Ani DiFranco

Born on September 23, 1970, in Buffalo, NY, Ani DiFranco is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. DiFranco changed the image of folk music in the '90s. With her punkish personal style, outspoken lyrics and boundless energy, she provided a bridge between the activism of the Weavers and the brashness of indie rock. She started her Righteous Babe label as a teenager and (guest appearances aside) never recorded for any other label. DiFranco attended art school, left home at 15 and began playing clubs and coffeehouses around that time. She started Righteous Babe at age 18 and released her self-titled debut a year later. Her performances immediately drew attention with her appearance - shaved head, tattoos and facial piercings - but held it with her energetic delivery, aggressive acoustic playing and rapid-fire streams of lyrics. She also made albums at a manic pace and by 1995 she was up to her sixth, "Not a Pretty Girl." This included a signature song, "32 Flavors," whose rejection of social and sexual pigeonholes (DiFranco identified as bisexual) struck a chord with her growing audience. DiFranco's political stance became more upfront in the next stage of her career, as she worked with older folk icons (Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary) and younger activist artists (Billy Bragg, the Indigo Girls). In 1995, she appeared (with Bragg, Arlo Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen) at the opening of the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York; an album of the event came out on Righteous Babe. At the same time her music began incorporating pop and R&B, she added a full band and occasionally played Prince's "When You Were Mine" in concert. She edged toward mainstream success and her best-selling album, 1998's "Little Plastic Castle," hit #22 on Billboard's album chart. This contained one of her most ambitious pieces, the 14-minute "Pulse," informed by jazz and Beat poetry. The new millennium found her as productive as ever, collaborating with a diverse round of artists (Prince, Maceo Parker, Dar Williams and comedian Margaret Cho) and working for a number of causes, including Ralph Nader's Presidential campaign. A live album recorded at Carnegie Hall in 2002 caught one of her most intense performances, the 9/11-inspired "Self Evident." Newly married, she moved to New Orleans shortly before Hurricane Katrina and became involved in raising money to buy instruments for musicians who'd lost theirs in the flood. Local musicians began appearing on her albums, including Ivan Neville and the Rebirth Brass Brand. Her 2012 album "Which Side Are You On?," features an update of the 1930s union anthem, with one of Pete Seeger's last recorded appearances. In 2017, DiFranco recorded her 20th studio album, "Binary," in New Orleans which included a duet with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Ani DiFranco is also a member of the Toronto-based charity Artists Against Racism for which she participated in a radio PSA.