Ani Difranco

For her 11th studio album, the two-disc Revelling/Reckoning, Ani DiFranco went back to her roots. Instead of the funk influence that drove 1999's To The Teeth, DiFranco went with what she knows best: the acoustic guitar and folk rock. But her five-piece backing band, including two horn players, hasn't completely disappeared. They're still there, but barely audible.\nThe first disc, Revelling, was written with DiFranco's backing band in mind, but it is the band's almost nonexistence that makes the disc so amazing. Only the lead track, "Ain't That the Way," has a funk feel. The rest of the album is a pure Ani album. Songs like "Garden of Simple" and "Tamboritza Lingua" are such a call to the DiFranco of the past that their inclusion on previous albums would seem natural. \n It's not until the second disc, Reckoning, that DiFranco shows how special she is. Wanting to get back to her folk roots, DiFranco composed 16 wonderful and powerful songs with only her guitar and mind.\nSongs like "Your Next Bold Move" and "Subdivision" exemplify not only the political consciousness of DiFranco's work, but also her power and emotion. The entire Reckoning disc displays DiFranco at her musical finest, a point most artists strive to attain while few do. \nThe knowledge of herself that DiFranco presents throughout the entire Revelling/Reckoning album is a testament to a woman who knows who she is. DiFranco has been criticized for her shift from early angry-empowerment folk to recent band-oriented sound, but this has only made her stronger. In the autobiographical "Tamboritza Lingua," DiFranco says with no hint of irony that she's 19 going on 30/or maybe she's really 30 now. DiFranco is 30 now and should no longer be expected to play with the anger and ferocity she did when she was 19. She has much more to offer now.\nDiFranco has come to set her critics in their place with Revelling/Reckoning, one of her best efforts to date. Both her past and present are fully represented, and her future looks even brighter.