Ani DiFranco Salutes New Orleans on New Album

Ani Difranco has a new album coming out and is going on tour after a long break.

"This record, it really speaks of this time and place: New Orleans, 2006," DiFranco says. "Like 'Millennium Theater' ends with the line 'New Orleans bides her time.' That song is a rant about the insanity of the spectacle, as opposed to what's really happening underneath. It was written and recorded months before the storm hit. So I would say it's, like, 'divinely prophetic' -- if we all didn't know that shit was coming. Including the Levee Board. Including FEMA. Including the government.

Ani is a personal favorite and easily one of the best live performers touring today. She's also just released an outstanding live solo performance from 2002 that I was fortunate enough to witness in person.