As Ani DiFranco’s annual album releases stack up, her newest, “So Much Shouting So Much Laughter,” is an example of her broadening appeal. It’s not just that she’s more popular than ever, it’s that her songs’ contents have taken on subjects with an increasingly national and worldwide scope, employing words and music that lesser artists would be afraid to use.
The album has been on store shelves for about a month-and-a-half now. This is probably ample time for anyone interested in the folk singer-songwriter to have acquired their own copy. For those who haven’t heard it, purchasing the album might be a timely investment. DiFranco will be playing at the McDonald Theatre on Friday night. The doors open at 7 p.m.; show time is 8 p.m.
Like last year’s “Revelling/Reckoning” release and her previous live recording, 1997’s “Living In Clip,” “So Much” is a double disc, with songs culled from shows over the past few years. Each disc has a title. The first, “Stray Cats,” is full of grinding, somber songs, whereas “Girls Singing Night” is structured more like an actual concert.
It’s sort of ironic when musicians tour in support of a live album release, but in DiFranco’s case, this is nothing new, because she’s practically always touring. She is performing solo without a band for the first time in awhile, so her live sound should be more intimate and raw than on “So Much Shouting.”
Expect new material (read: songs not officially released), new arrangements (to accommodate for the lack of band members) and lyrics for older material and a lot of guitar changes. DiFranco uses so many different tunings for the six-stringed instrument that there will likely be stretches in the McDonald Theatre set when she’ll switch guitars every song.
It’s hard to predict what new material will make it on the set list, but for those who want to know what they might hear, check out the unofficial Ani DiFranco lyrics Web site at www.danah.org/Ani/ to find the words to all the songs that aren’t on albums.
DiFranco’s Web site — www.righteousbabe.com — lists folk singer Greg Brown as a special guest for the Eugene show, but it’s undetermined whether he’ll be playing with DiFranco or opening for her. For those who have seen “Render” — DiFranco’s concert/documentary film released this summer — there was a scene of her playing Brown’s “Lord I Have Made You a Place in My Heart.”
Reviews for the new album have questioned the necessity of releasing another live recording. But given the political context in which many of these shows took place — post-Sept. 11, 2001, America — it’s difficult to see “So Much Shouting” being anything but live. While the new album is not necessarily political, it came about in the midst of political tumult — the “We Believe In God-America-Trucks” picture on the album’s fold-out illustrates this nicely.
Good live performances have an immediacy and actuality that a studio recording doesn’t give. But it doesn’t help to try to explain or describe a poem such as “self evident,” written shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. This has been posted on DiFranco’s Web site since last year, originally in draft form, and it has been performed at her shows since fall of 2001. It remains — and will remain — poignant.
Regardless, there are also plenty of great tunes. Those familiar with DiFranco’s music might be annoyed by the inclusion of some of the songs from “Living In Clip,” but her views on music can explain this better than any critic could. In the liner notes, she says “(It’s) an example of how songs are living things; the same song, like the same person, is a very different thing after five years. Or after five minutes, it seems sometimes.”
Unlike “Living In Clip,” the venues where the songs were played aren’t listed. However, one track on the album — “Loom-Pulse” from the “Girls Singing Night” disc — was selected from her July 9, 2001, performance at Cuthbert Amphitheater.
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