LEWISTON — For singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, first came love, then came baby, then came marriage. DiFranco freely admits she turned this age-old saying on its head. But then, she’s always been one to take liberties with tradition.

Monday night in Artpark, for example, she updated Florence Reece’s classic protest song “Which Side Are You On?,” which she performed recently at Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday concert, with a reference to Reaganomics. She has maintained fiercely independent control over all aspects of her career, which now spans a wide arc but has always been followed at a micro-level in her hometown Buffalo.

The marriage and motherhood storyline has been much talked about. But it’s not one DiFranco fans could have expected 10 or 15 years ago. Her 2-year-old daughter and muse Petah has become the inspiration for songs such as “Present/Infant” on her most recent album — 2008’s “Red Letter Year.” “There’s nothing wrong with your face” — a line from “Present/Infant” — is a long way from the bitter letter of longing called “Untouchable Face,” which she wrote for “Dilate” in 1996.

This most prolific folk singer-songwriter with hundreds of songs and nigh-on-20 albums has progressed to a new and contented phase, or level, or whatever you want to call it. Her writing remains unswervingly honest and responsive to life changes and decisions. The “Red Letter Year” material was still fresh enough to anchor Monday’s set. Her relationships and baby’s sweet beginnings have given DiFranco a groundswell of new imagery and subjects to pull from.

Artpark’s subdued and smallish audience mostly welcomed this departure. But only the rapid succession of “Untouchable Face,” “Gravel” (from 1998’s “Little Plastic Castle”) and set-closer “Shameless” from “Dilate” got the crowd on its feet and swaying. Her band — Todd Sickafoose on upright bass and Allison Miller on drums—connected with DiFranco to find a sweet spot on the last stop of their summer tour.

The urban folk coffeehouse-tinge of “Swan Dive” also got a huge response early on. But it was DiFranco’s reflections and ruminations on family that dominated.

A much-buzzed about Dublin-based pop-folk-alternative duo called the Guggenheim Grotto opened the show. Its album “Happy the Man” features laced vocals and soaring arrangements that recall Doves or Spoon. But stripped slightly bare on stage, it evoked the vibrant busker scene of its native city. One couldn’t help but picture the duo on Grafton Street in the city’s posh shopping district with hat outstretched.

The Guggenheim Grotto has a knack for finding beauty in the mundane, such as American truck stops or a throwaway Leonard Cohen poem. Expect big things from this group.

DiFranco is also finding meaning in the seemingly mundane. “I don’t mind the gas, or the groceries or the grind / Long as I’m with you I’m having a good time,” she sang on “Smiling Underneath.” It’s a love song at its base and a snapshot of her current state of mind.

In a book called “Solo: Women Singer-songwriters In Their Own Words,” published in 1998, DiFranco wrote, “I’m still writing songs, but I’m not writing with the same careening, car-crashing desperation because I have something in the world other than myself and my guitar.” It may have been a different relationship then, but perhaps these aren’t entirely new feelings for her. Maybe this mind-set has been years in the making.

Concert Review

Ani DiFranco

Monday night in Artpark Mainstage Theater.