming," foreshadowed Miller's future style. To make extra money, Miller went on tour and joined Faron Young's band as a drummer, although he had never drummed before. During this period, he signed a record deal with Chet Atkins at RCA Records, for whom Miller recorded "You Don't Want My Love" (also known as "In the Summertime") in 1960, which marked his first appearance on country charts, peaking at #14. The next year, he would make an even bigger impact, breaking through the top 10 with his single "When Two Worlds Collide," co-written with Bill Anderson. But Miller soon grew tired of writing songs, divorced his wife and began a party lifestyle that earned him the moniker "wild child." He was dropped from his record label and began to pursue other interests.^[1]

After numerous appearances on late night comedy shows, Miller decided that he might have a chance to go to Hollywood to be an actor. However, short of money, he signed with the up and coming label Smash Records, asked the label for $1,600 in cash, in exchange for recording 16 sides. Smash agreed to the proposal, and Miller performed at his first session for the company early in 1964, when he recorded the hits "Dang Me" and "Chug-a-Lug". Both were released as singles, peaking at #1 and #3 respectively on country charts; both also fared well on the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #7 and #9.^[7] The songs transformed Miller's career, although the former was penned by Miller in only four minutes. Later that year, he recorded the #15 hit "Do-Wacka-Do," and soon after the biggest hit of his career "King of the Road," which topped Country and Adult Contemporary charts while peaking at #4 on the Billboard 100. The song was inspired by a sign in Chicago that read "Trailers for Sale or Rent" and a hobo happened upon by Miller while at an airport in Boise, but took months for Miller to write. The song was certified gold in May 1965 after selling a million copies. It won Miller numerous awards, and earned him a royalty check worth $160,000 that summer.^[1] Later in the year Miller scored hits with "Engine Engine #9", "Kansas City Star" (a Top Ten country hit in 1965 about a local television rhinestone cowboy personality who would rather stay in the safety and security of his success in Kansas City rather than try to become a bigger star - or risk failure - in Omaha) and "England Swings" (an adult contemporary #1). He began 1966 with the hit "Husbands and Wives."^[7]

Miller was given his own TV show on NBC in September 1966 but it was canceled after 13 weeks in January 1967. During this period Miller recorded songs written by other songwriters. The final hit from his own composition was "Walkin In the Sunshine," which reached #7 and #6 on the country and adult contemporary charts in 1967.^[7] Later in the year he scored his final top 10 hit with a cover of Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples."^[1] The next year, he was one of the first artists to cover Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobbie McGee,"^[6] taking the song to #12 on country charts.^[7] In 1970, Miller recorded the album A Trip in the Country, made up of honky tonk standards penned by Miller, including "Tall, Tall Trees." Later that year, after Smash Records folded, Miller was signed by Columbia Records, for whom he released Dear Folks: Sorry I Haven't Written Lately in 1973. Later that year, Miller wrote and performed three songs in the Walt Disney animated feature Robin Hood as the rooster/minstrel Alan-a-Dale, including "Whistle-Stop" which was sampled for use in the popular The Hampster Dance web site.^[1] He also provided the voice of Speiltoe, the equine narrator of the Rankin/Bass holiday special Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey in 1978.^[8] Miller collaborated with Willie Nelson to create an album titled Old Friends. The title track was based on a song he had previously penned for his family in Oklahoma. The song, with guest vocals from Ray Price, was the last hit of Miller's career,^[1] peaking at #19 on country charts in 1982.^[7]

Late career[link]

Roger was the voice of the Donkey narrator "Spieltote",in the Rankin/Bass special Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. He continued to record for different record labels and charted a few songs, but stopped writing in 1978, feeling that his more "artistic" works were not being appreciated.^[2] He was absent from the entertainment business following the release of Old Friends in 1981, but returned after receiving an offer to write a Broadway score for a new musical based upon Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Although he had never read the novel, Miller accepted the offer after discovering how the story brought him back to his childhood in rural Oklahoma.^[9] It took him a year and a half to write the opening but he eventually finished. The work, entitled Big River premiered at Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York on April 25, 1985. The musical received glowing reviews, earning seven Tony Awards including "Best Score" for Miller. He also acted the part of Huck Finn's father Pap for three months after the exit of actor John Goodman, who left for Hollywood.^[1]

Miller left for Santa Fe to live with his family following the success of Big River. He co-wrote Dwight Yoakam's hit "It Only Hurts When I Cry" from his 1990 album If There Was a Way, and supplied background vocals.^[10] The song was released as a single in 1991, peaking at #7 on country charts.^[11] He began a solo guitar tour in 1990,^[1] which he ended the following year after being diagnosed with lung cancer.^[1] His last performance on television occurred during a special tribute to Minnie Pearl^[2] which aired on TNN on October 26, 1992, the day after Miller's death.^[12]

Style[link]

Although usually grouped with country music singers, Miller's unique style defies easy classification. Many of his recordings were humorous novelty songs with whimsical lyrics, coupled with scat singing or vocalese riffs filled with nonsense syllables.^[13] Others were sincere ballads, which also caught the public's fancy, none more so than his signature song, "King of the Road."^[14] The biographical book Ain't Got No Cigarettes described Miller as an "uncategorizable talent", and stated that many regarded him as a genius.^[15]

On his own personal style, Miller remarked that he "tried to do" things like other artists but that it "always came out different" so he got "frustrated" until realizing "I'm the only one that knows what I'm thinking." He commented that the favorite song that he wrote was "You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd."^[14] Johnny Cash discussed Miller's bass vocal range in his 1997 autobiography. He commented that it was the closest to his own that he had heard.

Personal life and death[link]

Miller was married three times, and fathered seven children. Miller's first wife Barbara bore his first child, Michael, who later died. The couple had three more children subsequent to Michael's death — Alan, Rhonda and Shari.^[16] By the time Shari was born, Miller's career was beginning to blossom into national popularity. The family remained in Inglewood for a short time after Miller found fame. The increasing interest in Miller caused struggles for the performer: He suffered from depression and insomnia and had a drug addiction which contributed to the end of both his first and second marriages. Miller was known to walk off shows and get into fights.^[15] After a divorce with his first wife,^[16] he married Leah Kendrick. She gave birth to two children, Shannon and Dean Miller,^[17] who like his father, went on to become a singer-songwriter.^[16] The Christmas song "Old Toy Trains" was written by Miller about his son, who was only two years old when it was released in 1967. After divorcing Leah, Miller married Mary Arnold, whom he had met through Kenny Rogers.^[18] Arnold was a member of The First Edition, a band that included Rogers.^[17] They adopted two children: Taylor and Adam. After The First Edition, she subsequently performed with Miller on tours, including a White House performance for President Gerald Ford. In 2009 she was inducted into the Iowa Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame,^[18] Arnold currently manages Roger Miller's estate. She sued Sony for copyright infringement in the 2007 case Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV Publishing, LLC, which went to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.^[19] Arnold was ultimately awarded nearly $1 million in royalties and rights to the songs Miller wrote in 1964.^[20]

Miller was a lifelong cigarette smoker. During a television interview Miller once explained that he composed his songs from "bits and pieces" of ideas he wrote on scraps of paper. When asked what he did with the unused bits and pieces, he half-joked, "I smoke 'em!" Miller died of lung and throat cancer in 1992, at the age of 56 shortly after the discovery of a growth under his vocal cords.^[2]

Discography[link]

Main albums[link]

^[21]

• Roger and Out (1964)
• The Return of Roger Miller (1965)
• The 3rd Time Around (1965)
• Words and Music (1966)
• Walkin' in the Sunshine (1967)
• A Tender Look at Love (1968)
• Roger Miller (1969)
• Roger Miller Featuring Dang Me! (1969)
• A Trip in the Country (1970)
• Roger Miller 1970 (1970)
• Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven't Written Lately (1973)
• Celebration (1976)
• Painted Poetry (1977)
• Off the Wall (1978)
• Waterhole #3 (1978)
• Making a Name for Myself (1979)
• Old Friends (with Willie Nelson) (1982)
• The Country Side of Roger Miller (1986)
• Green Green Grass of Home (1994)

#1 singles[link]

Released and recorded by Miller^[7]

• "Dang Me" (1964)
• "King of the Road" (1965)
• "England Swings" (1966)

Recorded and released by other artists

• "Billy Bayou" – Jim Reeves (1958)
• "Don't We All Have the Right" – Ricky Van Shelton (1988)
• "Tall, Tall Trees" – Alan Jackson (1995)
• "Husbands and Wives" – Brooks & Dunn (1998)

Awards[link]

In addition to 11 Grammy Awards, Roger Miller won Broadway's Tony award for writing the music and lyrics for Big River, which won a total of 7 Tonys including best musical in 1985. He was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995. Miller's 11 Grammy Awards held the record as the most won by any artist until Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller.^[17] In Erick, Oklahoma where he grew up, a thoroughfare was renamed "Roger Miller Boulevard" and a museum dedicated to Miller was built on the road in 2004.^[22]

Below is a list of awards won by Miller:^[23]

• 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country Song: "Dang Me"
• 1964 — Grammy Award: Best New Country and Western Artist
• 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "Dang Me"
• 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Performance, Male: "Dang Me"
• 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Album: "Dang Me"/"Chug-a-Lug"
• 1965 — Jukebox Artist of the Year
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country Song: "King of the Road"
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "King of the Road"
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Contemporary (Rock 'N Roll), Single: "King of the Road"
• 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Album: "The Return of Roger Miller"
• 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Best Songwriter"
• 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Man of the Year"
• 1973 — Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
• 1985 — Tony Award for Best Score and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for Big River
• 1988 — Academy of Country Music: Pioneer Award
• 1995 — Country Music Hall of Fame
• 1997 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "Dang Me"
• 1998 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "King Of The Road"
• 2003 — CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music: Ranked #23.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Cooper, Daniel. (1998). "Roger Miller." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 347–8.

External links[link]

• All Roger Miller Songs Written and Released
• Episode of Quincy ME starring Roger Miller
• Roger Miller at the Internet Movie Database
• Roger Miller at the Internet Broadway Database
• Roger Miller Museum in Erick, Oklahoma
• Roger Miller interview on the Pop Chronicles

Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco performing at the Ancienne Belgique in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Angela Marie DiFranco
Born	(1970-09-23) September 23, 1970 (age 41) Buffalo, New York
Genres	Folk rock, indie, alternative
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, tenor guitar, vocals, percussion, piano
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Righteous Babe
Website	righteousbabe.com

Ani DiFranco ( /ˈɑːniː/; born Angela Maria DiFranco on September 23, 1970) is an American singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums,^[1] and is widely considered a feminist icon.^[2][3][4]

Biography[link]

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York,^[5] to Elizabeth and Dante DiFranco, who had met while attending MIT.^[6][7] She started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum,^[8] at the age of nine.

In 1989, DiFranco started her own record company, Righteous Records.^[1] 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 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 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's "The Poet Game" appeared on Going Driftless: An Artists' Tribute to Greg Brown.

Her father died early in the summer of 2004.^[9] In July 2005, DiFranco developed tendonitis and took a hiatus from touring. Her 2005 tour concluded with an appearance at the FloydFest World Music and Genre 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 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.^[10] 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 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."^[11]

DiFranco performed a live webcast from Ex'pression College for Digital Arts^[12] 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 horrorcore artist 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.^[13]

She has continued touring through 2011. As of 2008 her backing band consists of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass, Allison Miller on drums, and 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 released an album of new material on January 17, 2012, titled "¿Which Side Are You On?". It includes 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.

She and her husband currently reside in New Orleans.^[14][15]

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

Relationships[link]

DiFranco identifies herself as bisexual,^[16][17] 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.^{[citation needed]} DiFranco and Gilchrist divorced five years later.

DiFranco gave birth to a daughter, Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano,^[18] at her Buffalo home on January 20, 2007. She married the child's father Mike Napolitano,^[19] also her regular producer, in 2009.

Critical reception[link]

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.^[20] 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."^[21]

Starting in 2003, DiFranco was nominated four consecutive times for Best Recording Package at the Grammy Awards, winning in 2004, for Evolve.

On July 21, 2006, DiFranco received the "Woman of Courage Award"^[22] 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 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[link]

Guitar style and collaborations[link]

DiFranco's guitar playing is often characterized by a signature staccato style,^[23][24] 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, 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 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 2006's 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."^[25]

Lyrics, politics and religion[link]

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. In 2008, she donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami. 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, 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 fueled mostly by personal contact and word of mouth rather than mainstream media.^{[citation needed]}

DiFranco has expressed political views outside of her music. During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, she actively supported and voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.^[26][27][28] She supported Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic primaries. Kucinich appeared with her at a number of concerts across the country during both primary seasons.^[29][30] 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."^[31]

Since becoming a mother and releasing her Red Letter Year album in 2009, DiFranco has talked in concert about "finding religion".^{[citation needed]} 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."^{[citation needed]}

Label independence[link]

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.^[32] 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), which sympathizes sarcastically with an unnamed friend who did sign with a label.

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^[33] 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] Discography

Studio albums[link]

	"Napoleon" noicon from Dilate
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

• 1990 – Ani DiFranco
• 1991 – Not So Soft
• 1992 – Imperfectly
• 1993 – Puddle Dive
• 1994 – Out of Range
• 1995 – Not a Pretty Girl
• 1996 – Dilate
• 1998 – Little Plastic Castle
• 1999 – Up Up Up Up Up Up
• 1999 – To the Teeth
• 2001 – Revelling/Reckoning
• 2003 – Evolve
• 2004 – Educated Guess
• 2005 – Knuckle Down
• 2006 – Reprieve
• 2008 – Red Letter Year
• 2012 - ¿Which Side Are You On?

Compilations[link]

• 1993 – Like I Said: Songs 1990–91^[34]
• 2007 – Canon

Live albums[link]

• 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)^[35]

EPs[link]

• 1996 – More Joy, Less Shame
• 1999 – Little Plastic Remixes (limited distribution)
• 2000 – Swing Set

Demos[link]

• 1989 – Demo tape (unreleased)

Videos[link]

• 2002 – Render: Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco
• 2004 – Trust
• 2008 – Live at Babeville

Poetry[link]

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

Other contributions[link]

• 2004 – WFUV: City Folk Live VII – "Bliss Like This"
• 2006 – Jason Karaban – "Doomed to Make Choices"
• 2008 – 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)

See also[link]

• Righteous Babe Records
• Category:Righteous Babe artists

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ani DiFranco

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ani DiFranco

• The Righteous Babe homepage
• Ani DiFranco at the Internet Movie Database
• Ani DiFranco discography at MusicBrainz
• Ani DiFranco at Rolling Stone
• Works by or about Ani DiFranco in libraries (WorldCat catalog)