Folk singer Ani DiFranco has a long and pioneering musical history.
And thankfully, she's been willing to share pieces of that with us when she comes through town.
Last week we published our most recent interview, in which DiFranco talked about life with her new daughter, her upcoming album, "Red Letter Year," and global politics, among other things. You can read it on AZNightbuzz.com.
To celebrate tonight's show at the Rialto Theatre, here are some highlights of Arizona Daily Star interviews and reviews that reveal a little of her personal and musical evolution:
"They smell money, and they just want a piece. I'm just worried about becoming a part of a multi-national music corporation. That makes for radio mayonnaise and TV comas."
— A 23-year-old DiFranco in a 1994 interview ahead of her concert at the (now defunct) Downtown Performance Center. DiFranco started her own record label, Righteous Babe Records, around 1990. She expounds on her criticisms of the record industry in the song "Napoleon."
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"Her scruffy attire included green hair, bandanna, nose ring, baggy tank top, rolled-up pants and combat boots. After starting a half-hour late so she could fix a broken guitar pickup, DiFranco played almost 2 1/2 hours, including a brief intermission, for 225 fans."
— Review of that 1994 Downtown Performance Center performance, said to have been DiFranco's first Tucson concert. By 1994, DiFranco had already released six albums.
"As she'd begin a breath, she seemed hesitant to continue. Then — as if only during that second she realized the dramatic power of such a pause — she would milk from the moment as much tease as possible.
"This also is how DiFranco sings, whether her protagonist is a philosophical lap dancer, a joyful daughter or an angry ex-lover.
"And in doing so last night, she brought about 2,000 fans to their feet with the first song of a 90-minute set in the University of Arizona's posh auditorium."
— Review of DiFranco's 1997 Centennial Hall show. DiFranco released a two-disc live album, "Living in Clip," that year.
"And her energy is infectious. Sunday's audience swayed, swung their arms, swooned and screamed every time DiFranco paused to chat — about everything from a walk in Tucson's desert to her views on how Ronald Reagan helped create the 1980s homeless epidemic."
— Review of DiFranco's nearly sold-out Centennial Hall show in 1998, the same year she released her breakthrough album, "Little Plastic Castle."
"Her music is ever-evolving, from simple folk fare spiked with a very determined political opinion to musical experimentations with sounds and words, including spoken-word recitation to a silent backdrop."
— Preview of DiFranco's sold-out Rialto Theatre show in 2003. She released her 15th album, the Grammy-winning "Evolve."
"I think I'm just somebody who moves quickly," she said. "My limbs move quickly and my heart and my thoughts. So I think I just follow my own needs and my own pace — I have the luxury of that since I work for myself — and so it's just my nature to keep changing."
— DiFranco in a preview of her 2005 Centennial Hall show.
