Fun filled and jammy. I love the live performance of Do Re Mi. I'd never heard that song before but adored it the first time I heard it come out of Ms. Difranco's mouth. A really fun remix of Swing and To The Teeth. Definetly worth the price.. WARNING: Hard to let go of after first listen! Enjoy

A few days before this record came out I saw the movie "The Hurricane". I was deeeply moved by that movie and particularly the featured track on the album, Bob Dylans'"hurricane". Then I came across Ani's version and it seemed that a classic had been filled with new life and new disgust at the ubsurdity Rubin Carter had incountered. That is simply the best track on this six song EP. Ani also reworked a few of her own songs and tha result was an better-than-album version of "to the teeth" the title track of her previous album. the other four songs are icing on the cake.

This little album from Ani might at first seem like a little self-endulgent exercise on her part. A number of the songs on this album were (albeit in different styles) also on her "To The Teeth" album. Nonetheless, the Bob Dylan cover "Hurricane" Ani and her band perform on the album is absolutely, utterly amazing. The choice of rythm, what instruments to play and Ani's stunning vocal abilities make this album worth buying just for this one song.

Serving as an excellent bridge between last year's *To The Teeth* and even newer material recently debuted at concerts, Ani DiFranco's *Swing Set* features both funk and folk and evenly mixes the two on the bookend tracks of this sharply designed EP.

The first song is a tightened radio edit version of the groove-laced "Swing," and it is followed by the album cut. Both display a new sonic vocabulary that Ani built while on tour with jazz/funk legend Maceo Parker last summer. "Swing" is totally unlike any other Ani DiFranco song published to date, but it doesn't grate against its context the way some of her other somewhat experimental tacks have. The third track is a total reinvention of "To The Teeth"; it features the same chordal structure but changes nearly everything else. Cleverly using the gunfire of what might have been an old cartoon as its percussion track and resampled horns from the original for ornamentation, "To The Teeth" provides a totally fresh look at Ani's emotional plea for gun control.

The latter half of the *Swing* EP features some superb cover recordings, something DiFranco's catalogue has severely lacked thus far. First is Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi," recorded on tour with folkers extraordinaire Greg Brown and Gillian Welch. The harmony that these performers and their side-men add to Ani's melody is welcome and warranted, while the inclusion of other experienced guitarists on a DiFranco track is a treat. Phil Och's "When I'm Gone" provides stark contrast, a slow and thoughtful acoustic construction featuring only Ani and her own acoustic guitar. As Ani herself has pointed out, 'silences have their own things to say,' and she says plenty here with the moments of calm left in the wake of sweet guitar reverb. Capping off Ani's second "single" is a growling band version of Bob Dylan's classic "Hurricane." Ani had recorded it for last year's film The Hurricane (whose subject it is about) but it was inexplicably unused. The song features no discernible acoustic guitar, instead standing by virtue of a backbone of solid bass, organ, and drums. Ani herself adds a spare electric riff and a weathered but energetic vocal. Here she is in her glory: not singing so much as storytelling. That is partially the beauty of Dylan's construction, swinging back and forth between menacing minor-key verses and shimmering major outros. Clocking in at over seven minutes, afterwards you don't know whether you should start breathing again or if you should just press the play button.

Here's some advice: Press the play button.

Swing, one of the funkiest songs from "To The Teeth," makes a nice expanded single. The CD includes an additional version of Swing, plus new material from the same vein as To The Teeth. The album version of the song alone is worth the buy, and the new material is good Ani quality.