A Righteous Babe--

"She is trying to evolve."
I remember the first time I heard Ani DiFranco, clearly as if it were yesterday.

(what a horrible cliche')

January 1999, picture it--Knoxville--and every time I ran past a certain room in my dorm I heard music...

Some of it I knew, some of it I didn't know...and some of it I knew I was supposed to know based on what I was listening to at the time...

"She's just trying to evolve."

I remember the girl who lived in that tiny dorm room. The blonde hair. The nose ring. She's one of my "oldest" friends now (hiya Sarah).

I remember my first album (Little Plastic Castle) and then my second (Up x6) and buying the next one when it was released at midnight at a little record shop (To The Teeth)...

You get the picture. I was obsessed. "I am trying to evolve."

There was the show in Knoxville, followed by the summer tour in Memphis. Add a couple more shows in Memphis followed by the "next day" trip to Nashville. She doesn't make the rounds here too frequently.

So I am beyond joyous to know we'll have the "lil' folksinger" (what she calls herself) downtown tonight.

"I'm just trying to evolve."

People ask me to describe her music, and I can't. Twenty albums in twenty years on your very own record label (RBR)...and you say what you feel and you sing your own words--while playing your own instruments as loud or as soft as you want.

"I got more and more to do, I got less and less to prove."

She is Ani DiFranco. She sounds like..."Ani DiFranco." She plays like..."Ani DiFranco." "You just have to see her live." That's how I answer the questions.

Or you can listen to one of her albums--with so many to chose from it's easy to find a song or two or 240 that move(s) you.

Her politics may scare you. Her openess may make you uncomfortable. The lyrical poetry may wrap around your heart and not let go. It is what it is. She is what she is.

Origami, multi-faceted and complex.

Expect pictures tomorrow.

~~J