DECEMBER 21. 2007
)UStOUt¡43
music
Legends of the Fall
Ani and Joni return with mixed results
Canon
Ant DiFranco • Righteous Babe
As a lover and collector of music, one of my
biggest beefs is the premature best-of, a retrospective
released after an insignificant number of records just
to keep an artists’ brand alive in the marketplace
until the next album drops. With 19 records in just
17 years, Ani DiFranco’s two-disc Canon feels long
overdue and yet just a little underthought.
Super-fans who might deem this collection
unnecessary because they already own all the orig
inal records need look no further than the five new
reworkings of DiFranco classics, the most notable
being “Both Hands.” While already represented
thrice in her back catalog and lacking the earnest
heartbreak of the earliest two takes or the grandiose
orchestral sweep of the 10-year-old live version,
“Both Hands” circa 2007 is buoyant
and celebratory, sounding like the
bona fide hit that DiFranco has nev
er had and that should be issuing
from stock speakers in ecologically
sensible cars nationwide.
It’s a pleasure to coast carefree
through Disc One, singing along to
every song, almost oblivious to all
the obvious omissions (at least one-
third of Out of Range, not to men
tion original versions of anything
from her first three records). Then Disc Two hits
like the hellacious hangover after the senseless fun
of the night before.
First comes the bleary headache question: Didn’t
DiFranco release a record in 1999 before To the
Teeth! Answer: Yes, Up Up Up Up Up Up, which,
while a definite disappointment compared to her
1998 career highlight, Little Plastic Castle, certainly
doesn’t deserve a goose-egg dis on Canon. But these
are the sorts of executive decisions you get to make
when it’s your label and they’re your songs.
Disc Two also makes you painfully aware that
DiFranco’s second decade of music, while just as
admirably prolific, is infinitely less enjoyable than
her first. While 1 count 2001’s Revelling and Reckoning
and 2OO5’s Knuckle Down among my favorites, too
often DiFranco’s latter-era songs are just really jaw
dropping poetry masquerading as middling music.
That’s why Verses
(Seven Stories Press,
2007; $18.95 hardcover),
a career-spanning collec
tion of DiFranco’s poetry
(mostly lyrics from her
songs interspersed with
a smattering of artwork,
released in conjunction
with Canon), makes
so much sense: Regard
less of what you think of
A PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE LIVING
WITH HIV OR AT RISK WHO ARE
INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT
WAYS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
AND THEIR PARTNERS.
X 32
her music, past and
particularly present,
DiFranco is a poet
without peer.
—Jim Thompson
Shine
Joni Mitchell • Hear Music
Joni Mitchell might not have the mammoth
queer following of Madonna or Cher, hut that
doesn’t diminish her prestige as a gay icon. Over
the course of her 40-year career, the singer/
songwriter from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has
burrowed her way into the souls of straight and
gay listeners alike with her gorgeous melodies, her
outspoken politics and her uncanny ability to
articulate the highs and lows of romance.
Mitchell—who is straight—is supportive of the
queer community in interviews and in song. She
crooned the haunting 1991 ballad “Two Grey
Rcxims" from the perspective of a gay man pining
for his former lover.
David Sedaris devoted an essay to her 1976
classic Hejira in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and
Denim. New York City performance artist John
Kelly portrays the Canadian diva in drag in his
popular show Paved Paradise, earning rave reviews
from critics and Ms. Mitchell herself.
Mitchell announced her retirement in 2002.
But now she’s sneaking back into
the spotlight with Shine. With the
exception of a cover of her own
classic “Big Yellow Taxi," it’s her
first album of new material since
Turning the Tiger in 1998. For Shine
she joined Paul McCartney on Starbucks’ Hear
Music label.
True to its name, Shine opens with a luminous
instrumental piece called “One Day Last Summer.”
The closing track—a slick adaptation of Rudyard
Kipling’s poem “If’—is equally impressive.
Unfortunately, the eight songs in between are
a mixed bag, marred at times by the preachy poli
tics that made parts of Turbulent Indigo and Dog Eat
Dog such a slog. The central theme of Shine is the
demise of the environment, with additional com
mentary on “cell phone zombies” and the misdeeds
of the Catholic Church.
Shine is at its brightest when Mitchell stops
ranting and sticks to the lush Mexican rhythms of
“Night of the Iguana” and the dreamy lap steel
guitar accompaniment on “This Place."
Mitchell’s unexpected return to the music busi
ness has yielded an uneven and occasionally over
bearing album. On rhe bright side her resurrection
gives fans a chance to honor her tenacity—and to
decide for themselves if they’d rather listen to her
Starbucks brew or vintage recordings like Blue.
—Stephen Blair ©
3
SUPPORTING HEALTHY OPTIONS FOR PREVENTION
WWW.OHSU EDU/PARTNERSHIP
SUPPORTING HEALTHY OPTIONS FOR PREVENTION
.You may know these faces,
you may not.
For a confidential intake, contact
503*230-1202 or
1-877-795-7700 (Toll Free)
Services available statewide
SERVICIOS DISPONIBLES EN ESPANOL
It has been over 35 years of struggle tor the rights of LGBTQ
Oregonians. For some of us. this is a lifetime of fighting.
For others, this tireless work began before we were even bom.
OREGON
HEALTH
&SCIENCE
On January 1, the equal rights and domestic partnership
laws go into efiect. Meet some of the people who have done
this work, celebrate and thank them with a historical and
UNIVERSITY
homecoming weekend of events.
Building equality:
stories of the struggle for civil rights
A weekend of history and
reconnections at Q Center,
January 11 and 12, 2008
Go to www.pdxqcenter.org
for a full list of events
CENTER
Connecting the spectrum
of Portland’s LGBTQ community
Street address 69 SE Taylor (at Water Avenue), Portland
Mailing address PO Box 2183, Portland, OR 97208-2183
Phono 503 234 7837 Web www.pdxqcenter.org
Pictured above, left to right, top row Barbara Roberts former Oregon governor: John Adams, original owner of CC Slaughters and the Eagle; Lady
Elaine Peacock, founder of Peacock in the Park; Donna Red Wing. ED of The Lesbian Community Protect (1989-1993) and named "Most Dangerous
Woman in Oregon" by the OCA (1992). Kristan Knapp of lesbian music group Usra Minor. Gary Benoit, twice Imperial Sovereign Emperor:
JerryWeller first ED of Portland Town Council (1976) and co-founding board member of Human Rights Campaign (1981)
»