A Union of Activism and Music That Really Works

*** 1/2 ANI DiFRANCO & UTAH PHILLIPS

“Fellow Workers”

Righteous Babe

Don’t know a Wobbly from a Webelo? Can’t tell Mother Jones from Mother Teresa? If so, you might consider veteran folk balladeer and union organizer Phillips’ songs and stories of labor struggles and itinerant life archaic and irrelevant. Don’t let that put you off, though. The DiFranco-led settings on this warm, intimate set make the old-timer’s colorful yarns well worth a shot.

Even for staunch DiFranco fans familiar with her liberal activism and indie stance, this may be a bit of a left turn. It opens with an instrumental version of the unofficial workers’ anthem “Joe Hill” and closes with the official Socialist workers’ anthem “The Internationale.” But aesthetically it’s not as radical a diversion as 1997’s “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere,” in which DiFranco fashioned samples of Phillips’ witty tales into pieces of ambient electronica.

Recorded with a small audience in New Orleans’ homey Kingsway studio, it’s really Phillips’ show. DiFranco plays a supporting role, fronting a versatile chamber-folk ensemble in settings as inventive and captivating as any on her own releases, from the modernist disjoint of “Stupid’s Song” to the folk-soul bounce behind “Direct Action” to the ethereal jazz of “The Long Memory.” And Phillips’ tale-spinning, high-fiber as it may seem, is very entertaining in its own right. With DiFranco’s musical coating, it’s health food that tastes like a hot fudge sundae.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.