Track Listing 1. Red Letter Year 2. Alla This 3. Present/Infant 4. Smiling Underneath 5. Way Tight 6. Emancipated Minor 7. Good Luck 8. Atom, The 9. Round a Pole 10. Landing Gear 11. Star Matter 12. Red Letter Year (Reprise)
| Details | | Producer: | Ani DiFranco, Mike Napolitano | | Distributor: | E1 Distribution (USA) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, tenor guitar, ukulele, Wurlitzer organ, synthesizer, guitar synthesizer, percussion); Jeff Klein (vocals); Animal Prufrock (electric guitar, percussion); C.C. Adcock (electric guitar); Richard Comeaux (pedal steel guitar); Megan Gould, Jenny Scheinman (violin); Jessica Troy (viola); Marika Hughes (cello); Jon Hassell (trumpet); Todd Sickafoose (piano, pump organ, Wurlitzer organ, bass instrument); Mike Dillon (vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells, percussion); Allison Miller (drums, percussion); Rene Lopez (percussion). Additional personnel: Rebirth Brass Band. Audio Mixer: Mike Napolitano. Arranger: Todd Sickafoose. RED LETTER YEAR finds former folkie fire-starter Ani DiFranco still maintaining her confrontational sociopolitical edge, but leavening it with a warmth that comes from the scenario surrounding the album's creation. It was the first album DiFranco made since the birth of her daughter, Petah, and the first to feature a full-on production collaboration with the child's father, Mike Napolitano. That fulsome family vibe lends a spiritual strength to the proceedings. Like its predecessor, REPRIEVE, RED LETTER YEAR addresses the issue of the U.S. government's post-Katrina New Orleans negligence, though not as exclusively as on the earlier album. Crescent City resident DiFranco made the album in the Big Easy, and is joined by New Orleans musicians like C.C. Adcock and the Rebirth Brass Band, but there are plenty of other topics beyond her immediate surroundings for her to explore, from man's warlike nature to, unsurprisingly, motherhood. She tackles these topics to the tune of a rich, atmospheric production that maintains a nice, swampy balance between supple, funky grooves and acoustic ambience.
Editorial Reviews Looser and funkier than 2006's REPRIEVE, RED LETTER YEAR is a dazzling folk/punk/jazz hybrid. Paste
DiFranco has never sounded so good....While guitar remains at the core, this is very much a band album. Dirty Linen
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