Ani DiFranco @ Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 29 Jun

Folk singer and feminist icon, Ani DiFranco has been described by many as a badass. With a musical career spanning over 30 years she has released more than 20 albums, and even started her own Righteous Babe record label. Embarking on a European tour having just played at Glastonbury, DiFranco takes the stage at Queen’s Hall tonight to perform for her Edinburgh fans. 

Supporting DiFranco on tour, Chastity Brown, accompanied by Luke Enyeart, plays a collection of soulful folk tunes to warm up the crowd. Her sound is a fusion of blues and soul, and comes highly recommended for fans of The Civil Wars or Rachael Yamagata. Brown recalls the last time she played in Edinburgh to a group so small that they all huddled on stage with her to stay warm, and seems grateful to be playing for a large crowd tonight. We're drawn in by her sweet melodies, and soon she has us all clicking and clapping in time with her foot pedal drum beat. Brown closes her set by saying how much she’s learnt by being on tour with DiFranco, who talks about the passing of the baton with reference to the lineage of folk music.

Ani DiFranco takes the stage accompanied by bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Terence Higgins, remarking that it feels good to be playing in Scotland in embrace of her part-Scottish heritage. It only takes a few notes of set opener Shy for cheers from the audience and the start of a sing-along, while the following songs come with reference to her personal biography.

DiFranco describes being 20 and feeling like ‘a hard and rogue dog’ before playing You Had Time; she transports us to 1995, when she was writing a feminist song about trying to hear one another, and rocks out to Not a Pretty Girl leaning back with her guitar raised up on her knee. She goes on to say that it wouldn’t be a folk show without a little bit of politics, and performs new songs about sticking it to the democratic process, as well as women’s reproductive freedom. 

Queen's Hall's acoustics complement her set nicely, as the deep sound of the double bass echoes throughout the hall. During the show, DiFranco alternates between six different guitars of different shapes and sizes, transitioning from one to the other at the end of almost every song.

Towards the end of the night, she gives a heartfelt dedication to her friend David Rosser, The Afghan Whigs guitarist, who recently passed away. She invites Brown and Enyeart back onstage to perform a slow, moving rendition of Woe Be Gone. Finally, taking encore suggestions from members of the audience, DiFranco performs fast paced renditions of Shameless and 32 Flavors, rhythmically racing through chord progressions on her guitar.