Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco's release, ¿Which Side Are You On?, features 11 new songs alongside a radically reworked rendition of the classic title song, famously popularized by Pete Seeger nearly five decades ago, but no less relevant today. Backing DiFranco on this collection is a remarkably diverse line-up of stellar musicians, including members of her own touring band as well as guest players Ivan and Cyril Neville (of New Orleans' first family of funk and R&B, The Neville Brothers), avant-saxophonist Skerik (Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Meters), acclaimed singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, guitarist Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Amos Lee), and a host of New Orleans-based horn players known for their work in such outfits as Galactic, Bonerama, and The Rebirth Brass Band.
The newly recorded version of ¿Which Side Are You On? is a funk-fueled epic, incorporating not just Ani's band, but Pete Seeger himself on banjo and vocals alongside The Rivertown Kids, a Hudson Valley-based children's chorus, and The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders, a brass band consisting of students from The Roots of Music, a music education program for at-risk middle-school students in New Orleans. DiFranco contributed her own straight-from-the headlines verses to the song and has used it to close her own live shows ever since. The album represents an extraordinary snapshot of DiFranco's own life as well her sense of where the country stands at this particular moment in time.