Today, singer/songwriter/feminist/activist/author Ani Di Franco releases the video for “Simultaneously,” the latest track from her upcoming album Revolutionary Love, out January 29 on her Righteous Babe Records label. Di Franco’s 22nd release has been named one of 2021’s Most Anticipated Albums by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Watch “Simultaneously” HERE and pre-order Revolutionary Love HERE.
The mesmerizing “Simultaneously” speaks directly to the challenge of navigating the disconnect between a visionary inner life and a chaotic outside. “I look around and everything’s crashing and burning all around me,” says Di Franco, “but in my mind I can see this alternate reality playing out – one where we are all fulfilling our potential.”
Produced by Di Franco and mainly recorded in two whirlwind days at Brad Cook’s studio in Durham NC, Revolutionary Love more than justifies the mad dash behind its making. As her first studio effort since the release of No Walls and the Recurring Dream (DiFranco’s widely praised 2019 memoir), Revolutionary Love arrives as an instantly transportive selection of songs. Rooted in her poetic lyricism and ever-commanding vocal work, the album unfolds in an understated yet captivating alchemy of folk and soul and lushly textured jazz-pop. In sculpting that sound, Di Franco and Cook assembled an eclectic lineup of musicians, including percussionist Brevan Hampden (Hiss Golden Messenger, Milton Suggs) and horn/flute player Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats, Josh Ritter), while longtime Di Franco bassist Sickafoose later enlisted the Oregon-based Delgani String Quartet. With many of those performances captured in one or two takes, Revolutionary Love again reveals Di Franco’s tremendous gift for transforming confusion into clarity, pain into perseverance.
Widely considered a feminist icon, Grammy winner Ani Di Franco is the mother of the DIY movement, being one of the first artists to create her own record label in 1990. While she has been known as the “Little Folksinger,” her music has embraced punk, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, electronica and even more distant sounds. Her collaborators have included everyone from Utah Phillips to legendary R&B saxophonist Maceo Parker to Prince. She has shared stages with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Greg Brown, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, Chuck D., and many more. Her last studio album Binary was released in June 2017 on Righteous Babe Records. Her memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream was released in May 2019, and Di Franco released a No Walls Mixtape alongside the book, offering a new take on songs related to the memoir.
