She attacks the stage with the intensity of a Pit Bull – wiry, compact, stalking the microphone with a steely gaze before exploding into in a frenzy of rapid fire acoustic riffs and powerhouse vocals spewing staccato lyrics.

She’s stood alongside Prince in proclaiming unfair performer treatment by major record labels, has lent her voice to presidential politics and her lyrics to social issues ranging from homophobia to war to sexual abuse. A hero of the feminist movement she’s the only musician to receive a "Woman of Courage Award" from the National Organization for Women.

Her independence from major labels through the formation and ownership of Righteous Babe Records has given her the artistic freedom to develop a musical style shadowed in a netherworld between jazz, funk, electronica, folk and the occasional rap. With over 18 albums under her belt since her 1990 self titled debut, Ani DiFranco has flown under the radar of mass popularity carried on the wings of a fanatical fan base that has catapulted her into the realms of musical cult legend extraordinaire.

There is no doubt DiFranco is on a quest. At some point Gandalf surely placed a golden ring of music in her hand urging her to "keep it sacred…keep it safe." She’s met that request, churning out two decades of thought provoking consistently mesmerizing lyrics and music. Since the age of nine the Buffalo, New York legend has taken to the stage, forming her own record company at age 18. The acoustic was made for artists like DiFranco with her signature guitar style a firehouse of slamming staccato licks, scales and incredible finger picking. Her vocals both whisper, speak and roar into hypnotic variations of rhythm, her lyrics providing sledgehammer snapshots of the life around her.

DiFranco’s albums have progressed from the solo acoustic and vocals of her first two offerings to latino horns, synth electronica, lush vocal overlooping and full band blowouts, ever changing to meet her new material. But always she returns to the acoustic, Lennon’s working class hero reaching out to Guthrie’s Americana. Hers is an intellectual audience, appreciative of being challenged with political tirades tempered by self-deprecating often witty glimpses into sexism, death, abortion, pollution, racism, religion.

Di Franco’s latest offering is Reprieve, an undeniably political album expressing her frustration at being displaced from her New Orleans studio by the onslaught of Katrina and her search for humanity and equality after her return to the devastation of her adopted hometown. Track titles such as Half-Assed, Subconscious and the hazy Nicotine demonstrate a solid return home to the sledgehammer stylings her fans have come to expect. She restates her stance as a leading feminist in the title track "I mean to split yourself in two is just the most radical thing you can do/Goddess forbid that little Adam should grow so jealous of Eve and in the face of the great farce of the nuclear age/ Feminism ain’t about equality, it’s about reprieve."

Despite Grammy nominations, collaborations with the likes of Prince and Cyndi Lauper, and venues that include Cargenie Hall, DiFranco remains one of those shadowy performers preferring neighborhood clubs and hometown festivals to stadiums. "I know where I’m going/and it ain’t where I’ve been" she wails from the stage, setting the scene for a turbulent ride to follow. For a ruthlessly efficient introduction to punk-folk artist Ani DiFranco, ride out the hurricane on the 13-track Reprieve, an exhilarating musical calm after the storm.