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Folk Implosion
31 January 2004 @ 1:59 a.m.
so i walk like i'm on a mission
cuz that's the way i groove
i got more and more to do
i got less and less to prove
it took me too long to realize
that i don't take good pictures
cuz i have the kind of beauty
that moves
i'm just trying to evolve
-- Ani DiFranco, evolve
These were some of the final words I heard tonight. Live. I saw her. She truly is a goddess. She is the lovely, gifted, righteous babe, Ani DiFranco. And I just witnessed her performing bits of her newest album as well as songs she�s just written in the last month.
Ari and I traveled many many hours to attend the Ann Arbor Folk Festival . It was a well-planned escape from the frigid north for the two of us. Snow followed us through most of the drive, in fact I feared it would follow us all the way into Ann Arbor proper. The wind whipped the truck around the interstate as we drove as fast as safety allowed. With the inclement weather, our journey lasted significantly longer than we had anticipated, leaving us little time to settle into our surroundings and find food.
We arrived at the auditorium with a mass of other people. The variety of person hiding behind scarves that were just as varied filed orderly into the building, proving once again that folk music spans generations and lifestyles. The seats Ari got us were perfect considering the conditions � we were able to see and hear everything. Seven bands and/or artists took the stage. Seven different styles of music � all grassroots. Each leaving me with a different emotion, color, and place in life. My color, race, gender, weight, shoe size, political persuasion, and tendency to love were unimportant yet very apparent through each piece. Whether it was the sly comedic folk of the Tangerine Trousers or the fiddle on crack of The Clumsy Lovers, we were wholly satisfied.
But it was the last two performers who pulled my heart out to show it to me. Martin Sexton took the stage in jeans, a tee shirt and guitar and proceeded to look straight into my soul from across the auditorium. Then Ani picked up right where he left off as she bounced onto the stage with a guitar that seemed to consume her. My first glimpse at a woman who has helped shape my sense of self and musical taste since I was 14 left me breathless. Her new album, if tonight�s performance reflects the vibe of it, is fantastic, mature, and somewhat bitter in a growing way. The performance was so raw, so intimate, so new.
I don�t know how to explain how I feel at this very moment. The feeling that anyone is given at a live show of true musicians is amazing. This is multiplied seven times and then some with being overtired thrown in as the icing. So now I�ll crawl into bed here at Sis� place after the day and a half of driving and the overload of emotions. Somehow I will stay warm without my loving heater known as Chewba. Somehow I will sleep without crying in just overload.
currently reading: Quicksilver � Neal Stephenson
currently listening: Ani is still singing in my head
