Red Letter Year is a studio album by singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

, released on September 30, 2008.

Says DiFranco about the album: “When I listen to my new record, I hear a very relaxed me, which I think has been absent in a lot of my recorded canon. Now I feel like I’m in a really good place. My partner Mike Napolitano co-produced this record – my guitar and voice have never sounded better, and that’s because of him. I’ve got this great band and crew. And my baby, she teaches me how to just be in my skin, to do less and be more.”

Track listing

Personnel

• Ani DiFranco
  Ani DiFranco
  Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
  
   – acoustic and electric guitars, tenor guitar, 12 string guitar, guitar synth, percussion, optigan
  Optigan
  The Optigan was an electronic keyboard instrument designed for the consumer market. The name stems from the instrument's reliance on pre-recorded optical soundtracks to reproduce sound...
  
  , wurlitzer, synthesizers, ukuleles, vocals
• Todd Sickafoose
  Todd Sickafoose
  Todd Sickafoose is an American jazz and rock bassist originally from the San Francisco Bay Area who now lives in Brooklyn, New York.He is best known for playing bass with Ani DiFranco, but he has also led his own group called, "Todd Sickafoose's Blood Orange".Sickafoose has been a member of the...
  
   – fender bass, piano, wurlitzer, pump organ, bowed basses, synthesizer
• Mike Dillon
  Mike Dillon (musician)
  Mike Dillon is a percussionist, vibraphonist, bandleader, vocalist and songwriter born in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of Critters Buggin, Les Claypool's Fancy Band and Garage A Trois...
  
   – marimba, tubular bells, vibraphone, percussion
• Allison Miller
  Allison Miller (drummer)
  Allison Miller is a New York City-based drummer, singer, and composer.Miller has performed with songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, and Erin McKeown, and toured with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and organist Doctor Lonnie Smith....
  
   – drums, percussion
• Jenny Scheinman
  Jenny Scheinman
  Jenny Scheinman is an accomplished violinist. Renowned as a jazz violinist, she has credits with artists in many genres. She has collaborated and played with Linda Perry, Norah Jones, Nels Cline, Lou Reed, Ani Difranco, Bruce Cockburn, Aretha Franklin, Lucinda Williams, Bono, and Bill Frisell and...
  
   – violin on tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
• Megan Gould – violin on tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
• Jessica Troy – viola on tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
• Marika Hughes – cello on tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
• C. C. Adcock
  C. C. Adcock
  C. C. Adcock is a rock and roll musician, noted for his cajun, zydeco, electric blues and swamp pop-influenced sound, and for his efforts to preserve and promote swamp pop music...
  
   – electric guitar on tracks 3, 4
• Richard Comeaux – pedal steel on tracks 3, 5, 10
• Animal Prufrock
  Animal Prufrock
  Animal Prufrock is an openly lesbian and transgender singer-songwriter. S/he is best known for being the co-creator of the band Bitch and Animal....
  
   – piano on track 4, percussion on track 6
• Jeff Klein
  Jeff Klein
  Jeffrey Lawrence "Jeff" Klein is an American singer/songwriter from Newburgh, New York, who plays keyboards and guitar. He has released three critically acclaimed albums.-Biography:...
  
   – vocals on track 6
• Rene Lopez – percussion on track 6
• Jon Hassell
  Jon Hassell
  Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...
  
   – trumpet on track 11
• The Rebirth Brass Band
  Rebirth Brass Band
  The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1982 by tuba/sousaphone player Philip Frazier, his brother, bass drummer, Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, and other school marching band members from Joseph S. Clark Senior High School in New Orleans’ Tremé...
  
  – on tracks 1 and 12
  • Phil Frazier – tuba (band leader)
  • Shorty Frazier – bass drum
  • Derrick Tabb – snare drum
  • Derrick Shezbie – trumpet
  • Glen Andrews – trumpet
  • Stafford Agee – trombone
  • Corey Henry – trombone
  • Vincent Broussard – saxophone
  • Byron (Flee) Bernard – saxophone

Production credits

• Produced by Mike Napolitano and Ani D.
• Recorded and mixed by Mike Napolitano at The Dugout, New Orleans, Louisiana and at Dockside, Maurice, Louisiana
• Rebirth Brass Band recorded at Fudge, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Strings recorded at Studio G, Brooklyn, New York
• Additional engineers:
  • Dockside – David Rashou, Corie Richie
  • Fudge – Jack Miele
  • Studio G – Tony Maimone
• Jon Hassell recorded by Jesse Voccia
• Rene Lopez recorded by Ken Rich
• Additional recording by Ani and Todd Sickafoose

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2008	The Billboard 200	55
2008	Top Independent Albums	8