Track Listing

1. knuckle down
2. studying stones
3. manhole
4. sunday morning
5. modulation
6. seeing eye dog
7. lag time
8. parameters
9. callous
10. paradigm
11. minerva
12. recoil

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21372 in Music
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Description
The music on Ani DiFranco’s latest CD is as stunning as ever, packed with irresistible melodies, poignant lyrics, and virtuoso performances. But for the first time in her career, Ani has invited a fellow singer-songwriter to work with her as co-producer: Joe Henry, himself the creator of nine highly regarded solo albums. She is also joined by more than half a dozen guest musicians, many of whom have played key roles in Ani’s recent career, including current stage partner Todd Sickafoose, former band member Julie Wolf, and Righteous Babe recording artist Andrew Bird. Through twelve new songs as intricately crafted as short stories, DiFranco creates another unforgettable musical self-portrait of a woman coming to grips with love’s twists and turns, confronting the legacy of her family, and learning to live on her own terms.

Amazon.com
Even after 15 years of releasing albums on her own Righteous Babe imprint, it's hard to know what to make of Ani DiFranco. Some see her as a folkie-punk-bisexual-feminist-radical-crap-kicker, while others reckon she's merely Alanis Morissette with better lyrics. On her 15th studio album the truth just might be somewhere in between. She does dysfunctional family portraits ("Studying Stones") and broken affairs ("Lag Time") just fine, but she also manages to leave room for rambling, autobiographical beat poetry ("Parameters"). And then there is the music. Matching acoustic guitars with earthy funk rhythms and soft moonlight moods with out-of-leftfield song arrangements, it reconfirms the one label everyone can agree upon: fiercely original. --Aidin Vaziri

Recommended Ani DiFranco Discography

Out of Range	Not a Pretty Girl	So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
Little Plastic Castle	Revelling/Reckoning	Living in Clip

About the Artist
Ani DiFranco is a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist perpetually on the move. From the raw "folk punk" of her early albums through the jazz/funk grooves she created during her years touring with a five-piece band to her current work as a solo artist, Ani’s restless creativity leads her and her listeners into ever more exciting territory. Born in Buffalo, New York, DiFranco was singing and playing guitar in public before she was old enough to drive. As a teenager, the poems she’d been writing in "long skinny columns" soon evolved into lyrics, and music became a way for the teenager to talk about the things that mattered most to her: the power dynamics of romantic entanglements, the fragmentation of her family, the choices she watched her friends making, and the state of life in her hometown and her country. The early 1990s brought a temporary relocation to New York and classes in poetry and politics at the New School, but her real education came on weekends, hitting the road with increasing frequency and growing confidence, developing her signature percussive finger picking and dynamic range in order to grab and hold the attention of noisy bar crowds. After just about every one of her funny, outspoken, intimate gigs, she’d leave behind a fresh batch of converts eager to spread the word to everyone they knew, via cassettes at first and then CDs. Rather than waiting for some A&R bigwig to sign her, Ani created her own record label, Righteous Babe, eventually turning down potential deals when she realized they had nothing to offer that she couldn’t provide herself. Nearly a decade and a half of hard work, glowing word of mouth, and relentless touring later, the self-described "Little Folksinger" is packing joints like Carnegie Hall and amphitheaters around the world, though she still makes each venue she plays feel as cozy as a living room and as sweaty as a neighborhood dive. Over the years, Ani has swapped album appearances with Prince and Maceo Parker, produced recordings by Dan Bern and Janis Ian, performed orchestral versions of her compositions with the Buffalo Philharmonic, helped find new fans for the songs of Woody Guthrie and the stories of Utah Phillips, had her own tunes covered by the likes of Dave Matthews, and Chuck D, recorded duets with both John Gorka and Jackie Chan, and inspired countless other musicians to rewrite the rules of the recording industry by striving for self-sufficiency and refusing to allow art to be subsumed by cold commerce. Through her Righteous Babe Foundation, she’s been able to support grassroots cultural and political organizations around the country, and has lent her time and her voice to such diverse pursuits as opposing the death penalty, upholding women’s reproductive rights, promoting queer visibility, and preserving historic buildings back in Buffalo (including a long-neglected church currently being transformed into the new headquarters of Righteous Babe). Ani DiFranco’s career has been full of surprises—and she’s no stranger to change, both sudden and slow. But some things remain unchanged, like her commitment to speaking the truth, as she sees it, without fear or concession. Bruce Cockburn recently observed in Performing Songwriter that Ani considers it part of her job description "to try and reflect real life in [her] songs. The life of the streets; the life of nations; the lives of people coping with power or its absence, looking for joy through the loneliness and pain and the complexities of relationship; the life of the spirit. All these are the stuff of human experience, and human experience is what we all share." She does so with two basic instruments, both of which are also constants in her ever-evolving world: her trusty guitar and her unforgettable voice. Vanity Fair describes the latter as "astonishing.… coolly, permanently urgent, tugging at the sleeve or close at the ear, like the murmur of a lover who knows every last secret and decides to stay."

Customer Reviews

More than an Educated Guess...
I'm sure plenty of Ani fans will disagree, but I, for one, absolutely hated Educated Guess. I was almost disgusted with how she destroyed the song "Educated Guess" with those horiffic background vocals (not to mention every other song as well!) I was definitely unsure if I would buy another of her albums.

I took a chance, put my faith in her abilities, and pre-ordered Knuckle Down. The streams in my digital library seemed good enough that I would end up liking this album more than EG, at least.

After listening to this album for the past few days, I can definitely conclude that it is one of her best. The first five tracks are flawless (from there its a little hit or miss) and about half of the remaining eight are excellent. There are only a couple of songs that I'm "not feeling" yet.

At any rate, if you had lost faith in Ani after Educated Guess, definitely give her a second chance w/ this album - you won't regret it! :)

If you're new to Ani, I'd suggest a handful of other albums before this one, but definitely make sure to purchase this one at some point!

Back To the Fold
I've read several of the reviews below, and some are very good. My review of this album won't be quite as technical and thorough as those I've read, but I'll give you my honest opinion. This is a great cd. I've been listening to Ani for about 11 years now....I came in around the "Out of Range" and "Not a Pretty Girl" days. I was a very "devoted" fan (read crazed) for much of my late teens and into my early twenties...sometimes driving as long as 10 hours for a concert. I've loved several of her cd's along the way....Dilate, Little Plastic Castle, To the Teeth, Revelling/Reckoning, Evolve. But as life kept on going, and I got older, I became less and less crazed. Not because of her music, but because I had more going on.....more important things to worry about. I didn't even buy Educated Guess (I didn't even *gasp* realize that she had released it!) But after seeing her perform "Studying Stones" on, of all places, the CBS Saturday Early Show, I was intrigued about "Knuckle Down." So I got the cd, and expected to go through my usual Ani routine. Listen to it, think "hmmmm this isn't anything like Little Plastic Castle or To the Teeth or Evolve....I'm not sure I like it," and then a few weeks or months later listen to it and think "OH! I get it, this is awesome!" But I haven't been able to stop listening to it since it arrived in the mail. This cd has snapped me back to that old place. I'm not sure how, and I'm not sure why....but that's what's happened. I absolutely love this disc. It's really hard pick a favorite song (okay, maybe I like "Studying Stones", "Paradigm", and "Sunday Morning" a little more than the rest.) I'm not saying everyone will love this as much as I do. But if you've kept listening to Ani through the years, through all the different bands and styles and personal experiences, I think you'll dig this cd.

Ani has returned!
I was unimpressed with Educated Guess and Evolve. I'm happy to say Ani has returned full throttle with an album worthy of her Dilate/Revelling/Reckoning days. For the first time since R/R, I *feel* Ani again. Sumptous instruments frame typically gorgeous lyrics, and her singing is amazing, clear and without the annoying extra background vocals that plagued *Educated Guess*. Stand-out track is probably Parameters, because of its eerie instrumentation.