Ani's Back
After taking a break from performing for almost a year because of tendonitis in her wrists, Ani DiFranco makes her comeback tomorrow at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Ani had just moved to New Orleans to start recording iRepreivei, her new album, when Hurricane Katrina hit. And after coming back to Buffalo to finish the record, she went right back to New Orleans to help.
I kind of thought, post-storm, that the most enlightened thing would be to just support the musicians from this part of the country and the audience themselves would be totally into that. That this would be the year that you wouldnet need big names.
Her new album is very much a reflection of Katrina, both musically and lyrically. She told Rolling Stone:
I brought all my cool stuff down, and then I couldn't get back to it. So I fleshed out the record, overdubbing almost entirely on this cheesy synthesizer. It was a challenge, like, 'Two sticks, rub them together and see if you can make a fire.' It was like trying to make cool sounds out of something that's inherently not...
This record, it really speaks of this time and place: New Orleans, 2006. Like 'Millennium Theater' ends with the line 'New Orleans bides her time.' That song is a rant about the insanity of the spectacle, as opposed to what's really happening underneath. It was written and recorded months before the storm hit. So I would say it's, like, 'divinely prophetic' -- if we all didn't know that s--t was coming. Including the Levee Board. Including FEMA. Including the government.
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Thomas Heneghan
About to head to the airport as we speak; Hopefully, The Righteous Babe can convince Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band to play the Church. Springsteen and DiFranco have a shared history of Seger worship and this tour would be ideal for the Church's coming out.
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Thomas Heneghan
Great energy for Ani's set closing Friday's festivities at the Jazz Fest, it appears she truly does have 2 homes.
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