Ani DiFranco

Young Ani DiFranco was all nervous energy and open wounds. She fingerpicked and hard-strummed tales of radiant joy and smoldering hurt. But comfort is never as interesting as conflict, and DiFranco as a married woman — jamming out a good time with a full band of friends — seldom held a candle to the raw work of a single girl fighting her way down the country’s highways and through its clubs and subcultures. Now DiFranco has rid herself of her band and her husband. Loss is a good starting point — Educated Guess is DiFranco’s best studio work since 1996’s Dilate. Some songs are acoustic, some electric, all gentle. The pixie of the past is gone. The woman she’s become may yet make us forgive her for growing up.