Over the course of 21 studio albums in a 21-year career, Ani DiFranco's signature spoken folk-rock has broached topics from politics to love songs, but has never strayed from being, as she would say, "righteous."  In every sense of the word, Ani DiFranco is the righteous rocker behind Righteous Babe records, her independent label that she has been releasing albums on since 1990.  She has expressed her unwavering commitment to righteousness by using her songs to explore moral issues, respond to social injustices and, of course, rock out in a truly "totally righteous" kind of way. 

DiFranco's new album, "¿Which Side Are You On?", is comes out today and is highly politically charged.  Her track record suggests that releasing this album on an election year is no coincidence, and especially the title track, a reworking of Florence Reece's union song from the 30's that was popularized by Pete Seeger in the 1960's, could very well become a theme song for the political debates to take place this year.  Ani explains her motivations for writing this album as "testing deeper waters with the political songs...I guess I've been pushing my own boundaries of politics and art."  She is certainly pushing boundaries, much in the style of other great political folk poets such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.  There's something undeniably righteous about following in that path. 

Listen to Ani DiFranco play live, including the title song to her new CD and talk to David Dye about the four year gap in between her last album, Red Letter Year, and today's release, "Which Side Are You On?"


Website: http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anidifranco
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/anidifranco



Set List:
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?          
J                                                             
PROMISCUITY                                  

               

Recent Release: ¿Which Side Are You On?   
Release Date: january 17, 2012
Label: Righteous Babe Records
Band Origin: Buffalo, New York