Righteous Babe
2007
Canon
About This Album
The easy part is the facts: that there are 36 cuts on these two CDs, taken from Ani DiFranco's catalog over a 14-year time span. There are many familiar songs here: "Firedoor" (the Like I Said version), "Coming Up," "Hello Birmingham," "Buildings and Bridges," "Joyful Girl," "Marrow," and "Manhole," to name just a few. It's even easy to write that, in addition to the original songs, there are five new versions of old favorites in "Napoleon," "Shameless," "Your Next Bold Move," "Both Hands," and "Overlap." That's all simple. What's difficult is tracking it all from 1993 through to 2007 through a staggering 16 studio albums, three live offerings, and a few EPs and singles tossed in. It seems that the same person who writes and plays these songs has only gotten sharper, cleverer, wrier, and less wordy, perhaps, but that's just language and the practice of craft seasoning. But in listening to this set it's nearly impossible to chart her development as a very original guitarist who plays in no style but her own, the way she can convey more by using her voice less, and her depth as a musical collaborator with some of the best in the biz from Sara Lee and Jay Bellerose to Jon Hassel, Andrew Bird, Todd Sickafoose, Patrick Warren, and many others.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 17 and 18)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 16,17 and 18)

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