S T A T S

L A T E S T N E W S

The Girls will be releasing two albums next year; one a live set, one a studio album. The studio album will have a duo acoustic version and a version with a band. It's set to be released in February.

Amy Ray's latest solo work, entitled "Didn't It Feel Kinder", is set to be released July 27th.

The Girls have been DROPPED from Hollywood Records and are planning on releasing a new album INDEPENDENTLY this winter.

New dates for the summer leg of the girls' tour have been added - keep checking the official website for info!

B A N D H I S T O R Y

Indigo Girls are a folk-rock band comprised of two women, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They're familiar for their political activity and their hits "Closer to Fine" and "Galileo". Next to Melissa Etheridge and k.d. Lange, they're the best-known openly-gay female artists in the music industry.

Timeline: Amy and Emily met at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia just outside of Decatur. While singing together in the school choir, they developed a similar interest in writing music. While attending Shamrock High School, they started performing together as the B-Band and Saliers and Ray. Saliers graduated in 1982 and began attending Tulane University. A year later, Ray graduated and began at Vanderbilt University. Both women, however, became homesick and returned to Georgia, transferring to Emory University - Amy majored in Religeon and English, Emily in English. By 1985, they had both graduated and began performing together again, this time as the Indigo Girls - a name selected completely at random by Ray out of a dictionary.

Right from the beginning, the group was a grass-roots effort. Emily and Amy did a lot of calling around and booking of the act for themselves. After awhile, they became locally fameous as a regular act at the Little 5 Points Pub. The band pressed a seven-inch single in 1985, "Crazy Game" and "Everybody's Waiting (For Somebody To Come Home)" - the disc proves that already the group dynamic had gelled, as it featured one song written by Ray and one written by Saliers, a parity that continues to this day. Amy and Emily rarely collaborate on songs - they've only penned songs together four times, in the rare early tracks "If You Live Like That" and "I Don't Know Your Name", "Quantum Blood", a song written as part of the benefit album for the Honor the Earth campaign, and "I'll Give You My Skin", co-created with friend and REM lead singer Michael Stipe (Stipe paid them back by singing on the bridge of the IG favorite "Kid Fears") for a PETA benefit record. Albums usually contain an even number of Ray-penned and Saliers-penned tracks, with a few exceptions (For instance, "All That We Let In" features four Ray tracks and five Saliers tracks).

With a little more seasoning, The duo went back to the studio and released an EP "Strange Fire" in 1987, which included a raw and rootsy version of the soon-to-be perrenial audience favorite "Land of Canaan".

Upon the EP's release they secured the services of Russell Carter, who remains their manager to the present day; they had first approached him when the EP was released, but he told them their songs were "immature" and they weren't likely to get a record deal. Strange Fire apparently changed his mind.

1987 was the year of the second Folk Boom, percipitated by Suzanne Vega's "Luka" reaching number one and top-ten albums by such artists as 10,000 Maniacs, Shawn Colvin and Rickie Lee Jones. Women-in-Rock were bcoming a huge deal again, and the Athens' College Rock scene was in full bloom, giving birth in rapid succession to such huge acts as REM and the B-52's. The Girls were positioned for their big break, and they recieved it in the form of an Epic Records contract in 1988.

The Girls promptly went into the studio, and the result, 1988's Self-Titled (Indigo Girls), broke them huge as a mainstream act when it hit #22 on the charts. It includes the perrenial radio favorite "Closer to Fine" (#26 on the Modern Rock chart, #48 on the Mainstream Charts, #52 on the Pop Charts) and "Kid Fears", which as previously stated features Michael Stipe, and the rest of REM backing them on "Tried to be True". The act was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys that year and Best Traditional Folk Album - they won their first award with the Traditional Folk award. The band gigged tirelessly in support of the record, beginning the tradition of countrywide touring which would become an IG hallmark.

The next record was Nomads Indians Saints, relased in 1990, which delved into the Girls mutual love of nature and religeon. "Hammer and Nail", which featured Mary Chapin Carpenter on backing vocals and was the first single, charted at #12 on the modern rock charts but the album itself was not as big a hit as it's predecessor. Nevertheless, it includes such concert favorites as "World Falls" and "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars".

The next release was 1991's "Back on the Bus, Y'All", the band's first live album, which capturs the initial excitement they experienced after "Indigo Girls" broke big. It includes Ray's cover of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" and, as the final track, "1-2-3." from Nomads Indians Saints.

Released in 1992, "Rites Of Passage" hit #21 on the Billboard Chart and is perhaps the Girls best-known CD. It includes the hit "Galileo" (which charted at #10 on the Modern Rock charts and #89 on the Bilboard Hot 100) and featured David Crosby and Jackson Browne on backing vocals, and such popular concert tunes as "Joking", "Chickenman", "Love Will Come To You" and "Let It Be Me". The girls were beginning to move into the mainstream, and gigged with country act Mary Chapin-Carpenter and folk legend Joan Baez in a package tour that took them overseas. They also did backup work for Carpenter on the singer's "Come On, Come On" Record (The tracks "The Hard Way" and "Walking Through Fire")

1994's "Swamp Ophelia", a bit of a departure for the band as it included sampling and looping. The experimental first single was "Touch Me Fall". Swamp Ophelia hit #9 on the Bilboard Charts and included the often-played "Least Complicated" and "The Wood Song". The band was in for quite a bit of good fortune - they sold out large arenas across the country, played Jesus (Ray) and Mary Magdalane (Saliers) onstage in Jesus Christ: Superstar: A Revivial In Atlanta, Seattle and Austin, and had small roles in the Whoopi Goldberg/Drew Barrymore vehicle "Boys on the Side".

In 1995, the band released "1200 Curfew", a double live album which included tracks recorded over the years of touring and behind the scenes at their huge "Honor The Earth" tour, plus studio covers of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". They did backup work for Ferron (The track "Stand Up") and Nancy Griffith ("Days in an Open Book")

In 1997, the Girls toured with the Lilith Fair, a huge package tour not unlike Warped or Ozzfest which was helmed by Sarah McLachlan and featured only female artists. Their follow-up record post-tour, "Shaming of The Sun", proved to be even more experimental than "Swamp Ophelia" - it included such full-out rockers as "Shed Your Skin" and "Shame on You" and several tracks included ululations from Native American group Ulali. The album was such a huge departure from form that many fans seemed confused by the new direction - it would be the band's last top-ten record to this date, debuting at #7 and making the record their peak in mainstream popularity. There were no hits on the rock charts with this album, despite there being a lot of radio play for "Shame on You". As a capper to their biggest year yet, they put on a Pay Per View show.

"Come On Now Social", released in 1999, muddied the picture even more - with songs such as "Go" on the forefront, the only song recognizable to the casual listener as an "Indigo Girls Song" would be Saliers' "Peace Tonight". It also included a rare rocker from Saliers: "Trouble". The disc stalled out in the mid-50's on the charts, but by now the Girls had developed an extremely loyal and vociferous fanbase which continued to sell out club appearences and smaller arena shows.

In 2000, "Retrospective" was the next release, a greatest hits record that includes two new songs, the concert favorite "Devotion" and "Leaving".

While touring heavily, the band recorded and put out "Becomes You" in 2001 - "Yield", from this album, is often the first or second song played during an Indigo Girls concert nowadays, and the song "Bitteroot" is often played as mash-up with "Passages'" Chickenman. The album features the first on-record collaboration bewtween the girls and Joan Osbourne, who would return to lay down supporting vocals for several tracks on the next album.

"All That We Let In", released in 2004, helped to mark the end of the Girls' ten-plus-year relationship with Epic Records. It includes "Fill It Up Again", another concert staple. The following year, "Rarities" - with a track listing chosen by fans from rare material - was released (many IG fans, who widely circulate even the rarest of live bootleg material and non-officially-released studio outtakes, had already heard many of these songs anyway and jokingly complained the album title was false advertising).

In 2006, despite rumors that they would sign with a small, independent label, The Girls signed with Hollywood Records, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation. "Despite Our Differences", which was released in September of 2006, peaked on the charts at #30 and includes the singles "Pendulum Swinger", "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate", "Last Tears" and "Little Perrenials". "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gates" features backing vocals from Pink, a return favor for the Girls' backup work on Pink's "Dear Mister President" on her "I'm Not Dead" album. "Last Tears" features a pre-fame Brandi Carlile

In April of 2008, the girls were dropped from Hollywood Records. They plan to sign a deal with an independent distributor, and a two new albums are scheduled to come out this winter, one a live set, the other a studio production.

A M Y R A Y

Amy Ray is, to the newly initiated, the brunette one in the IG. She's often labeled as the "firey one", the one with the rock tendancies, or the "political one", but Amy has diverse tastes that stem from influences as widely-flung as Bob Dylan and The Clash. She was born April 12th, 1964.

Amy was the first Girl to make a solo sucess of herself, releasing three albums, the more rock-orientated "Stag", the quieter, more pop-ish "Prom," and "Didn't It Feel Kinder" set to be released July 27th of 2008. She has a side band, Amy Ray and the Volunteers - they released a live record, "Amy Ray and the Volunteers: Live In Knoxville" in 2007. Amy also runs Daemon Records, an independent label she created back in 1990.

Amy's activism is another well-known component of her personality. She works hard for causes geared towards feminisim, GLBT Rights, Native American Rights, Low Gas Milage and Handgun Control. She has a great fondness for outdoor activities and the natural world.

E M I L Y S A L I E R S

Emily is, to the newly initiated, the blonde one in the IG, Born July 22nd, 1963. Her label is that of the "Romantic" one, the personal one, the one who writes of her home and her hearth and her tangled emotions, but Emily actually writes of her politics just as frequently as Amy. Emily's greatest influence is Joni Mitchell, but she has a great (and to some surprising) fondness for hip hop and rap, especially Mary J. Blige.

Emily is the daughter of Don Saliers, a theology professor at Emory University, and she has collaborated with him in writing and has done several lectures at churches with him.

Emily hasn't done a solo record yet, but she's done a lot of guest-appearences on the albums of others, most notably her appearence backing up Vonda Sheppard on the track "Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow'. She also often speaks about taking more work scoring films - she composed her first score for the independent film "One Weekend a Month."

Emily is a self-confessed homebody and has a passion for food - her wine cellar was featured in Wine Connoseurs magazine, and she co-owns Watershed Resteraunt in Decatur, Georgia and co-established the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta.

R U L E S

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C O D E S

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F A N S

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L I N K S

TFL.org
Lifeblood.net - the best IG information compilation out there on the web!
Indigovortex.com - center for the fandom at large, a place for IG fans to meet up, including an active message board and chatroom.
Indigogirls.com - official site. contains official messages from Amy and Emily, media, setlists.

F A N C R E A T E D S T U F F

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