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Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Photo: GMDThree

News
Exclusive: Ani DiFranco's Fierce Folk Activism ani-difranco-binary-folk-sing-alongs-activism-gardening

Ani DiFranco On 'Binary,' Folk Sing-Alongs, Activism & Gardening

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The inimitable singer/songwriter, activist and DIY pioneer talks connecting with her audience, cultivating her plants and enacting positive change in the world
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2018 - 1:45 pm

Ani DiFranco has spent nearly 30 years just under the shiny surface of pop music fame, with its pre-requisites of radio hits, a public persona and viral moments. But from her post deep beneath the skyscraper of mainstream, in the boiler room of folk rock, she's churned out 20 albums, remained fiercely independent, become an LGBTQ pioneer, and given a voice — both personal and political — to her droves of devoted fans, showing them how to handle a world out of order, enact a positive change, and be good to themselves and each other in the process. In many ways, DiFranco embodies the timeless power a folksinger can wield with simply her words and chords.

If anyone questioned the power of her perspective or her work, they would have been silenced immediately by the near-deafening screams of appreciation as DiFranco took the stage for a sold-out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 10 in Brooklyn, N.Y., as part of her Rise Up tour. Stepping to the mic, she reveals she'd thought of leaning some "old folk songs" for this tour so that she could lead a massive sing-along, but after hearing the crowd join in some of her early material, she realized she'd already done it. "Yeah, old folk songs, like 1993," she laughs, adding that they would make Pete Seeger proud.

Indeed, the lights above the stage were pulled forward to illuminate the packed house during early-set sing-alongs of, "They're gonna be mad at us," the verse refrain of the sexually unapologetic "Shameless," or "Everyone is a f***ing Napoleon," the scathing punchline chorus of "Napoleon," both songs from DiFranco's 1996 folk-in-your-face masterpiece, Dilate. Together, the hundreds of voices in the room rose to a roar, and meant it.

But this particular type of group singing wasn't always the norm at the folk hero's shows.

"When I was young, everything was pretty different," DiFranco says. "For me, [the audience singing along] was a pretty overwhelming and disruptive feeling, like, 'Oh my god, shut up so I can try to feel the music and follow it and not be overwhelmed by the caterwauling coming at me.' Now, flash forward 20 years, and I'm just like, 'Louder!' I just feel like whatever has changed, myself and my relationships, and my own damn life, I just feel like I embrace it so much more."

Anything but an exercise in nostalgia, the Williamsburg show saw the GRAMMY winner play several songs from her latest album, 2017's Binary. She even closed the night's main set with a moving version of the album's title track, a barrage of rhymes atop a soundbed of instruments bouncing off each other, bookended by a galvanizing mantra.

The resulting effect is an instrumental chaos reflective of the chaotic modern world the lyrics paint. One main difference on Binary is, for the first time in her career, DiFranco enlisted help in mixing the album. And who better to start with than GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Tchad Blake, who has worked with everyone from Paul McCartney to Bonnie Raitt and Tom Waits. She likens receiving mixes from Blake via email to opening a "box with a big red bow." But these were not gifts she would have been ready for earlier in her career.

"I think it was really good that I've made freaking 20 records already, because I think if this was my second record, I wouldn't have been able to just delegate and let go," says DiFranco. "When I'm making a record, I think I have that kind of DIY thing very deeply in me where it's just like, 'F*** it. I'll just do it. I don't have time to call in the professionals, I'll just f***ing do it.' This time, it was like, yeah s***. I don't know anything, except that I don't want to be alone in this moment, in this world, moving forward, so I just started calling all the brilliant people I know and getting them involved."

Ani DiFranco, 'Binary'

If DiFranco has mellowed in her creative process, she's only gotten more ardent in her activism efforts. For her Rise Up tour, she partnered with Emily's List, an organization focused on electing pro-choice Democratic women candidates, and will headline the LEAF and Clearwater festivals in support of arts in the community and environmental protection, respectively.

"It just seems like it's easy for all of us to get so weighed down and overwhelmed by the idea that we have to fix everything," says DiFranco. "I think what is helpful, for me at least, is to refocus as to not how can I fix or change the bad guy, but how can I help the good guys?"

"We so often fall in that trap of trying to convince somebody they're wrong, when really it's just go find the good people doing the good work and help them out."

As a mother, a songwriter, an artist, an activist, and the head of her long-time independent record label, Righteous Babe, DiFranco's life is full of cultivating ideas, causes and art into fruition. So when asked about what she enjoys outside of making music, her answer is appropriately symbolic: gardening.

"I really like having dirt under my fingernails. I really like interacting with plants and attending to my little slice of goddess' green acre. It's literally grounding for me," she says. "Like I said in a song once, I've planted a few trees. Just the idea of tending to something that lives beyond you … planting a tree and watching it grow and helping it thrive, it really does my soul good, bearing witness to that sort of life force."

DiFranco also mentioned in her recent "Talks At Google" appearance that she's tackling writing a memoir. Like gardening, it's a process involving a healthy amount of slow progress.

"I'm getting there. I have another couple of months, according to my publisher, to bring this thing home. And I'm going to use every second of it. … I've got a hundred thousand words," says DiFranco, calling the experience surprising, challenging and gratifying. "It's funny, after 30 years of writing songs and exposing myself in many ways through my writing, this is even a deeper level of exposure."

While the personal journey of self-exploration is a lifelong walk for DiFranco — and for her fans — her memoir stands to shed light on all paths, or as she puts it in her song "School Night," "I'm looking for my door key, but you are my porch light." Over the past three decades, few songwriters have illuminated our world, our hearts and our purpose as brightly as DiFranco.

Whether it's DiFranco's uncanny ability to articulate a personal feeling, political purpose or social urgency, her fans often find some form of transformation in her music. For many, the open dialog about sexuality in her songs since day one has provided the strength to stand by who they truly are. For others, her explorations of the grey areas in the mind and heart have shined rays of comfort into the complexity of being human. Either way, her music unites and empowers.

https://twitter.com/Righteous_Babes/status/996053653352890368

Thank you to our amazing crew, band, and special guest @gracieandrachel for a wonderful May #RiseUp tour run! pic.twitter.com/7868tauJ8k

— Righteous Babe (@Righteous_Babes) May 14, 2018

"I've received so many letters over the decades, just mind-blowing, heart-wrenching, tears-in-my-eyes letters," she says. "People who have said, 'Your music came into my life, healed or enabled me in some way and then I went and became myself, and this is what I'm doing, and this is who I am.' For me, that's my salary. That's my reward. It's feeling like I dropped somebody into their own skin."

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Jed Hilly of the Americana Music Association

Jed Hilly

Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images

News
Inside The New Americana Tour Blueprint americana-tour-blueprint-provides-musicians-valuable-booking-routing-resource

Americana Tour Blueprint Provides Musicians Valuable Booking & Routing Resource

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The new online tool from the Americana Music Association gives artist members info for roots music-friendly opportunities in over 100 markets
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Nov 1, 2018 - 2:10 pm

Touring is tough. For all the joy and rewards of playing your music in a new town each night, there are so many risks and challenges, starting with booking. Now, thanks to the Americana Music Association, a new tool called Americana Tour Blueprint makes routing a tour easier by connecting artists with venues in cities with a roots music-friendly support network of radio stations, retailers, and local press.

Watch: Jason Isbell Wins Best Americana Album

The brand new online tool, which was conceived two years ago, allows members of the organization not only to map out a tour route based on information about over 100 markets on the circuit, but to request a booking at the 20 or so venues that have agreed to receive pitches from Americana Music Association artists.

The locations covered by the blueprint stretches through the area roughly surrounding the Interstate 95 corridor, including northeaster cities like Boston and New York all the way down to Miami. There's also a path through Interstate 65 that leads through markets like Atlanta, Asheville, N.C. and more. The organization hopes this project will go a long way toward fostering the artists of today and tomorrow in the genre it champions.

"As an artist advocacy group, our mission is to support the authentic voice of American roots music," says Americana Music Association Executive Director Jed Hilly. "But as a trade association, we are mindful of working with the industry to not only support legends but also to work for the next generation of rising stars."

https://twitter.com/caitlincanty/status/1057338139495358465

I'm proud to share I'll be headlining the "Americana Tour Blueprint" presented by @AmericanaFest. I'll be touring down the eastern seaboard this January playing 13 shows and visiting radio stations along the way. https://t.co/wWucvtmuEo pic.twitter.com/s4OaUz8LnD

— Caitlin Canty (@caitlincanty) October 30, 2018

To commemorate the launch of the new tool, the organization is walking the walk, presenting the inaugural 2019 tour featuring Caitlin Canty and Oshima Brothers, the first artists to use the new resource to book their tour, which kicks off Jan. 4 at New York City's Rockwood Music Hall.

Americana is inherently a live performance-oriented music genre, known for the use of acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies and road-themed lyrical content. For a style so steeped in tradition, this innovative new tool promises to support roots musicians and free up more of their time to do what they should be doing, making music. See you on tour!

Willie Nelson To Be Honored With 2019 Producers & Engineers Wing Award

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images

News
Lucinda Williams' 'Car Wheels…' Anniversary Tour lucinda-williams-plots-car-wheels-gravel-road-20th-anniversary-tour

Lucinda Williams Plots 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road' 20th Anniversary Tour

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The celebrated singer/songwriter announces a 10-city celebration of her 1998 Americana modern classic
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Aug 20, 2018 - 11:41 am

By the time 1998's Car Wheels On A Gravel Road took home the honor of Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 41st GRAMMY Awards, Lucinda Williams had established herself as one of the most authentic and talented songwriters the genre had seen in a long time. Now, two decades later, Williams has announced a tour in celebration of the breakout album.

The special anniversary tour will kick off Nov. 2 in Collingswood, N.J. and hit 10 cities before wrapping in Berwyn, Ill. On Nov. 17. Williams will perform the album in full, including such classic songs as "Can't Let Go," "Drunken Angel," "2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten," "Metal Firecracker," and more followed by selections of songs spanning the rest of her illustrious career.  

Williams just wrapped a tour with American outlaw Steve Earle and country legend Dwight Yoakam aptly titled the LSD tour. Williams also recently made a memorable appearance at Newport Folk Festival with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd.

https://twitter.com/CharlesLloydSax/status/1022053435934470144

"Vanished Gardens is another milestone in a career that was already full of them when Lloyd turned 30 in 1968." @JazzTimes with @HappyWoman9 @BillFrisell @harland_eric #reubenrogers #gregleisz @bluenoterecords https://t.co/tJxnPDxc2p

— Charles Lloyd (@CharlesLloydSax) July 25, 2018

Earlier this year, the GRAMMY winner announced she's penning a memoir looking back at her Louisiana upbringing, her experiences in the music industry, and her remarkable career. The book is due out in 2020 from publisher Henry Holt.

Tickets for the Car Wheels On A Gravel Road 20th Anniversary tour go on sale Aug. 23. More information is available at Williams' website.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Passenger

Passenger

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

Interview
Exclusive: Passenger On Newport, 'Runaway' exclusive-passenger-performing-newport-folk-runaway

Exclusive: Passenger On Performing At Newport Folk & 'Runaway'

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The British singer/songwriter provides his unique perspective on the iconic festival and talks about his upcoming American-themed album
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 30, 2018 - 1:59 pm

Michael Rosenberg — aka Passenger — may have caught your attention back in 2012 with his hit single "Let Her Go," which showcased his clean vocals and folk aesthetic, which landed on the 2012 album, All The Little Lights. Passenger has released four albums since then, and he's getting ready with another.

Passenger On Newport Folk & 'Runaway'

With one parent from England and one from the U.S., he brings a unique perspective to performing at Newport Folk Festival. We sat down with the singer/songwriter to talk about his experience at the festival and his upcoming album, Runaway.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Valerie June

Valerie June

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

Interview
Exclusive: Valerie June On Newport, "Astral Plane" exclusive-valerie-june-newport-folk-astral-plane

Exclusive: Valerie June On Newport Folk & "Astral Plane"

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Backstage at Newport Folk Fest, the delightful singer/songwriter shared why Newport Folk feels like home and the out-of-this-world story behind one of her most cosmic songs
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 30, 2018 - 1:30 pm

A name at the top of many lists lately, critics and fans alike, is Valerie June. The Memphis, Tenn., native turned heads a couple times over the weekend at this year's Newport Folk Festival with her soulful Saturday set and again on Sunday night as part of Jon Batiste's Songs For Change spectacular.

Valerie June Talks Newport Folk, "Astral Plane"

June stopped by to see the Recording Academy backstage at the festival to talk about why the festival feels so much like home and tell the story of how she wrote "Astral Plane."

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates.