After 18 years in the music industry, folk artist Ani DiFranco is releasing her 16th studio album, Red Letter Year, recorded over the course of two years.

This is much longer than it took to record her earlier albums. One reason for the delay was that DiFranco had a baby, Petah Lucia, now one year old. The child’s arrival is celebrated in the album’s “Present/Infant” with these lyrics, “I fear my life will be over/ and I will have never lived it unfettered…But now here’s this tiny baby/ and they say she looks just like me/ and she is smiling at me/ with that present/infant glee.”

Referring to the time it took to produce the album, DiFranco was quoted as saying, “I think I sorely needed to be slowed down, and finally a little person came along powerful enough to do it.”

The overall mood of the album is peaceful, contemplative and simple, and it explores such themes as love, family, independence, joy and politics. DiFranco sings sweetly in “Smiling Underneath,” offering lyrics such as “Don’t mind/ if every last person here/ is ugly and rude/ long as I’m with you/ I’ve got a good attitude.”

She shows her strong feminist and political opinion in “Alla This,” stating, “I won’t pray to a male god/ cuz that would be insane/ and I can’t support the troops/ cuz every last one of them is being duped.” Her voice rings clearly in every song. It dominates background instrumentals although there is a strong incorporation of percussion, strings and guitar in her songs.

Red Letter Year may be her deepest and most developed album to date. She said, “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.”

The new album offers a new band too. Todd Sickafoose is upright bassist; Mike Dillon is vibraphonist and percussionist; and Allison Miller is the drummer. The album was recorded in New Orleans and features Louisiana artists, including Richard Comeaux and C.C. Adcock, as well as the Rebirth Brass Band, featured in the album’s final song, “Red Letter Reprise.”

A talented and independent artist DiFranco shines brightly in Red Letter Year. It will be released on September 30, 2008. DiFranco, whom Rolling Stone has described as “fiercely independent,” continues to create profound and inspirational music on her new release.

She started making her way into the music world as a teenager when she performed in folk clubs and bars. Since then, she has received eight Grammy nominations, sold over 4.5 million records and formed her own label, Righteous Babe Records.

“I’ve got myself a new mantra,” DiFranco states of her new studio album. “It says ‘Don’t forgot to have a good time.'”