Ani Difranco: Educated Guess

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)


Not so much an un-categorisable artist as one who has sensibly allowed herself a broad career brief, Difranco is a folk-rock singer/poet who can slide effortlessly into jazz phrasing and, without compromise, still manage to play the coquettish gamin, despite her adult intelligence.

Make from that what you will. It's enough to say that despite dozens of albums — and work with the elderly loafer/hobo storyteller Utah Phillips — Difranco still has the capacity to surprise.

Here she hunkers down with an eight-track reel-to-reel for a series of songs which run from the jazzy, multi-tracked vocals of Bliss Like This, the evocative spoken word The True Story of What Was and political Grand Canyon, to the chiming Joni Mitchell pop of Raincheck.

As always there's some clumsy stuff: "I'm an all powerful Amazon warrior not just some snivelling girl", might be an answer to Britney's girl/woman conundrum but it still clunks as it plays a shallow, gender war card. But she is always interesting and is in Auckland tomorrow night. Expect the unexpected. Which is a good thing.

Label: Righteous Babe/Shock