They released a full-length record album entitled Strange Fire in 1987, and contracted with a major record company in 1988.[1] After releasing nine albums with major record labels from 1987 through 2007, they formed the IG Recordings company in 2009 and resumed self-producing albums.[2]
Outside of working on Indigo Girls–related projects, Ray has released solo albums and founded a non-profitrecording label that promotes independent musicians. Saliers is an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry as well as a professional author; she also collaborates with her father, Don Saliers, in performing for special groups and causes. Saliers and Ray are both lesbians, though not a romantic couple, and are active in political and environmental causes. They are regarded as queer icons.[3]
Recording and touring
Early years
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers first met and got to know each other as students at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia, just outside Decatur, Georgia,[4] but were not close friends because Saliers was a grade older than Ray. While attending Shamrock High School (now Druid Hills Middle School), they became better acquainted, and started performing together, first as "The B-Band" and then as "Saliers and Ray".[1]
Saliers graduated and began attending Tulane University in Louisiana. A year later, Ray graduated high school and began attending Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University in Atlanta (where Saliers' father was a professor).[5]
After forming their duo in college, the Indigo Girls played small clubs in the Emory Village district of Druid Hills, Georgia.
By 1985, they had begun performing together again, this time as Indigo Girls.[1] Saliers stated in a March 2007 National Public RadioTalk of the Nation interview, "we needed a name and we went through the dictionary looking for words that struck us and indigo was one."[6]
Their first release in 1985 was a seven-inch single named "Crazy Game", with the B-side "Everybody's Waiting (for Someone to Come Home)".[1] That same year, the Indigo Girls released a six-track extended play album named Indigo Girls, and in 1987 released their first full-length album, Strange Fire, recorded at John Keane Studio in Athens, Georgia, and including "Crazy Game".[1] With this release, they secured the services of Russell Carter, who remains their manager to the present; they had first approached him when the EP album was released, but he told them their songs were "immature" and they were not likely to get a record deal. Strange Fire apparently changed his opinion.[7]
Epic Records (1988–2006)
The success of 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman, and Suzanne Vega encouraged Epic Records to enlist other folk-based female singer-songwriters; Epic signed the duo in 1988. Their first major-label release, also named Indigo Girls, which scored No. 22 on the album chart, included a new version of "Land of Canaan", which was also on their 1985 EP album and on Strange Fire.[1] Also on the self-titled release was their first hit "Closer to Fine" (a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers),[1] which scored No. 52 on the popular music chart and No. 26 on the modern rock chart. They even managed one week on the mainstream rock album-oriented rock music chart at No. 48.[8] In 1990, they won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Their second album, Nomads Indians Saints, went gold in December 1991 and included the hit song "Hammer and a Nail", a No. 12 modern rock music track; it was not as successful as their first, which was certified platinum at about the same time. The Indigo Girls followed it with the live Back on the Bus, Y'all and 1992's album Rites of Passage, featuring the song "Galileo",[1] the duo's first top 10 modern rock music track (#10). During the accompanying tour in December, they invited on a few dates Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees as special guest to sing a couple of songs with them.[9] They then recorded Swamp Ophelia in 1994,[1] which went platinum in September 1996, and charted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
In 1995, the Indigo Girls released a live, double CD, 1200 Curfews. Shaming of the Sun was released in 1997 followed by Come on Now Social in 1999. Shaming of the Sun debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's contribution to the Lilith Fair music festival tour. The track "Shame on You" received more airplay on adult alternative, top 40 and adult top 40 radio stations than any of their previous singles, although this seemed to be a peak in their crossover success.
Retrospective, a compilation album with two new tracks, was released in 2000 and Become You followed two years later. Their last Epic studio album was All That We Let In, released in 2004 with an accompanying tour. On June 14, 2005, they released Rarities, a collection of B-sides and rare tracks partially decided by fans' input, which fulfilled the album count obligation for their contract with Epic.
Hollywood Records (2006–07)
Indigo Girls performing in 2005.
After departing Epic, the Indigo Girls signed a five-record deal with Hollywood Records. Their first (and only) Hollywood album, Despite Our Differences, produced by Mitchell Froom, was released on September 19, 2006. John Metzger from MusicBox Online described Despite our Differences as "the most infectious, pop-infused set that the duo ever has managed to concoct.[10] In fact, its melodies, harmonies, and arrangements are so ingratiating that the album carries the weight of an instant classic." Thom Jurek from AllMusic wrote: "part of an emotional journey as complete as can be. More relevant than anyone dared expect. It's accessible and moving and true. It's their own brand of rock & roll, hewn from over the years, that bears a signature that is now indelible. A moving, and utterly poetic offering."[11]
After releasing Despite Our Differences, the Indigo Girls' contract was terminated by Hollywood Records during their 2007 tour.[12]
Following their break with Hollywood Records, the Indigo Girls announced their next record would be released independently. Poseidon and the Bitter Bug was released on March 24, 2009, from IG Recordings, the Indigo Girls' label, and distributed through Vanguard Records. This album is their first fully independent release since 1987's Strange Fire, and their first two-CD set since 1995's live album 1200 Curfews; the first disc has the 10 tracks accompanied by a backing band, and the second includes the same 10 songs with only Ray and Saliers on vocals and acoustic guitars, and an additional track. On June 29, 2010 Indigo Girls' second full-length live album, Staring Down the Brilliant Dream, was released on IG Recordings/Vanguard Records. This was followed on October 12, 2010 with their first holiday album Holly Happy Days. Indigo Girls' thirteenth studio album, Beauty Queen Sister, was released on October 4, 2011, and their fourteenth studio album, One Lost Day, was released on June 2, 2015 (both on IG Recordings/Vanguard Records).
Ray and Saliers do not ordinarily collaborate in writing songs.[13] Saliers described herself as "a lyric person. [...] I’ve always respected Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan". Saliers said: "Amy is much more a combination of music and lyrics. She really likes alternative rock a lot, and she likes the feel of certain kinds music as well as the lyrics. Amy is more stream-of-consciousness. She doesn’t censor herself at all; she just channels it through herself, so in her lyrics, she has tons of different kinds of images, sensual images, things of the earth, that connection to nature. Mine is a much more singer-songwriter intellectual narrative style. I take an idea and try to really pinpoint it, make it as clear as possible".[14]
They write separately and work out the arrangements together.[15] There are a few exceptions, mostly unreleased songs from their early, pre-Epic days: "I Don't Know Your Name" and "If You Live Like That." "Blood Quantum", which appears on Honor: A Benefit for the Honor the Earth Campaign featured Ray's verses and chorus and Saliers's bridge. Finally, "I'll Give You My Skin", which appears both on Tame Yourself (a benefit album for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and on the Indigo Girls release Rarities, is a collaborative work by Ray, Saliers, and Michael Stipe, which is doubly rare because Saliers and Ray usually write their songs without outside collaborators. For their 2002 release, 'Become You,' Ray reported that they handed instruments back and forth to compose leads collaboratively, something they had never done before.[16] In September 2020, the Indigo Girls released "Long Ride", the first song Ray and Saliers had written together in 30 years.[17]
Touring band
The Indigo Girls have toured as a duo and with a band. In 1990, they toured with Atlanta band the Ellen James Society backing them; they have also toured with side players, with one distinct group from 1991 to 1998, a second from 1999 to 2009, members of which appeared on all of the Girls' subsequent albums and which re-formed as a live band in 2023, and a third from 2012 to 2016. Names in bold are of mainstays of the touring band.
Saliers was a founding co-owner of Watershed Restaurant[19] in Decatur, Georgia. She sold Watershed in 2018. Saliers was an initial investor in the Flying Biscuit Cafe[20] in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2005, Saliers and her father, Don Saliers, a theology professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, released the book A Song to Sing, a Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice. They promoted the release of the book together including several days of speaking and performing together at the Washington National Cathedral College in Washington D.C.
Ray and Saliers appeared in the 1995 film Boys on the Side, playing short excerpts from their songs "Joking" and "Southland in the Springtime", as well as singing "Feliz Cumpleaños" ("Happy Birthday" in Spanish) with the gathered group of friends during the birthday cake scene, and standing on the far side of several shots over the next few scenes. Neither had spoken lines. The duo also appear in the 2006 documentary Wordplay, where they discuss their reaction to appearing in a New York Timescrossword puzzle and then begin to solve one together.
Ray and Saliers made several cameo appearances on the sitcom Ellen; in the episode "Womyn Fest", Ellen and her friends attend a feminist music festival and catch the end of a performance by the Indigo Girls.
Their posters are seen on the British soap Brookside and the 1996 slasher film Scream.
The duo appeared onstage alongside standup comedian Tig Notaro during Notaro's 2018 show "Happy to be Here" at The Heights in Houston, Texas, as a closing bit, performing one song.
In the 2023 film Barbie, Barbie sings along to "Closer to Fine." The song appears three times in the film, as well as in its trailer.[21][22]
A collection of Indigo Girls' songs is used in the jukebox musical movie Glitter and Doom, which has been touring movie festivals across North America. The film has no confirmed release date.[23]
Indigo Girls are featured in "Foreword: A Conversation with the Indigo Girls, Kathy Mattea, and Lyle Lovett" in Brian T. Atkinson's Love at the Five and Dime: The Songwriting Legacy of Nanci Griffith (Texas A&M University Press, 2024).
Personal lives
Both Ray and Saliers use she/her pronouns.[24] They long identified themselves as lesbians, but more recently, Ray [25] and Saliers [26] have publicly commented that they are or previously have been sexually attracted to men in their lives, and that they identify as queer. More specifically, Ray has openly talked about her gender dysphoria and identifying as gender fluid, and the challenges she has felt in her own body. “I definitely still feel like a guy a lot of the time, but I guess I’ve just gotten to a place where like, ‘Well, I have fought really hard to be in this body and I’m just gonna stay here,’ and also felt somewhat evenly split between male and female to the point where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can choose, like I think I’m gonna have to just live in the center,’” Ray said. Both Saliers and Ray have spoken openly about having internalized homophobia. Because of their engagements for LGBT rights, they are regarded as icons of the movement.[27][28][29]
Amy Ray has long lived in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her longtime partner, filmmaker Carrie Schrader from Seattle, whom she’s been with since 2001. In November 2013, Schrader gave birth to the couple’s child, Ozilline “Ozie” Graydon. Ozie is named after Ray’s grandmother, who was also the inspiration for the 1999 Indigo Girls song “Ozilline,” penned by Ray.[30]
Saliers married her longtime girlfriend,[31] former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristin Chipman, at New York City Hall[32] in 2013.[33] Chipman, a Canadian, is from Calgary, "but she spent most of her adult life in Toronto," according to Saliers between songs when performing onstage in Vancouver in 2013.[33] The couple have a daughter, Cleo, born in November 2012.[34][33]
Political activism
The Indigo Girls have been politically active, championing the causes of and held benefit concerts for the environment, gay rights, the rights of Native Americans, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. For many years they incorporated a recycling and public outreach program into their road tours by including Greenpeace representative Stephanie Fairbanks in their road crew. They helped Winona LaDuke establish Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to creating support and education for native environmental issues. After performing on the activist-oriented Spitfire Tour in 1999, Ray and Saliers joined forces with The Spitfire Agency to develop the Honor The Earth Tour, which visits colleges and Native communities, and raises money for their non-profit of the same name. Ray and Saliers have also appeared at the annual SOA Watch rallies, the March for Women's Lives, and several other rallies and protests.
In 2006 the Indigo Girls were featured in artist Pink's album I'm Not Dead in the song "Dear Mr. President", which Pink says[35] is a political confrontation with George W. Bush about war, poverty, LGBT rights, abortion rights, and the No Child Left Behind Act. Returning the favor, Pink performed on the Indigo Girls' "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate," which is about, among other things, sexism and heterosexism in the music industry.
In April 2013, in response to criticism from transgender activists, the Indigo Girls issued a statement that they would play at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, but would protest the festival's "womyn-born womyn" policy from the stage, would donate any money received to trans activism, and would not return to the festival without "visible and concrete signs" that the policy would be changed.[37]
In November 2017, the Indigo Girls were nominated to Out magazine's "OUT100" for 2017 in recognition of their work and their visibility.[38]
The Indigo Girls are also members of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and have worked with them on awareness campaigns.[39]
Collective Soul is an American rock band originally from Stockbridge, Georgia. Now based in Atlanta, the group consists of the brothers Ed and Dean Roland, Will Turpin (bassist), Johnny Rabb (drummer), and Jesse Triplett. Formed in 1992, the original lineup consisted of the Roland brothers, bassist David Neal, guitarist Ross Childress, and drummer Shane Evans. Collective Soul released their Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid album on the independent label Rising Storm Records in 1993. The band went from obscurity to popularity that year after the album's lead single "Shine" received regional radio play. Around the same time, Turpin replaced Neal on bass. The album was then re-released in 1994 by the major label Atlantic Records; thus, "Shine" became a national hit as it peaked at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock and No. 4 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Indigo Girls is the second studio album and first major label release by American folk rock duo the Indigo Girls. It was originally released in 1989 by Epic Records, and reissued and remastered in 2000 with two bonus tracks.
Swamp Ophelia is the fifth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released in 1994.
Georgia's musical history is diverse and substantial; the state's musicians include Southern rap groups such as Outkast and Goodie Mob, as well as a wide variety of rock, pop, blues, and country artists such as the late Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, and The Allman Brothers Band. The music of Athens, Georgia is especially well known for a kind of quirky college rock that has included such well-known bands as R.E.M., The B-52's, and Pylon.
Billy Pilgrim is an American folk rock duo based in Atlanta, Georgia, composed of Andrew Hyra and Kristian Bush. The band's name was taken from the time-traveling antihero of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five. The name was adopted in 1994; prior to that the duo simply billed itself as Andrew Hyra and Kristian Bush. The band has released two albums on a major record label and several independently. The songs "Get Me Out Of Here" and "Sweet Louisiana Sound" were released as singles.
Amy Elizabeth Ray is an American singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls with Emily Saliers. She also pursues a solo career, releasing ten albums under her own name, and founded the independent label Daemon Records in 1989. Ray is known for her alto and tenor range, and plays both electric and acoustic guitar, as well as mandolin and harmonica.
Emily Ann Saliers is an American singer-songwriter and member of the musical duo Indigo Girls. Saliers sings soprano and plays lead guitar as well as banjo, piano, mandolin, ukulele, bouzouki and many other instruments.
James Vincent Hall is an American rock singer and guitarist, best known for his gothic-style lyrics, distinctive voice, avant-garde performances and eclectic compositions.
Rites of Passage is the fourth studio album by American folk rock duo the Indigo Girls, released on May 12, 1992, by Epic Records.
Jennifer Odessa Nettles is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer.
Nomads Indians Saints is the third studio album by Indigo Girls, released in 1990. It was reissued and remastered in 2000 with three bonus tracks.
Despite Our Differences is the tenth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released in 2006. The title is drawn from third track, "I Believe in Love".
Shaming of the Sun, sometimes mislabeled as Shaming the Sun, is the sixth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released on April 29, 1997. It was the duo's highest-charting album in the U.S., peaking at number 7 on the Billboard 200.
Strange Fire is the debut studio album by American folk rock duo Indigo Girls. It was originally released independently on Indigo Records in Canada with eleven tracks. Epic Records signed the duo in 1988, and after their eponymous second album became a commercial success in early 1989, Epic re-released this album in the United States with a different running order, two tracks removed, and a new track, a cover of the Youngbloods' hit "Get Together".
Poseidon and the Bitter Bug is the 11th studio album by Indigo Girls, released on March 24, 2009 by Vanguard Records. The title is drawn from lines in tracks "Fleet of Hope" and "Second Time Around" – "You're all washed up when Poseidon has his day" and "I've been bitten by the bitter bug."
Rarities is a compilation album by Indigo Girls. It was released in 2005. It contains studio, demo, and live tracks, many of which had previously been released on other compilation and soundtrack albums.
The Shadowboxers are an American pop band formed in Atlanta, Georgia. The founding members —Scott Tyler, Adam Hoffman, and Matt Lipkins —met at Emory University in 2008.
Look Long is the fifteenth studio album by American folk rock duo Indigo Girls. The album was originally due to be released on April 24, 2020, but was delayed until May 22, 2020. The album has had a positive reception from critics.
Murmuration Nation is the first solo album by American folk musician and Indigo Girls member Emily Saliers.
"Closer to Fine" is a folk single by Indigo Girls, an American songwriting duo consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The single, released in 1989 from their eponymous second album, was written by Saliers. The song primarily speaks to the search for meaning in life. "Closer to Fine" was reviewed favorably, and appeared in the 2023 film Barbie.
Top 100 peaks from January 1990 to December 2010: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdfed.). Mt. Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.137.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
