Folk/rock singer and songwriter extraordinaire Ani DiFranco, who is known for the intensity of her live shows, will be hitting town for two rare solo acoustic shows this week.

DiFranco, who will perform her unique mix of music and spoken word, has toured with a six-piece band for the last three years, so this is indeed an exceptional treat for fans.

Her newest album “Evolve,”released earlier this year, captures the joyous, loose feel of her live shows.

DiFranco recently said this feeling was enhanced by the use of live in-studio recording with a minimum of overdubs.

“After making 25 records or so (most of them mine),” DiFranco said, “I have slowly developed a recording aesthetic, and the skills to realize it.”

On the album, DiFranco incorporates a wide spectrum of sounds and ideas into one thrilling musical ride full of thought-provoking lyrics and deeply personal songs.

The album also marks a changing point in her recent musical path, as it is the last album she plans to record with her band. This is also part of her ongoing evolution.”I imagine when I put a band together again in the future, it will be a much different beast.”

DiFranco, a Buffalo, NY native, has never been afaid to make and follow her own path. The fiercely independent musician owns and runs her own record label and has never bowed to the corporatization of the music scene.

She’s also outspoken politically and has the rare talent of makeing the very political personal, and vice versa.

DiFranco said in a recent interview, “Since political edifices are purporting to dictate to me whether I can or cannot have an abortion, what drugs I can or cannot ingest, where on this earth I can and cannot go, and who on this earth I can love (just to name a few things), then it seems obvious to me that the personal is political.”

As part of her ongoing political rallying, she joined the anti-war group, Not in Our Name, a collection of mostly artists and politicians who have banded together to voice their opposition of the war with Iraq.

As part of the group’s Statement Of Conscience,” the artists declare, “We refuse to allow you [President Bush] to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME.”

Earlier this year DiFranco and other musicians participated in an anti-war concert/protest in Berkeley to benefit the organization.

DiFranco will be performing tomorrow and Thursday night at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Denver. Special guests for the shows include the sexually-charged duo of multi-instrumentalists, the highly political Bitch and Animal.

Tickets are $32 and were still available at press time through Ticketmaster. More information about Ani DiFranco can be found on her record label’s Web site at www.righteousbaberecords.com. More information about Not in Our Name can be found at www.notinourname.net.