Feminist icon. Indie trailblazer. Grammy winner (and eight-time nominee). Modern-day Renaissance woman.
Those labels and more have been used to describe Ani DiFranco. And with good reason: the 55-year-old singer-songwriter has forged a distinctive path through the world of music, arts and letters, resolutely doing things her way. She’s gained a legion of dedicated fans in the process. Ani DiFranco comes to the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on August 15.
Growing up in Buffalo, New York, DiFranco labored under many of the same assumptions as most aspiring artists: To have a job in music, she believed, you had to have a record deal.
“That was the prevailing wisdom,” she says.
With that in mind, she initially followed a traditional, well-worn path.
“When I was 15 or so, this fella came along; he wanted to be my manager and make me a star.” DiFranco made a demo tape, and her manager shopped it to labels.
His efforts proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, DiFranco was wising up.
“By the time I exited my teen years—maybe even before—I was finding my own perspective on things, including the music industry.”
At a certain point, she asked herself, “Why do I need a record deal? Screw that!” She made 100 cassette copies of her demo and began selling them at her shows. There and then, Righteous Babe—DiFranco’s own defiantly independent record label—was born.
“I started alone in the world with nobody backing me up,” she says with a smile, “and I ended up thinking, ‘Maybe I should stay that way.’” Some 36 years on, she still releases her albums via Righteous Babe; 2024’s Unprecendented Sh!t is her most recent.
Even in 1990, DiFranco was ahead of the curve.
At that point in history, six major labels controlled more than 90% of record sales worldwide. Today only three conglomerates exist; independent labels have increased their market share and are now responsible for about 45% of U.S. sales.
Many artists find that the supposed advantages of signing with one of the “big three” are outweighed by the benefits of staying indie. So while DiFranco’s motives have always been more about art than commerce, her strategy proved a prescient one.
“We all have access to knowledge that’s not ‘of time,’” DiFranco says. So while she had no idea that being an indie artist would be a norm by the third decade of the 21st century, she suggests that the change was in the air even back in the early ‘90s. “It just shows me that any of us has access to knowing about the future when our awareness is really dilated.”
DiFranco believes that the advantages of independence from the “industry” are many. In her view, the main upside is “not having to do that icky dance of compromise, of trying to hold onto some sense of myself while I do what others think is the most salable thing.”
She concedes that there are major advantages to having ready access to experts in music production, mixing, releasing and marketing, but the alternative to all that is maintaining control of one’s creative journey and art. “And it’s all worked out,” she says. “When you’re following your heart, your spleen or whatever organ is leading, the universe will collaborate.”
In the years since crafting her debut record, DiFranco has released 21 studio albums of new material under her own name. She has also produced several albums for other artists, and contributed to various artists’ collections and recordings by celebrated acts including Dr. John, Rising Appalachia and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Along the way, DiFranco has also released a staggering number of live albums: nearly 30 to date. So while her studio releases are well crafted and critically praised, she gives the impression of preferring live performance over being holed up in a recording studio.
“What I do as a musician is all about being in the moment,” she explains. “Sharing music with people in a moment is the most exciting thing, because it’s an exchange, a conversation—even though I have the microphone.”
DiFranco says that going into a studio and “singing to an imagined audience is not nearly as compelling.” At their best, her many live releases succeed in capturing the vibe of that conversation.
Ani DiFranco’s creative impulses have led her beyond writing and playing her own music. In 2004 and 2007 she published two volumes of original poetry, Self-evident: poesie e disegni and Verses.
In 2024 DiFranco returned with an inspiring book for children, Show Up and Vote. In March of this year she coauthored a collaborative work with Lauren Coyle Rosen. The Spirit of Ani: Reflections on Spirituality, Feminism, Music & Freedom is a personal deep dive into those big ideas.
In 2010, Anaïs Mitchell debuted her folk-opera concept album Hadestown; DiFranco portrayed Persephone in that project. And in 2024, DiFranco took to the Broadway stage, reprising the role for a nearly five-month run.
“It kicked my ass so hard,” she says with a laugh. “They’re very exacting.” Yet she truly enjoyed the experience of applying her talents to the work of another artist. “The only way I could have poured my energy into something that somebody else created is to believe as deeply in the work as I do.”
And whether on record or in performance, Ani DiFranco brings that same commitment to her original music.
Ani DiFranco with Valerie June
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Saturday, Aug. 15, 8pm $67.25
