- Smug because her chair is awesome
If there’s a poster child for running a successful career by doing whatever you damn well please — independent of the music industry’s repressive machinations — it’s most assuredly Ani DiFranco. From the start, the Buffalo native has resolutely rejected any proscribed pattern along her singular musical path, which has fearlessly included signature guerilla folk colored with bold strokes of pop, jazz and rock as a soundtrack to her pointed social/cultural/sexual observations. DiFranco hasn’t even allowed her most ardent and militant fans to pigeonhole her; the moment she’s felt constrained in any manner, she’s moved the chains and started anew. That’s the definition of artistic courage. DiFranco hasn’t put out a new studio album since 2008’s Red Letter Year, but she’s currently in the middle of a “Winter Tour” that brings her to the Kent Stage (175 E. Main St., Kent, 330.677.5005, kentstage.org) tonight. Showtime is 8 p.m. Erin McKeown opens. Tickets:$36-$65. —Brian Baker
