Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco [ tickets ] has added new concert dates starting in March to what was already shaping up to be a busy start to her 2008 itinerary.

The new shows follow DiFranco's upcoming January swing, which kicks off Jan. 17 in Huntington, NY; fellow folkie and labelmate Anais Mitchell will handle opening support for the early year shows, which conclude with a pair of February dates.

The singers will then break for about a month before kicking off an additional leg of headlining shows March 1 in Rochester, NY, centered around DiFranco's March 9 slot at southern Florida's Langerado Music Festival. She'll be backed during the trek by her usual crew of Todd Sickafoose on upright bass and Allison Miller on drums. All of the singer's current dates are included below.

Released in September, DiFranco's new album, "Canon," is her first-ever career retrospective. She hand-selected 36 songs for the two-disc set, which covers material from her 1990 debut to her 19th album, last year's "Reprieve." "Canon" also includes five re-recorded versions of old DiFranco favorites, including "Both Hands," which is streaming at her MySpace page.

DiFranco, who also recently saw her first book of poetry, "Verses," hit store shelves in the US, spent much of this year getting back into the swing of a full-time music career following the birth of her first daughter, Petah Lucia, last January. The child's father is Mike Napolitano, who co-produced DiFranco's 2006 album "Reprieve."