Ani DiFranco played a set of new unreleased songs before a tiny audience of mostly students at Ex’pression College Of Digital Arts in Emeryville.
Opening with an atonal labor song from the 1930s that she’d written new verses for, DiFranco invited the crowd to sing along.
“Pete Seeger would be proud of us.” said The Little Folksinger through her grin.
With well-broken-in chord patterns and the familiar snap of her voice, the sound of decades of songwork in the air felt as comfortable as a comfy deck chair.
The years have not dimmed her political fire: one new song directly demands an constitutional amendment granting equal rights to women.
What’s different? Where along the way many of her songs were about struggling in different ways toward her own form of happiness, quite a few of these new songs talk about what to do when you’re closer to your ideal than you might have previously believed possible. Songs about being happy with where she’s at and urging others onward in whatever way works best for whomever. A lot of urging and a lot of smiles. She’s rooting on her audience as her audience roots for her.
“I love my job!” she said from the stage. It shows.
Set list:
Which Side?
Life Boat
Unworry
Promiscuity
Splinter
Amendment
See See
Hearse
Watch the full performance here at CreativeAllies.com. Thanks to Jonathan Pirro, who made this story possible.
