Brilliant dreamers: an interview with Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers
by Greg Shapiro
It’s been 15 years since out duo Indigo Girls released their live set, 1200 Curfews. With more than enough material from which to draw, six studio albums including 2009’s Poseidon and The Bitter Bug, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have released the exquisitely packaged double disc concert recording Staring Down The Brilliant Dream (IG Recordings/Vanguard). The 31 tracks pick up where they left off and once again reinforces that the duo is among the best live acts currently performing. I had the pleasure of speaking with Amy and Emily shortly before the release of Staring Down The Brilliant Dream.
GS: The live tracks on the concert disc Staring Down The Brilliant Dream are from 2006-2009. Why the shows from this period?
Emily Saliers: It’s kind of like the most recent retrospective. And we have a sound man who’s very good at capturing live recordings. We started that process of recording them back in 2006. It felt timely and we haven’t released a live record in a long time.
Amy Ray: With how much we had recorded we worked at trying to take up where we had left off with (1995 live recording) 1200 Curfews.
GS: It had been a long time between albums.
AR: Yeah, we kind of said, why have we not put out on a proper live record that we wanted to put out?
ES: We had a good bunch of tracks to choose from and now that we’re independent, we can do whatever we want whenever we want to (laughs).
GS: That must feel good.
ES: It’s awesome.
GS: What does it mean to the Indigo Girls to be part of the line-up for the revived Lilith Fair?
ES: It’s an honor. I always hoped that they would resurrect Lilith and people talked about it a lot. Then we started to hear rumors that it was coming back and we kept our fingers crossed hoping that we would be invited back. That first Lilith, those few years, they were highlights of our career. It was fantastic and fun singing and playing together. We’re excited about it and looking forward to it and honored to be invited.
GS: In addition to the Lilith dates, Indigo Girls are doing some shows with Coyote Grace opening. How did that come to pass?
ES: We work with this guy named Luke, who works with Honor The Earth, our indigenous environmental group. He gave us a CD of their music.
AR: He said, “You might like this band.”
ES: And we both loved it a lot. Amy got to know them and we invited them to open shows for us. Our crowd just loves them. They sell a ton of CDs. Joe’s got one of the most beautiful voices around. We became friendly and they opened for us and we continue to do dates together.
AR: Every now and then there’s a demo or something that we hear and we really love it. It resonates in this way that it’s one of those things that we just know that we should ask them to sit in and see how it goes from there. That was one of those bands.
GS: This has been a big year for coming out in music – from Latin music heartthrob Ricky Martin to country superstar Chely Wright to Christian musician Jennifer Knapp. As out musicians, what do you think about that?
ES: I think that it’s harder for somebody who’s as famous as Ricky Martin was to come out at the height of his fame. I think there’s a lot of fear. Some of it’s based in reality. I personally wish that people could come out more freely and sooner than they do. But I feel like it’s a sign of more open-mindedness. It’s safer, generally speaking, to come out now than it was 10 years ago. I think that people are just wanting to live their lives openly and out. Chely is a personal friend of mine. It’s very difficult to be out in the country world. That demographic can be brutal in terms of how conservative it can be. She just wanted to be true to herself as a person and her life. I fully respect that.
AR: All three of those communities or genres of music are the hardest places to come out. It’s super brave.
ES: I think it’s awesome. It’s a good sign that more artists are coming out. I mean, I laughed when Ricky came out. I was like, “Really? He’s gay?” (laughs). We had a good laugh about that. But it’s good for our movement, good for our rights, good for our straight friends and those straight people who don’t think they know any gay people. It just helps. I’m encouraged by it. I think we’ll see it more and more.
AR: Even though I think younger people and people that are just coming up, the new generation, they don’t really care what you are, unless it’s a certain group of kids that are more conservative or fundamentalist or maybe driven more by a faith-based morality in a negative way. That still exists. I live in a rural area. But it seems to me, even with the kids that I know that are Christian and church is really important to them, a lot of them are really open, and that’s great. But I think the media and the old school and the gatekeepers are still so homophobic and image-based that it’s still a risk for Rick Martin or Chely Wright to come out. But I think it’s brave. They see an opening, a glimmer of support out there for them, and it’s important for them to make a statement. They see that they can really effect change in their audience. It’s really amazing and uplifting.
GS: Finally, Amy, have you started work on a new solo album?
AR: Yeah, I’m writing and I have an arrangement practice session with Melissa (York) and Greg (Griffith) who produced my last record. We’re getting together in a couple of weeks for four days and we’re going to arrange four or five songs. And then we’re going to get together later and do the same thing (laughs). I’m going to try to record in the fall. And then Emily and I have a holiday record that will be out in late October or November. It’s called Holiday Happy Days. It’s a mish-mash of traditional and ecumenical and Jewish and solstice and everything songs (laughs). Then we’ll probably start working on a record of original material soon. Lots of stuff going on.
