Knuckle Down [Digipak] (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, guitar); Ani DiFranco; Julie Wolfe, Julie Wolf (melodica); Todd Sickafoose (Wurlitzer piano, Wurlitzer organ, bass guitar); Niki Haris, Noe Venable (vocals); Andrew Bird (whistling, violin, glockenspiel); Tony Scherr (electric guitar); Patrick Warren (piano, chamberlin, sampler); Jay Bellerose (drums, percussion).

Audio Mixer: S. "Husky" Hoskulds.

Recording information: The Sound Factory.

Photographer: Eric Frick.

For her first few albums of the 21st century, Buffalo, NY native Ani DiFranco gave in to her most inventive, explorative side. She delved into jazz on one record (EVOLVE), offered up a double-disc concept album (REVELLING RECKONING), and isolated herself in a room with her guitar on yet another (EDUCATED GUESS). With 2005's KNUCKLE DOWN, the DIY icon's 14th solo studio record in 16 years for her own Righteous Babe label, DiFranco eschews much of that experimentation, opting for a return to the formula that, along with her heralded DIY ethos, initially brought her to prominence.

KNUCKLE DOWN opens with comfortingly familiar, insistent acoustic-guitar strumming on the sweetly pensive title track, as DiFranco begins her story with the image of her "cowgirl alter-ego," before weaving through constantly shifting Dylan-esque imagery. DiFranco's voice contains unique folds and shadings, and is often underrated, but on tracks like the reflective "Studying Stones," when her now-customary falsetto lilt kicks in, the results are entrancing. It wouldn't be a DiFranco record without a piece of slam-poetry-style spoken word, and she obliges with the winding story "Parameters." KNUCKLE DOWN is yet another reminder of the prolific DiFranco continued relevance. minimize