Ani DiFranco
“Evolve”
(Righteous Babe Records)
Here is an excellent assemble of a dozen new studio tracks from DiFranco’s 5-piece band. She began working with this setting a few years back and focused on fusing melodic songwriting with attributes of funk. “Evolve” appears to be the culminating synthesis of these disparate approaches to music with ample similarity to her especially successful neo-folk sound of the ’90s to satisfy purist fans.
Ani DiFranco returned to performing solo, but fortunately for us she captured in the studio on new material the musicians she has melded with as a touring unit of recent years: Julie Wolf (keyboards), Hans Teuber (reeds), Jason Mercer (bass) and Daren Hahn (drums) as well as a three-piece horn section.
