After having covered this lady for many years I’m often asked which studio album to buy first as a taster, and I’m always unable to give a definitive answer, until now. DiFranco has released some nineteen albums on her own label in career spanning fifteen years, and besides her classic live 2CD compilation (LIVING IN CLIP) this is the first time she has put together a ‘best of’ (for want of a better word). So, to anyone wanting to dip their toes in DiFranco waters, this is the place to start.

There are no less than thirty-six songs on this double CD and what’s so fascinating to me is to be able to hear the musical evolution of the finest USA singer/songwriter to emerge in the last twenty-years. It’s akin to a musical journey starting from around 1991/2 (when she used to gig ferociously and sell out of her car boot) and finishing in 2005/6. In resisting the temptation to sign up to a corporate label, DiFranco was a pioneer in doing it all herself; writing, playing, recording, producing and selling; and has become a lesson to others. She is also at least partially responsible for the expansion of independent labels over the years and the emphasis on providing great talent with artistic freedom and a bigger slice of the profits. DiFranco’s fierce independence shows through in her music which is highly distinctive, often polemical and hard to categorise. Her poetic song writing is supreme – as John Lennon proclaimed after the Beatles broke up, “Good lyrics don’t need music, they stand on their own.”

The first thing that you’ll notice with this record is the superb acoustic recording quality and a sound akin to a live performance in your living room. This has dominated DiFranco’s recordings and has led to her producing other artists. Then of course there is that intimate vocal style which is probably like nothing else you’ll hear; her messages are often deeply personal and delivered in the form of a heated conversation or an angry declaration or in whispered contemplation. Just recently I received Ed Harcourt’s ‘best of’ compilation and it reeked of some record company executive choosing the most mainstream songs in the artist’s catalogue. As a result it’s a major disappointment. No so here and for one simple reason: the artist chose which songs to include. Now this means that some may not be the audience’s favourites or the most easily digested, but as a (brief) historical musical journey it is unsurpassed in my listening experience. Other aspects to watch for are DiFranco’s superb and highly original finger-picking style, strong grasp of melody and rhythm, and on a couple of tracks, her ability to floor a live audience.

Last week I met a new, young and hotly-tipped female singer/songwriter in Liverpool and during a short conversation asked her if she had heard Ani DiFranco’s music. She looked at me blankly. I then went to the lady’s MySpace page and saw a list of her favourite artists, and cringed. There was just about every over-hyped, over-sold, radio-friendly pop ‘star’ you can imagine and not a sign of any real quality. I advised her to go to DiFranco’s concert at the Lowry Centre in Manchester in the hope that she would look and learn…

CANON should be on every serious music-lover’s and artist’s must-have list. Put simply, this song collection is both INSPIRING and ESSENTIAL.

5/5

Tracks

Fire Door

God’s Country

You Had Time

Buildings and Bridges

Coming Up

Cradle & All

Shy

32 Flavors

Dilate

Distracted

Gravel

Untouchable Face

Joyful Girl

Little Plastic Castle

Fuel

As Is

Napoleon (new studio recording)

Shameless (new studio recording)

Hello Birmingham

This Box Contains

Grey

Prison Prism

Marrow

Here For Now

Subdivision

Rain Check

Swim

Paradigm

Manhole

Studying Stones

Hypnotized

78% H2O

Millennium Theater

Your Next Bold Move (new studio recording)

Both Hands (new studio recording)

Overlap (new studio recording)

Ani DiFranco European Autumn 2007 Tour

See Shakenstir Front Cover for details - but be quick to book!