Ani DiFranco [ tickets ] will leave her band behind this winter, opting instead to perform a string of North American solo dates.

Until last year, DiFranco solo dates were a rarity. But in April, she embarked on her first tour without a backing band since 1994, and played additional North American solo dates in the fall. In July, she brought her band along for a four-week stint of European dates.

DiFranco's latest release is last year's live set, "So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter," which she issued on her own Righteous Babe label. The double-disc includes 23 songs culled from various concerts from 2000 to 2002.

With the exception of two tracks, all of the songs on the new live set were written after the release of DiFranco's first live album, 1997's "Living in Clip."

"So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter" also includes three songs not available on any other albums, including "Self Evident," which DiFranco penned shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The singer-songwriter's last studio album, the two-disc set "Reveling/Reckoning," was released in April of 2001.