For more than three decades now, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco has been making her one-of-a-kind alternative folk rock and releasing it on her own label, Righteous Babe Records, a testament to her fiercely independent creative and entrepreneurial spirit.
The maverick firebrand returns to the North Bay this Friday evening at Blue Note Napa at the Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena in support of her latest album, last year’s “Revolutionary Love,” and the release of her 2019 memoir, “No Wall and the Recurring Dream” from Viking Books.
Reached over the phone at her home in New Orleans, DiFranco said she is looking forward to coming back to the Bay Area after two years of COVID-related delays and performing at some of the country’s more unique and historic concert settings.
“Being outside on a beautiful summer evening with rolling hills of grapes, you can’t beat that. Music with the crickets and you know, under the stars, those are all beautiful memories,” said DiFranco.
The artist is also happy to return to an area that was a hotbed of support when she was first starting out in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“I think my music is very left of center, my perspective, you know, and it comes through my music and sort of intentionally so. So, yeah, there’s a lot of like-minded people out west,” said DiFranco.
During the COVID lockdowns, DiFranco went back and prepared a 25th-anniversary re-release of her breakthrough live album, “Living In Clip,” which is coming out on special edition vinyl.
“It’s kind of mind-blowing to me that it’s 25 years later. And I think there’s kind of a pivot point in my career, I guess you could say but I would say even in my life, you know,” said DiFranco.
This tour stop in Napa will be among the first of the tour for this year, and indeed since the shutdown. DiFranco is keeping the faith that everything will go according to plan.
“I sure hope it’s like riding a bike. I’ve been terra firma for a while, so I feel like almost like my life and music was a dream. You know, like the pandemic sort of shook us all loose from our moorings, and so this is where I’m gonna go out there and find out if the dream is real,” said DiFranco.
Where: Blue Note Napa at Charles Krug Winery, 2800 Main St., St. Helena.
For More Info: bluenotenapa.com.
