Indigo Girls

Known in lesbian and women's music circles for years, the popularity of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers -- the Indigo Girls -- has continued to grow thanks to the heartfelt passion of their music and their devotion to touring and activism.

While their music touches on everything from faith to fidelity, this brave duo will always be known as a bold and popular part of our own community.

For the past ten years, the Indigo Girls have been writing inspiring songs with an unabashedly honest point of view, creating an instantly recognizable sound and earning a singular place in American music. Their music cradles you in the palm of its hand and then shakes you to your senses again and again. They've built a large and loyal following of all ages with live performances that are as up-close and personal in a stadium as they are in a small club.

Amy and Emily have bravely and faithfully committed their voices, time, and money to the issues that concern them most -- women's rights, protection of the environment, the rights of indigenous peoples, gay and lesbian rights, and gun control -- creating a presence and impact outside conventional boundaries of the music world.

Their appearance at the 1993 March on Washington dispelled any doubts about their ties to the GLBT community. While gradually acknowledging it, the folk rock duo had been blending activism with musicality for years.

The Indigo Girls were signed to Epic Records in 1988 and their major label debut, Indigo Girls, was released in February 1989. That album went double platinum and earned Amy and Emily the 1989 Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Group.

The two had been singing together since high school and had been friends for many years before that. They never courted the major labels, but simply struck out on their own, self-releasing their first single in 1985 while still students at Emory University in Atlanta, and putting out their first album, Strange Fire, two years later. Playing the indie circuit, the Girls wound up selling two million copies of their debut album simply by singing it the way they felt it. In that respect, the Atlanta-based duo has not changed.

(Epic reissued that certified gold disc in 1989 with an additional track, the Indigos' cover of the Youngbloods' "Get Together.")

When Indigo Girls was released, Amy told an interviewer: "We never expected to be on a major label and we're a little nervous about it. We'll more or less function the way we always have. No matter how many people we play for, it's always been important to reach each one of them. That isn't going to change."

In 1993 Amy and Emily went on a "Ten-Dollar Tour" of small clubs, with all tickets and t-shirts priced at ten bucks. In 1995, and again in 1997, they embarked on a series of benefit concerts called the Honor the Earth Tour. Organized on behalf of indigenous environmental activists, the tour included visits and performances on tribal reservations from Arizona to Alaska.

In 1998 Amy and Emily initiated the Suffragette Sessions Tour, a loose, left-field amalgamation of female artists that Amy described as "a socialist experiment in rock and roll." The participants included Gail Ann Dorsey, Lisa Germano, Lourdes Perez, Kate Schellenbach, Jane Siberry, Jean Smith, Josephine Wiggs, and Thalia Zedek. For the third year in a row, the duo appeared this summer on a series of Lilith Fair dates around the U.S. and in Canada. Their participation in this festival of women's music has been particularly meaningful, as Emily says, "because we are a part of an event that reflects women's growing role and visibility in the music business."

The Indigo Girls' achievements are impressive. Over the course of the past ten years they have sold over seven million albums worldwide -- one double platinum disc, three platinum, and four gold -- and earned six Grammy award nominations.

Their latest effort, Come On Now Social, reveals the inner and outer dimensions of a journey that has ushered Amy and Emily into a "bolder than normal," highly provocative album. Love songs and battle cries intertwine with grave social commentary, narrative, and "good fun."

In April 2000 the Indigo Girls shared a Gay and Lesbian American Music Award (GLAMA) for producer of the year with John Reynolds, their collaborator on the cut "Trouble," from the Come on Now Social album.

Amy especially related to Reynolds and his fellow musicians' Celtic background, with its direct kinship to the Appalachian music she loves: "It's just like tapping into a source that's endless." The diverse experiences of the other players -- bassist Clare Kenny and accordion player Carol Isaacs -- similarly influenced the Indigos' sound, culminating in an album that feels redemptive, simultaneously calm and explosive. "The lyrics and the music react to one another," says Amy.