Ani DiFranco at The Egg, November 17, 2009

I fell in love with Ani DiFranco last night. It's not a leave-your-wife-and-become-a-groupie type of love or a physical thing, although she is a Righteous Babe (her record company's name). It's love for an artist who is sincere and a singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire. I knew very little about Ani except for a few YouTube videos I watched and that my 20-year-old nephew was a huge fan of her music. But last night at The Egg, when she walked on stage with a slightly out-of-tune baritone ukelele and sang a heartfelt song about anarchy, socialism, and the woes of our economy that began with the "evil Reaganomics", I was hooked. She is a courageous feminist, socialist, and anarchist and one hell of a singer. The energy that came from her on stage electrified the room. At one point, one of my fellow ushers said, "Now THIS is a concert!" The front of the stage was jammed with enthusiastic fans waving their arms and singing along with her. It didn't hurt that she also said, "I like this room a lot," referring to The Egg, its great acoustics and the very appreciative crowd. "You're all kind of enclosed in apostrophes," she said waving at the room.

Regarding her older, more personal songs of heartbreak and relationships, Ani said, "But I'm looking for new stuff to sing about." She's an avid environmentalist, and as I said before, a populist voice in a world that desperately needs one. Plenty of material there.

I hesitate to use the word performance to describe her show because she is a sincere woman on a mission to save Mother Earth. Reflecting that mission was the simple stage setting – Persian rugs on the floor and a ruffled drape as a backdrop that reflected the various colored lights designed to match the mood of each song. Also, the sparse band; Ani on guitar, backed by a drummer and double-bass player. Then, of course, there were numerous mentions of saving energy and lightening our carbon footprint on Earth.

At one point in the evening, I wandered out in the lobby where I spoke with a woman who is a backstage caterer for some of the acts that perform at The Egg. Her unsolicited comment was, "Ani is the nicest person I've ever worked with. She's real, approachable. I'm going to go buy her CDs!" And with that she headed for the merchandise stand.

Ani mentioned that she got married "to a boy" last December and went to Hawaii on honeymoon where she wrote a love song that she proceeded to play. It was a great song but sounded like a dirge. I'm not sure if it was intentional but it was very effective considering some of her statements on stage about mistakes she has made in relationships.

She also played a song for Utah Phillips, a folk singer, tax evader and self-proclaimed anarchist who seems to have had considerable influece on Ani's politics. Another political activist selection was Pete Seeger's "Which Side Are You On" that she performed at his 90th birthday party at Madison Square Garden. The fact that a thirty-something woman from Buffalo was invited to perform at the 90th birthday party of an American legend says quite a lot about Ani's acceptance as one of the great folksingers of our age. And regarding her song selection, I was thrilled to hear someone supporting things aloud in front of 1,000 people in our state capital – things like support for socialism and anarchy that have been hushed for many years now. I was reminded of Jim Hightower, another famous populist who says, "It's not about left or right; it's about top and bottom." Ani refers to "the top feeders" disparagingly in another of her songs.

Lastly, I learned another important thing last night – her fiirst name is not Annie, it's ANI (pronounced AH-nee). Remember that! I will never forget it nor will I forget the first time I saw Ani DiFranco live. I don't expect it will be the last.