Not a Pretty Girl CD

Ani DiFranco founded Righteous Babe Records in 1990 for one reason, so no major label could ever tell her what to do, and "Not a Pretty Girl," her sixth album, is what that independence sounds like stripped bare: just acoustic guitar and Andy Stochansky's percussion behind her blunt, feminist songwriting on tracks like the title cut and "Shy." It is leaner and sparer than the horn-and-band records she would build out later, and that bareness is the whole point.