I just saw this video of Ani DiFranco talking with Mindful Mama Magazine. They have a great contest going on for moms to win a trip to see Ani in NYC, with a spa package and babysitting included.

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What astounds me about this video is Ani’s honesty and presence. And the fact that someone who seems so confident and bold and has been running her own show/label/life for so long could still be experiencing moments of self-hatred, but is self aware enough to both recognize and work on it. Kind of blows the whole “But I have to be perfect before I can do it and be a success” tape that I bet a bunch of us still play in our heads out of the water. (Somebody please remind me I said that next week when I am in Song School freaking out and self-doubting myself into a pit of despair and “I’m not worthy”-ness from all the talented people surrounding me. I hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s kind of happening to me right now before the fact…)

Anyhoo, in other Ani related news, she has a new album called Red Letter Year coming out September 30th. Her first new one in a couple of years. (Sounds similar to Dar’s story!) You can hear a new song from it on her MySpace, and there should be more new stuff posted there in the weeks leading up to the release. Can’t wait to get my hands on Present/Infant.

PS Dar Williams has a great pre-order deal going on now – order the CD and get one free, plus a “making of” DVD.

I’ve been hearing about Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera Hadestown in bits and pieces for quite a while now – starting from the last time she came to Cafe Paradiso and then in subsequent email and website updates. Folk music, theatre AND a reworked myth (Orpheus) all in one? Sounds like my kind of heaven, and I’ve been wanting SO BADLY to see it. Since I live in the Midwest and she’s been performing it in the New England area, well, chances are slim. So I was super excited when I noticed she updated her MySpace profile to include this little 10 minute highlight reel from the show:

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Banjos? Steampunk costuming and sets? Ok, I think that only made me want to see it even more! I’m hoping this video means that the whole thing was taped and therefore viewable sometime in the future. I’d SO buy the DVD.

Here’s a clip of “The Wall”. She did this solo when she came through, and it has a very different feeling to it when the questions and answers are split:

Yeah, ok, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to see this. I realize I may be completely geeking out here and have lost all of you, but please don’t let that stop you from listening to Anaïs’ amazing music, because it truly is amazing.

Here’s a link to a great article about Anais and her signing to Ani DiFranco’s label Righteous Babe Records.

And here is a gorgeous little four and a half minute interview she did before a show in Ann Arbor, Michigan:

Anaïs is the kind of people we want more of in the world.

Personal, political and passionate, her album The Brightness was one of my favorite albums of 2007. I highly recommend it. Of course the best place to buy The Brightness is direct from the source, but here are the links to it on iTunes and Amazon if you are so inclined.

(Special thanks to Professor K for providing a link to the Steampunk resource last month so I had a name for it when I saw it in the videos.)

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When I went to the Ani DiFranco concert on her Handful of Dates Tour in Iowa City last month, I was completely BLOWN AWAY! I know, I know – as a female folkie I’m supposed to have Ani’s entire collection already or something, but I think I just wasn’t ready till now to really dig in. And it actually seems like a good time to get to know Ani – she just released Canon, which is a career retrospective, so it’s got a little something from every album she’s done, and it was all handpicked by her, so in a way it’s an interesting, layered self-portrait.

I had a pretty good seat, about 10 rows back on the left side, and close to the center aisle. Similar to to the phenomenon I noticed at my first Dar Williams concert, the thing that struck me as soon as Ani stepped on stage was how she is physically tiny but energetically POWERFUL. I think maybe that power is why I shied away from her music for so long. I knew she was powerful, I’d heard mostly about her angry reputation and anger has historically scared me half to death, even when it’s not directed at me. I’ve heard from friends who have been long-time Ani fans that having a baby has really softened her.

Seeing her on-stage I quickly found that Ani is not scary angry – the angry stuff was more of a righteous anger that sees what is wrong and gets things done about it. (Yeah, I get the whole Righteous Babe thing now!) And a lot of the songs were incredibly vulnerable, or just plain beautiful. I was really impressed with her high energy, her stage presence, the confidence and joy she exuded while performing. While her lyrics show that she definitely experiences moments or areas of insecurity, she’s brave enough to throw it all out there, which I think is often the fastest (though not necessarily the most pleasant) way to process through something.

For example, one of my favorite songs of the night was a new one called Present/Infant, aka “that one about mirrors”. In it, Ani talks about a moment of self criticism, and how the innocence of her baby jolted her into remembering her true beauty. She just performed it for AOL, and it’s so new I think this and the podcast might be the only way to hear it outside of a concert at the moment:

Email and RSS readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

During the concert, I was so inspired that I started ticking off as many parallels or similarities between me and Ani as possible, hoping that it might mean something. I was excited that we were both wearing cargo pants (although I’ve since noticed they seem to be a staple for her), and one particular line that stuck out for me was: “you’ve gotta crawl through the desert between when you hear it and when you can play it with your hands” from the song Lag Time because that’s something that totally applies to me – I’m always getting frustrated by the things I can conceptualize but not yet express/do – in music and all of life really.

The creative energy in the theater was so electric, at one point some new song lyrics of my own started coming to me! I had to grab my journal out of my purse and scribble some notes by the spill-off of the stage lights. So far it’s definitely more driving and intense than stuff I’ve written before, we’ll see how it turns out. It’s also one that so far I can hear a lot better than I can play with my hands. It’s kind of exciting though, like maybe I’ve just opened up a whole new area of song themes for the future.

In the Spinner interview podcast (where she performed the Present/Infant song) Ani talked about learning to play the guitar out of a book of Beatles songs and I grinned myself silly because that’s totally how I taught myself to play. (I don’t know which book she used, but this is the one that helped me .) She said something else about “that great thing music does so well” in connecting people and making them feel like they are not alone. It resonated big time for me, because that is what draws me to music so strongly – the way that some person I don’t know can say the unformed words in my heart, and make me breathe easier for it. That’s powerful. That’s amazing. That’s what I would love to give back to the world, to even one person. Because I know how sometimes one song can get you through a day at work, or get you out of bed every morning for a month, or bring a smile to your face each and every time you hear it.

I’m not quite sure what it is about certain artists that radiates from them so strongly, but Ani has been inspiring me hardcore for over a month now and I think it’s just the beginning. It’s kind of like discovering an awesome TV serious on DVD after it’s been going for a couple seasons. You get to gobble down hours and hours of a great story without having to wait a week for the next episode, at least until you catch up.

Obviously the best place to get Canon is on Ani’s website. Her website and live shows are the only place to get her official bootlegs. But here’s a quick link to it on iTunes if that’s your preferred method.

You can also preview some songs on her MySpace page. The page is not run by Ani herself, but by her trusty intern Amanda, who does a great job with info and contests, etc.

Ok, one last thing. Because it’s so good, and because it’s something I really need to remember, here are the lyrics to Present/Infant (at least how they sound to me based on the podcast):

Present/Infant ~ Ani DiFranco

lately I’ve been glaring into mirrors, picking myself apart
you’d think at my age I’d have thought of something better to do
than make insecurity into a full time job
make insecurity into an art
yes and I fear my life will be over
and I will have never lived it unfettered
always glaring into mirrors, mad I don’t look better

but now here is this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present infant glee
and I would defend to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be

so I’m beginning to see some problems
with the ongoing work of my mind
and I’ve got myself a new mantra
it says “don’t forget to have a good time”
don’t let the sellers of stuff
power enough to rob you of your grace

love is all over the place
there’s nothing wrong with your face

love is all over the place
there’s nothing wrong with your face

lately I’ve been glaring into mirrors, picking myself apart

Amazing right? There’s something really healing about hearing someone tell you there’s nothing wrong with your face over and over…

I think I’m going to listen to it again. As Ani says – Don’t forget to have a good time!

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Quick post to give you some happy news for today – despite the crazy stuff that can happen in this world, musicians out there are creating new and beautiful songs all the time. There are plenty of great new albums that were released today, but here’s three that I’m interested in particular:

1) Ingrid Michaelson’s song Keep Breathing. Those of you wanting to download or purchase a CD of Keep Breathing can finally do so today because the Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 Soundtrack is out! Lucky for iTunes users, Ingrid’s song is one of the few available to download as an individual track, most of them are only available if you buy the whole album. Grey’s has awesome music in general, so you probably couldn’t go wrong with the whole thing, but if you’re like me and trying to conserve on the spending, it’s nice to be able to just get the track you want.

2) Marié Digby’s (the girl who covered Umbrella) first EP Start Here, with some of her original songs. It’s only available on iTunes at the moment. Four songs, and they are all sweet, simple acoustic versions.

3) Ani DiFranco’s career retrospective Canon. This should be a really awesome one for the fans. Rather than slapping a bunch of number one hits together, every track was picked by Ani, and she even updated five of her classics to give them a fresh take: Napoleon, Shameless, Your Next Bold Move, Overlap, Both Hands. I have to confess to only knowing the last two of those, but I have a feeling that will be remedied next week when I go to my first Ani concert. Wheee!

3.5) Also out today is Ani’s first book of poetry published in the United States: Verses. There’s a 15% discount when you buy Verses and Canon together on the Righteous Babe website.

(You can get Ani’s stuff on Amazon or iTunes but really, buying from her website is the best way to support her.)

Enjoy! (I’ve got Keep Breathing on repeat at the moment, it’s just what I need right now.)

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Just a quick heads up – Ani’s team on MySpace is giving away an autographed poster. All you have to do to enter the drawing is send a MySpace message on August 4th.

Details from the MySpace bulletin:

“This is just a reminder to everyone that this Saturday, August 4, (TOMORROW) you have from 11AM to 4PM (EST) to enter to win an AUTOGRAPHED ANI POSTER.

It appears that some of you got confused and have been sending me entries before the contest has started. Entries received before 11AM EST August 4 will not be considered in the drawing. So if you entered before, enter again between 11AM and 4PM tomorrow to make sure your name is in the drawing.

All you have to do is send me a MySpace Message with REPEAT OFFENDER in the subject line sometime between 11 and 4. Include your name and address and I’ll do a random drawing from all of the entries. The winner will be announced, Monday, August 6 on the MySpace blog at 12PM EST.

The drawing will be completely random and this time, it’s not based on how fast you are, it’s based on how lucky you are.

-Amanda”

So if you aren’t friends with Ani yet, go add her now and send in your MySpace Messages tomorrow!

So I’m reading about Melissa Ferrick and how she is playing with Ani DiFranco for the “Handful of Dates Tour” this September and I’m thinking, “Oh bummer, with just a few dates it’s probably just big cities.” I click through to the info page and what do I see but

“Iowa City, IA - Hancher Auditorium“

staring back at me from the right hand column. WHOO-HOO!!

They are having a special pre-sale for fans – tickets go on sale 10 days before regular tickets for the rest of the public if you have the secret password.

Other cities included in September:
Buffalo, NY
Lorain, OH
Louisville, KY
Indianapolis, IN
Milwaukee, WN
Chicago, IL

If you’re a lucky one who lives nearby – Congrats!

I love this sweet little video of Ani DiFranco performing Overlap with Erin McKeown and Julie Wolf. It starts out with the girls practicing unplugged, probably in a hotel room, and then melts into them performing the song on-stage. The camera work is obviously by someone close to them because that person got to be at the rehearsal and had a really good balcony seat at the concert.

I have to admit I never got into Ani the way people seem to expect me to. I have a few of her songs from iTunes but not one whole album! Most of my early exposure to her was more through friends doing covers in dorms and such. I’m feeling like I should explore her stuff a little bit more though, because I certainly like what I have, and what I’ve heard from my friends. T gave me a little overview of “the history” of Ani in college once. She had almost every album and highlighted the changes and growth from the first one to the most recent. It was pretty encouraging actually to realize that even someone as famous as Ani DiFranco started with what she knew and could do and then evolved from there. That’s the process for pretty much everyone I guess, but it’s easy to see someone really talented and say “I’m not as good as that, and I don’t know if I ever will be, so I should just give up now.” Some of her simple first songs (like Both Hands) are still my favorites!

Back to the video though, what is really neat to me about it is the collaboration of the three artists, especially because I’ve seen both Erin and Julie live. T actually introduced me to Erin McKeown a few years ago, I think she had seen Erin open for an Ani concert. (now I’m wondering if it was for this same tour featured on the video?) I really fell in love with Born to Hum off Erin’s 2003 album Grand. Got on her mailing list and then got to see her live when she came through Iowa City about a year ago with Melissa Ferrick. Very awesome, fairly small but packed concert at The Mill, but that’s probably a story for another post. I’ve seen Julie Wolf a couple times playing with Dar Williams. It must be so neat to get to play with so many different artists the way Julie does. Getting this little sneak peak at the rehearsal process and then seeing how it translates to full-on, fun and funky performance is a real treat! Enjoy!