December 20, 2011

Link

Abridged Press release

¿Which Side Are You On? marks DiFranco's first studio album in more than three years.

The collection features 11 new songs alongside a radically reworked rendition of the classic title song, famously popularized by the one and only Pete Seeger nearly five decades ago, but no less relevant today.

Backing DiFranco is a remarkably diverse line-up of stellar musicians, including members of her own crack touring band as well as such guest players as Ivan and Cyril Neville (of New Orleans' first family of funk and R&B, The Neville Brothers), avant-saxophonist Skerik (Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Meters), acclaimed singer/songwriter and Righteous Babe Anaïs Mitchell, guitarist Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Amos Lee), and a host of New Orleans-based horn players known for their work in such outfits as Galactic, Bonerama, and The Rebirth Brass Band.

¿Which Side Are You On? was co-produced by DiFranco and her longtime collaborator Mike Napolitano over a series of sessions in 2010 and 2011.

The basic tracks feature two slightly different versions of Ani's touring band, recorded at Bogalusa, Louisiana's renowned Studio In The Country, Brooklyn, New York's Brooklyn Bridge Studio, and her own New Orleans home studio, The Dugout.

¿Which Side Are You On? will be released on January 17, 2012.

The album's track list is as follows:

"Unworry"
"¿Which Side Are You On?"
"Splinter"
"Promiscuity"
"Albacore"
"J"
"If Yr Not"
"Hearse"
"Mariachi"
"Amendment"

"Zoo"

This is the longest she's gone without a release. It's usually an album a year. I pre-ordered my vinyl copy and I should get it before Christmas.

Tis about time!!!

Performing the title track @ the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences.

[Edited 12/20/11 17:46pm]

Ani was one of the artist that i use to not "get". I had heard her stuff before but i didn't really think much of her guitar playing. After i heard the revelling-reckoning album, i went back and re listened to her early stuff and finally got it. Shes a pioneer and a great artist.

Now if i could just get Bob Dylan !

Oh my crap it's about time! I'd actually gone so far as to exchange correspondence with the Righteous Babe office (tight-lipped so-and-sos'). As somone who has been buying her albums the day off release since Out Of Range I gotta say, three years was TOO LONG. Haven't slept in nearly two days and now I'm all wide awake n' stuff.

Unworry is one of my favorite Ani songs EVER. Its been around in the live sets since at least early 2009 (she's got at least another albums worth of songs played live that aren't on this album). Glad to see it made the cut.

4-17-09 .... I wonder how much it changed in the recording process...

10-23-11 I prefer the slower groove on the older version, but she tends to play some songs a bit faster at the solo shows.

I'm bumping this thread, just because.

Abridged Interview With Premier Guitar Mag

January 5, 2012

Link

What excited you most about recording your new album, ¿Which Side Are You On?

I guess taking my time, which is a new thing for me. I mean, I’ve made 20-some records—and most of them very quickly. I’ve been in a big hurry my whole life—it was always, “Get it out there, and keep going, and make a new record, and change, and reinvent yourself ….” That’s just sort of my personality—to plow forth. About five years ago, I had a baby, and that—and, I guess, just getting older in general—changed the whole pace of my life. I don’t move at quite the clip that I used to. So this new record I spent over two years working on, and I think it shows. In the past, I’ve been too willing to just hit record and move on. Now I make a recording and then, six months or a year later, I might say, “That’s too slow” or too this or too that.

My husband is very helpful for me in that area, because he doesn’t settle. A lot of what I do these days is, I’ll take my usual guitar and plug it into my usual amps and stand there and go, “Okay, I’m ready.” But he’ll say, “Mmm, yeah, that’s not the best sound.” He slows me down and helps me pursue better sounds, better performances, and better production.

So it’s been really cool at this point in my life to have hit a whole new stride in the studio, where I’m making better representations of my songs for posterity. Which makes me feel good, because I’ve always loved my songs along the way—they’ve always been this incredibly powerful presence in my life that has connected me to so many people—but I’ve always hated my recordings, because they were always haphazard and not enough of them were successful representations. So I feel like I’m upping my average of successful recordings, and that feels good.

It sounds like you used standard tuning quite a bit more this time around?

Yeah, that’s been happening. The economic recession is affecting all of us in our own way, so I’ve been doing a lot of downscaling with my touring operation. I’ve been travelling solo for the last year, actually, with a crew of four people—whereas at one point I might’ve had 12 people. So that makes me instinctually want to be self-sufficient, in case I have to be. Maybe someday I’m going to be touring alone again, or with one person, or no guitar tech. So the tactical side of my nature that has guided me through my whole career has been steering me back toward standard tuning, just in case I’m also my own guitar tech again someday.

I had a little exercise last year. I got a local gig at this bar in New Orleans, where I live, every couple of weeks for a few months. It was something I hadn’t done in a long time, and it got me back to basics. It was just me and my husband showing up for the gig. I was huffing my stuff in, doing shows with three guitars. I was tuning my guitars and setting my stuff up—just to prove to myself that I can still do it. So my drifting back toward standard tuning is all about self-sufficiency—or making sure that’s possible again, at least.

:swoon:

Identity said:

Abridged Interview With Premier Guitar Mag

January 5, 2012

Link

What excited you most about recording your new album, ¿Which Side Are You On?

I guess taking my time, which is a new thing for me. I mean, I’ve made 20-some records—and most of them very quickly. I’ve been in a big hurry my whole life—it was always, “Get it out there, and keep going, and make a new record, and change, and reinvent yourself ….” That’s just sort of my personality—to plow forth. About five years ago, I had a baby, and that—and, I guess, just getting older in general—changed the whole pace of my life. I don’t move at quite the clip that I used to. So this new record I spent over two years working on, and I think it shows. In the past, I’ve been too willing to just hit record and move on. Now I make a recording and then, six months or a year later, I might say, “That’s too slow” or too this or too that.

My husband is very helpful for me in that area, because he doesn’t settle. A lot of what I do these days is, I’ll take my usual guitar and plug it into my usual amps and stand there and go, “Okay, I’m ready.” But he’ll say, “Mmm, yeah, that’s not the best sound.” He slows me down and helps me pursue better sounds, better performances, and better production.

So it’s been really cool at this point in my life to have hit a whole new stride in the studio, where I’m making better representations of my songs for posterity. Which makes me feel good, because I’ve always loved my songs along the way—they’ve always been this incredibly powerful presence in my life that has connected me to so many people—but I’ve always hated my recordings, because they were always haphazard and not enough of them were successful representations. So I feel like I’m upping my average of successful recordings, and that feels good.

It sounds like you used standard tuning quite a bit more this time around?

Yeah, that’s been happening. The economic recession is affecting all of us in our own way, so I’ve been doing a lot of downscaling with my touring operation. I’ve been travelling solo for the last year, actually, with a crew of four people—whereas at one point I might’ve had 12 people. So that makes me instinctually want to be self-sufficient, in case I have to be. Maybe someday I’m going to be touring alone again, or with one person, or no guitar tech. So the tactical side of my nature that has guided me through my whole career has been steering me back toward standard tuning, just in case I’m also my own guitar tech again someday.

I had a little exercise last year. I got a local gig at this bar in New Orleans, where I live, every couple of weeks for a few months. It was something I hadn’t done in a long time, and it got me back to basics. It was just me and my husband showing up for the gig. I was huffing my stuff in, doing shows with three guitars. I was tuning my guitars and setting my stuff up—just to prove to myself that I can still do it. So my drifting back toward standard tuning is all about self-sufficiency—or making sure that’s possible again, at least.

Tell me about having Pete Seeger in the studio for ¿Which Side Are You On?

That was a song I learned to play for his 90th birthday celebration, which was this big party/benefit at Madison Square Garden a few years back. So I got the job of playing “¿Which Side Are You On?” with Bruce Cockburn, and “There’s a Hole in the Bucket” with Kris Kristofferson. On [the new version of] “¿Which Side,” I couldn’t help but update the verses a little—or a lot, as it were, because that’s the folk process, and I’m a folk singer. Ever since that event, I’ve been including that song in my shows.

Since I essentially rewrote the song, it’s become sort of my standard rabble-rousing show closer of late. Over the years of making this record, it just kind of sifted its way to the top and became the title because it evolved into a very political record. It’s a very poignant political time that we’re living in, and that’s just the direction this record went in. Having Pete join me on the recording was kind of a full-circle experience for my relationship with this song.

How did you approach him about it?

I called him up and said, “Pete, I’m recording this song that you recorded, y’know, back in 1953. Would you please join me on it?” He immediately says, “Hang on,” and he puts the phone down and jumps up and goes and grabs his banjo. He comes back to the phone and he’s so full of energy and passion, and he’s like, “So are you doing the this version or that version … ” and he’s sending me various versions of the lyrics and this and that, and really getting involved as only Pete will do.

Anyway, we ended up rendezvousing in Hudson, New York, at the Beacon Sloop Club there on the Hudson River, which is sort of the gathering place of the Clearwater [environmental advocacy] organization.

We rode up one afternoon with some remote recording gear, and he rode up alone in his car—he’s 91 or 92 at this point. He drives up, pulls his banjo out of the back—“No, thank you, don’t need help carrying it—no one touches my banjo!”—strolls on in, and, basically, in about two takes, recorded the intro to the song. It’s pretty similar to his 1953 recording.

We got him playing and singing all the way through, and we had about five or 10 minutes to do this session before an unannounced children’s singing group that does progressive folk songs comes in to do their rehearsals. So, next thing you know, that’s happening and Pete is joining in with them and leading them. We ended up recording all the kids on the chorus, as well, and then we were out of there.

You recruited Adam Levy [Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman] for session work, too. What did you hope he’d bring to the table?

Adam is such a great player, and he’s a friend of many friends of mine in New York, so I’ve known him for years. I think it was about two years ago that I was playing at Town Hall in New York, and he was in town so I invited him down to sit in for a few songs. He sat in on “¿Which Side Are You On?” and another song, and he just slayed it, so I just had the idea that it’d be nice to have an electric guitar and a different approach to play off of my type of guitar playing. So I invited him down to my home studio in New Orleans for two days, and we just pulled up basically everything on the record and had him have a go at the whole record to see what stuck.

Did you give him artistic free rein or did you give him some direction?

If I’d had my druthers, I would’ve just hit record and he would’ve just played from his spleen like we did onstage. But in the studio, he was looking to me for more direction.

My instinct, especially as I get older, is that I prefer to work with talented, mature musicians, and tell them next to nothing. Tell them as little as I can, and just try to have everybody bring their full selves to the table. Because, often, if I’m trying to make somebody play what I hear, there’s a compromise that happens, rather than somebody’s full vision be at evidence. I try to tell Adam and everyone on the record as little as possible.

You’re a hero to a lot of musicians and everyday people because of your courage to stand up not only for yourself but also for big causes—you’re kind of a thorn in the side of The Man, really. But we thought it’d be fun to mostly set aside that stuff and talk to Ani DiFranco the guitar nerd. Howis your inner guitar nerd these days?

[Laughs.] Pretty good, pretty good. I have some new guitars in my stable these days. I have a new baritone that I’m playing onstage. I’m not touring with the other new instruments I’ve got—but I’ve been recording with them. I’ve been playing Alvarez guitars pretty much my whole career, and they’ve served me really well.

The company has been a great friend to me and has designed guitars for me along the way, including this new baritone that I’ve been playing and really loving—and I think a lot of my stage sound is very related to those instruments and their strengths.

I evolved my stage sound very much in relation to the Alvarez guitars that I’ve been playing. But more recently it’s been very exciting, because I’ve gotten into other instruments, too. I got an old Martin D-28 and an old Gibson.

Ani DiFranco’s Gear

Guitars

Two Alvarez-Yairi WY1 Bob Weir signature acoustics with Alvarez System 500 preamps, Alvarez-Yairi DY62C with Alvarez System 600 preamp, Alvarez MSD1 short-scale dreadnought, custom Alvarez baritone, vintage Martin D-28, 1930s Gibson-made Cromwell tenor guitar with Fishman archtop pickup, vintage Epiphone Zenith tenor guitar, “Ted” parlor guitar of unknown make.

Outboard Gear

Klark Teknik DN360 rackmount analog graphic EQs for each guitar (live)

Amps
1960s Magnatone Twilighter 260 2x12 combo, Rivera Sedona 15 combo

Strings
D’Addario EJ16 and EJ17 sets, D’Addario phosphor-bronze sets (.070, .056, .042, .032, .024, .016) for C-to-C-tuned baritone

Wow. This was a great interview. I've already received my copy of "Which Side Are You On?" and I'm digging it. Ani records take about 2 months for me to fully fall in love with. Her last three albums "Knuckle Down," "Reprieve," and "Red Letter Year," have definitely grown on me and they are currently my favorite. I think her work with Joe Henry on "Knuckle Down," was the beginning of a happier more mature Ani. Fans are hating her "positive," vibe but I'm loving it. I became an Ani fan because of her angry lyrics at a time when I was young, angry and had all the anwers.

The tracks that I'm grooving to from "Which Side Are You On?" are:

The beautiful "Albacore," which I heard on KCRW yesterday and nearly had a heart attack. I've never heard Ani on the radio, not even on public radio. The other track is "If Yr Not," which has the fantastic line: "If you're not getting happier, as you get older, than you're fucking up."

I can't wait for her show at the Orpheum in March.

Consequence of Sound

Album Review

To understand Ani DiFranco’s work as it stands now, it helps to know where she lives. The wandering feminist folkie veteran (we can call her that now, right?) has made her home in New Orleans over the last decade or so and it’s fueled both her well-known and well-worn political agita. With all that’s happened to that city of musical treasures, how could it not, right? It contributes to her ability to find the touching human vulnerability behind glib political sloganeering. Slogans like, say, “We are the 99 percent.”

Continue

Album Review

Link

Ani DiFranco's first album in three years finds the self-proclaimed Righteous Babe in feisty, thoughtful form, her political ardour undimmed despite a discernibly increased interest in the effects of ageing, particularly the way it deepens and matures the once callow emotions of love and devotion.

Cool news - she is one talented lady. Thanks for sharing...

I'd sure like to see her work with P again....

[Edited 1/14/12 12:46pm]