There's no way I could do this week without any Ani. This is the first song off her first album and also the first album of hers I ever heard. A girl at my high school loaned it to me, and it just about blew my mind. This also marks the moment I when I began moving away from top-40 radio.
httpv://youtu.be/Omt49CUJ4p8
2011
I know Bootsy said a while back he never really got into Ani Difranco. Fair enough. As a mainstream-radio-listening wannabe feminist at a suburban high school full of jocks, this was just the right music for me at the right time.
As a mainstream-radio-listening wannabe feminist at a suburban high school full of jocks, this was just the right music for me at the right time.
This sentence kind of reads as both cause and effect of Difranco, doesn't it?
My cousin and her older sister were raised by a single mother in S. Mpls and from '91 through at least '99 (maybe longer ... I don't know), was a fan of Ani, Dar, The Indigo Girls, 10,000 Maniacs, Fiona, Tori, etc.. Whenever we visited from outstate small-town, she'd try to share her musical tastes and though I connected with a few of these artists, musically, Ani never quite did it for me. However, the content and thrust of her songs definitely had a positive influence on my worldview.
I met Ms. Difranco a handful of times when we were living in buffalo. She's a genuinely nice person, and helped hallwalls art center (link missing due to phone) get a permanent home.
Very cool.
This song is on the "More Joy, Less Shame" EP so I know it pretty well.
Good friend in H.S. with an older sister who was in college got Dilate. It was pretty cool on some passing listens, but he never lent it, so I never got into it.
The E.P. was something cheap at Cheapo.