IF FANS EVER wonder why Buffalo, N.Y.-based folk singer Ani DiFranco created her
own record company in 1990, instead of signing a contract to work for someone
else, her latest album offers some insight.
On “Knuckle Down,” which was released Jan. 25, DiFranco acknowledges
her loneliness and reflects on her political activist roots, which she apparently
inherited from her parents. If she worked for someone else, singing about politics
so freely might not be possible.
“I was just a girl in a room full of women/licking stamps and laughing/I
remember the feeling of community brewing/of democracy happening,” DiFranco
sings on the track “Paradigm” about campaigning door to door with
her mother.
The 34-year-old bisexual artist, who boasts 20 albums (14 of original material)
on her own Righteous Babe Records label, doesn’t seem to waste time.
It was just last year that DiFranco released “Educated Guess,”
an album she wrote, produced and recorded. She did so after bidding farewell
to her band and to her husband of five years, former sound engineer Andrew Gilchrist.
DiFranco, who usually records a new album every year, shifts gears on with
“Knuckle Down.”
For the first time in her 15-year-career, the singer shares production credits
with someone else. “Knuckle Down” is co-produced by accomplished
singer/songwriter and guitarist Joe Henry. Henry is also Madonna’s brother-in-law
who penned Madonna’s 2000 hit “Don’t Tell Me.”
Henry has been making music since 1985, and he often performs in the opening
slot at DiFranco’s concerts. DiFranco asked him to co-produce her latest
outing while the two were on tour last year.
The end result is gratifying. The vocals are more focused, DiFranco’s
lengthy lyrics are more synchronized and the production is smooth.
Other musicians featured on “Knuckle Down,” include bassist Todd
Sickafoose, former keyboard and background vocalist Julie Wolf, vocalist Noe
Venable, and violinist Andrew Bird, who also releases albums on Righteous Babe
Records.
BUT IT’S NOT just the company DiFranco keeps that’s different this
time around. In comparison to her recent recordings, “Knuckle Down”
is a more personal album.
DiFranco welcomed solitude onstage and off before releasing “Educated
Guess.” On “Knuckle Down,” she is singing a different tune.
On “Recoil,” the album’s finale, she sings: “Come home
and my guitar/has nothin’ to say to me/I recoil from all my friends/and
then I’m in misery/been so long since I’ve been held/really since
I was his/probably just need to be held/that’s probably all it is.”
It’s also on “Recoil” that DiFranco mentions her father,
who died last year.
“Then I think of my dad/who time travels mostly now/back to when he was
free/and holding out hope somehow,” she sings.
The album takes an eerie turn in “Parameters,” a poem backed by
a haunting guitar riff about DiFranco’s confrontation with an intruder
in her home.
In addition to her father’s death, last year marked an event one for
the self-proclaimed “little folk singer.” DiFranco traveled to Burma
and Thailand with Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice. She also visited refugee
camps to raise awareness about the need for freedom and democracy outside the
U.S.
DiFranco also spent a good portion of her time last year backing the 2004 presidential
bid of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who spoke at some of her concerts.
