Singer/songwriter/feminist/activist/author Ani DiFranco is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of her seminal first live album Living In Clip with the first vinyl edition, available today on DiFranco’s label Righteous Babe Records. The groundbreaking album consists of 3 LPs that include a new album cover and never previously seen photos of Ani, her band and crew from that era. Twenty-five years later the album is recognized as a point of entry that radically expanded DiFranco’s audience, and a historically important testament to the relationship between Ani as a live performer and the devoted community she created with her fans. Order the album HERE.
Affectionately named after the state of stage amps about to blow out, Living In Clip was originally recorded from performances in nearly two-dozen venues from 1995-1996 (around the release of Dilate), offering the intimacy and power of a live show with over two hours of music including intermission and encore. Originally released on April 22, 1997, the album features DiFranco, Andy Stochansky on drums and Sara Lee on bass (Gang of Four, B-52s, Indigo Girls).
Ani’s liner notes from Living In Clip in 1997 remain true to the DIY ethos that she pioneered and attest to the power of the live performance. She claimed, “You can hear all the right words on the studio albums, if you want, but the songs won’t sound nearly as much like themselves as they do here. I’ve never been a studio musician. Very few folksingers are, I think. We travel. We play music for people, not posterity. no permanence. no perfection. there are those who turn knobs and make magic and then there are those who turn up and try to make a living.”
Fans can hear Living in Clip live as DiFranco is currently on her second leg of a summer tour. She is joined by Righteous Babe label mates Gracie and Rachel, Zoe Boekbinder, and Jocelyn Mackenzie, who are uniting for a special ensemble performance as The Righteous Babes, collaborating on one another’s songs arranged specifically for their tour with Ani. Tour dates are below and at anidifranco.com/tour.
Widely considered a feminist icon, Grammy winner Ani DiFranco is the mother of the DIY movement, being one of the first artists to create her own record label in 1990. While she has been known as the “Little Folksinger,” her music has embraced punk, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, electronica and even more distant sounds. Her collaborators have included everyone from Utah Phillips to legendary R&B saxophonist Maceo Parker to Prince. She has shared stages with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Greg Brown, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, Chuck D., and many more. Her memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream was released in May 2019, and DiFranco released a No Walls Mixtape alongside the book, offering a new take on songs related to the memoir. Her last album was 2021’s Revolutionary Love.
Ani DiFranco Tour Dates
7/29 – Truro, MA – Payomet Performing Arts Center#
7/30 – Portland, ME – State Theater#
7/31 – Oak Bluffs, MA – Martha’s Vineyard PAC#
8/2 – Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater#
8/3 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live#
8/5 – Indianapolis, IN – Rock The Ruins (The Vogue Outdoors)+
8/6 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island*
8/7 – Fish Creek, WI – Door Community Auditorium#
8/9 – Maquoketa, IA – Codfish Hollow#
8/10 – Maquoketa, IA – Codfish Hollow#
8/11 – Omaha, NE – The Admiral Theater#
8/13 – Lyons, CO – Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
9/1-2 – Playa Mujeres, MX – Etheridge Island Festival
9/4 – Duluth, MN – Water Is Life Festival
# w/ special guests The Righteous Babes: Gracie and Rachel, Zoe Boekbinder, Jocelyn Mackenzie
* supporting Brandi Carlile
+also with Jenny Lewis