CR 085: Ani DiFranco on Collaboration, Connection, and New Beginnings

The iconic singer-songwriter discusses spirituality, her latest creative projects, and her new book, “The Spirit of Ani.”

Ani DiFranco, photo by Shervin Lainez

For the first two decades of her career, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco was exhaustingly prolific. Amid a relentless touring schedule that had her performing upwards of 120 shows a year, the DIY icon released two dozen albums between 1990 and 2008, all of them on Righteous Babe Records, a label she’d launched when she was just 19. Back in those early years, it was not uncommon for her live setlists to include a new song or two she’d just written that day.

Now 55, DiFranco has slowed her output, choosing to focus on longer-term projects rather than adhere to the ambitious performance and album release cycle of earlier years. She still tours and releases the occasional solo album, but at a much slower (at least, for her) pace. It’s been two years since her most recent studio album, Unprecedented Sh!t, and she’s said in recent interviews that it may be her last for a while.

And though it may seem to the casual fan that DiFranco is doing less these days,…