For immediate release.
For more information, contact: Tracy Mann, (914)348-0472.
Album release date: November 16, 1999.
Ani Difranco Explores A World Armed To The Teeth On Her Latest Album
"Punk and folk are the terms that usually precede DiFranco's name, but this girl's got soul." -The Boston
Globe
It's never been a secret that Ani DiFranco is a dizzyingly prolific songwriter. After all, we're talking about a
musician with more than a hundred songs under her belt by the time she reached her twentieth birthday-and
that was fourteen records ago. With brazen disregard for music industry convention, the Little Folksinger
now releases her third album of 1999 alone. Hot on the high heels of Up Up Up Up Up Up and Fellow
Workers (the latter a collaboration with Utah Phillips), To The Teeth sends 13 brand-new tunes into orbit,
carried aloft by Ani's trademark combo of political and personal insight, vocal fireworks, high-velocity
fingerwork, and funkalicious grooves. Ani plays lots o' instruments here, including guitars of every stripe, of
course, but also bass, drums, piano, organ, even megaphone and banjo. And she's joined by trusty
bandmates Julie Wolf on keyboards and backing vocals, Jason Mercer on bass, and Daren Hahn on drums.
Ani herself is the first to admit that To The Teeth is different from any of her previous albums, "in the sense
that it spans a year of various recording situations; it brings together a bunch of different studio settings for
me." The tracks here range from solo inventions recorded at The Dust Bowl, Ani's new home studio
apparatus, such as "I Know This Bar," to full band recordings like "Wish I May" and "Back Back Back,"
made in New Orleans with Julie, Daren, and Jason. While several of the songs were written and first
performed during the summer '99 "F-Word Tour," plenty of them have not yet been heard by anyone,
anywhere.
"For me one of the most exciting things was having a couple of my musical heroes on the record," Ani says.
Sure enough, legendary James Brown/George Clinton sideman (and "F-Word Tour" special guest) Maceo
Parker is on hand on tenor sax and flute, plus another feller whose name might ring a bell: The Artist
Formerly Known as Prince, who, in DiFranco's words, "sang the shit out of 'Providence.'"
There's no question that even longtime Ani aficionados will find still more stunning surprises here, starting
with the range of instruments: Toronto noisemaker Kurt Swinghammer provides more (and wilder) electric
guitar than anyone has ever heard on a DiFranco disc; Brian Wolf of Drums & Tuba brings trumpets and, of
course, tubas to the table; and up-and-coming New Orleans trumpeter Irvin Mayfield adds to the horn
section. ("It's a very horn-y record," Ani laughs.) Rapper Corey Parker pops up on "Swing," joined by a
little turntable scratchin' and a whole lotta brass. Then there's the jaw-dropping new directions suggested by
the solo Dust Bowl tracks "Freakshow" and "The Arrivals Gate."
As always, Ani's latest songs ring with the urgency of newspaper headlines and the intimacy of journal
entries. The latest round of gun-related violence inspired the title track, while "Hello Birmingham" is a
poignant take on the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian at the hands of an opponent to abortion rights in Ani's
hometown of Buffalo, New York. From these wrenching accounts of American life at the end of the century
to the simple joys of watching lovers reunite at "The Arrivals Gate," To the Teeth is proof positive that, as a
songwriter, musician, and producer, Ani DiFranco continues to defy all guesses as to where she's going next.