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Ani DiFranco
November 23, 2014 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Ani DiFranco is one of the most important artists of our time. Songwriter, Poet, philanthropist, and icon, DiFranco’s social contributions are just as important as her musical ones. Her career has been a beacon of independence. She has always been her own boss, starting her own record label Righteous Babe at the age of eighteen. Since then has made the most of her prominence with unbridled social commentary and an honest voice. She is sincere. You can hear it in every note she sings. She’s lent that voice to a variety of social movements over the years. Through The Righteous Babe Foundation she has given visibility to and aid to a number of grassroots initiatives, and has personally performed in benefits and spoken at rallies.
Ani’s idiosyncratic style has developed through years of experimentation with Folk, Punk, and Jazz. Her playing, with it’s staccato picking, and alternate tunings, is a rarity in the folk community, but then again so is Ani. There’s no one quite like her. It’s no wonder her and her label have so influencial. Says DiFranco, “folk music is not an acoustic guitar – that’s not where the heart of it is. I use the word ‘folk’ in reference to Punk music and Rap music. It’s an attitude, it’s an awareness of one’s heritage, and it’s a community. It’s subcorporate music that gives voice to different communities and their struggle against authority.”
Opening Act: Jenny Scheinman
Jenny Scheinman is a singer, violin player, composer and arranger. She grew up on a homestead in Northern California in a family of folk musicians, studied at Oberlin Conservatory, graduated with a degree in English literature from UC Berklee, and has been performing since she was a teenager. She has taken the #1 Rising Star Violinist title in the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and has been listed as one of their Top Ten Overall Violinists for a decade. She has garnered numerous high-profile arranging credits with Lucinda Williams, Bono, Lou Reed, Metallica and Sean Lennon, and has toured and recorded with Bill Frisell, Bruce Cockburn, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Nels Cline, Vinicius Cantuaria, Rodney Crowell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Mark Ribot. She has seven CDs of original music to date; Mischief & Mayhem, Jenny Scheinman, Crossing The Field, 12 Songs, Shalagaster, The Rabbi’s Lover and Live At Yoshi’s.