Difranco's World

There is one singer/songwriter that I have to say I am a little embarrassed to be totally and completely in love with lyrically, musically, politically, emotionally. (OK, well, I can’t lie. My compact disc collection definitely holds more than this one guilty pleasure.)

She’s 5 feet 2 inches, but don’t let her vertical impairment fool you. She’s got a tall voice in grassroots politics and music, more than 15 years' experience, and prolifically stamps out a new record every eight months or so. Her newest, “Reprieve,” carries with it the brutal yet sincere poetic genius and sweet jazzy melody that she seems to perfect with each new release.

Her name is Ani Difranco, and this time she’s singing about issues that hit close to home, or more literally, hit her home. She started recording “Reprieve” in her New Orleans studio, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last August, and the record retains a rough yet sophisticated quality that brings the repercussions of the disaster into her listener’s homes.

Difranco recovered these tracks post-Katrina, brought them to her home base studio in Buffalo, N.Y., and dubbed over the damages. The result is a very eerie, very real personal response to issues looming in the White House, in America's city streets or in the bedroom.

Her political message extends to the cover art of "Reprieve," which shows a lone mangled eucalyptus tree. The original photograph of this tree was taken by Yosuke Yamahata in Nagasaki shortly after the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, an event Difranco references in the title track of the album.

Difranco won't be travelling through the Valley for this leg of her tour, but if anyone's up for a road trip, she will be at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 22. She's sure to make a bleedingly liberal comment or two and undoubtedly offend some right-wingers, too.