CONCERT REVIEW: ‘Righteous babe’ records, writes, sings
Ani Difranco is in a musical universe all her own. She created her universe.
Difranco started playing Beatles’ songs in local bars in Buffalo, N.Y. at the age of 9. At 15, she was living on her own and played every Saturday night at the Essex Street Pub. At 16 she graduated from a visual and performing arts high school. By the time she was 18 she had over-played every bar in Buffalo and moved to New York City for a change of scenery. In 1991, she gave up her normal folk route to tour out of her Volkswagen Bug for a year.
“It is the purest way to get heard,” Difranco said in a May/June 1994 interview with Option magazine. She lived the life of a true folk singer as an artist bound to the road, and still holds to that tradition of touring.
To finance her first album, Difranco emptied her bank account and borrowed the rest from friends. She rejected offers from Indie and major record labels, and instead started her own record label, Righteous Babe Records – now home to nine additional artists.
Difranco writes and publishes her own songs, produces her own recordings, creates the artwork and releases her music. She employs like-minded people in management and staff positions, supports local printers and manufacturers in her hometown, and utilizes a network of independent distributors in the United States, Canada and Europe. She tours extensively, almost constantly on both sides of the Atlantic, repeatedly setting on-site album sales records at music festivals and concert venues.
Now, more than 13 years and 20 albums later, Difranco has toured across the world and gathered a very loyal fan base. She has succeeded in having her message of self-proclamation and unlimited possibilities heard by countless crowds.
She continues to beat down doors of preconceived notions and prejudices. She speaks for herself and in turn, gives other women and men a path to follow, a loud speaker to raise other voices by supporting them through her record label and inspiring them through her music.
There is no artist to compare her to. Her precise poetic pronunciation of the problems in politics, people, love or life becomes untouchable as soon as the statement leaves her lips or her guitar.
Saturday, Salt Lake City had the opportunity to see this legend who spews virtuosity and bleeds passion at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus.
Hammel on Trial set the stage perfectly for Difranco. He wielded his acoustic guitar like a machine gun and tossed words and ideas around like grenades. His highly intense performance featured songs about anything that entered his brain. This one man-band sang about dating, universal truths, compassion and recovering from car accidents among many other things. His guitar playing is, like Difranco’s, unmatched. With a loud guitar, passion and energy, Hammel on Trial’s musical performance rivals that of some of the best punk-rock performers.
After the crowd’s high approval of Hammel on Trial died down, Difranco wandered onto the stage. In an arena that could seat 15,000, the intimacy of only 2,900 seemed incredibly powerful. Our gathering of loyal fans erupted at the site of this little folk singer whose presence was in no way diminutive. Difranco performed solo and completely acoustic after previously touring with a full band. She has returned to her roots and is touring with just her mic and guitar.
She played a powerful set. The crowd called Difranco back for an encore and she performed two more songs and a poem before finally leaving the stage. The Salt Lake crowd was incredibly respectful of Difranco and you could tell that she truly loved her audience.
Difranco’s passion cannot be described through words but through the sight of her powerful arms strumming her guitar that must be seen in person. The image she projects is undoubtedly strong. To doubt this woman’s convictions and strength would be folly. She is the definition of the strength of one woman’s voice and true passion.
She stands strong because she has fallen; she has scars because she has fought. She is who she is because life is unkind and she knows it. She delights in the joy and in the sorrow because it teaches. She conveys all of this in a simple note, a smile, a step, and a simple strum.
Difranco sings of what she knows and what she observes because she can. She takes our gift of freedom of speech where it was meant to be, and yet she still maintains that perfect level of respect for other people’s views. She maintains a moveable beauty that cannot be captured in pictures and cannot be summed up in words. Her beauty is carried on the inside and is communicated through what seem to be more than a hundred simple folk songs.
She says in her song “Evolve,” “So I walk like I’m on a mission, cuz that’s the way I groove. I got more and more to do; I got less and less to prove. It took me too long to realize that I don’t take good pictures cuz I have the kind of beauty that moves.”
Concert-goers left the Huntsman Center that night feeling dazzled. They gained something that overcomes the normal fulfillment of a concert because Difranco takes hold of you and fills you with inexplicable emotions. It is something completely euphoric and an experience that someone must know for themselves.
Kassie Robison is a sophomore majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to kassrobison@cc.usu.edu.