Red Letter Year

Last night I got the chance to see Ani Difranco live in Edmonton (even though I was on shift)! She sang this new song titled "Red Letter Year", which is about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This isn't a video from last night, however. The audio quality isn't that good on this video, but I really wanted a good visual of her guitar playing. I love how she pulls the strings down on the neck of the guitar. I love to watch her play.




new years eve we dropped mushrooms
and danced around the house
making music with everything that we found
incantation replaced resolution
and we vowed to allow each perfection
that we could be
and the goddesses sent word
that this would be a red letter year
they didn't mention how much shit was gonna change around here

it's just as well we weren't swollen with unfocused dread
we had visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads
dancing in our heads

first you go under and then coming up gives you the bends
and when you break the surface
all you see is your friends
so you grab your purple crayon
and flesh out the picture behind
and finally the whole world is made of one unbroken line
one unbroken line

and when you wake up sick as a dog
with dull eyes and really bad hair
standing under a lit sign with the words on air
and the water is rising
it's coming in everywhere
just remember you are there
you're always, always there

and representing the white race
a man with a monkey for a face
is flying over in a helicopter
whistling dixie and playing dumb

in a town that might put a gun to your throat
or rip the roof right off of your place
there's a mold crawling up the walls
and falling asleep in your lungs
and you and i both know how to drink so
we will always have work in this town
besides the police are stationed at the bridge
and they're preventing passage to higher ground

so let's pull up a barstool
and get ourselves a ringside seat
for the one unnerving moment
they're gonna show the truth on TV.