Pointing in a Crooked Line
By Web Behrens
A pair. A duo. A twosome. That’s how everybody thinks about Emily Saliers and Amy Ray: They just naturally go together.
Indeed, it points out the obvious to note they’ve notched nearly four decades of success as singer-songwriters, thanks to their incredible collaborative chemistry. Not for nothing, one of their most memorable songs is “Power of Two” (even if those lyrics are about a romantic rather than an artistic union).
But here’s the thing about the Indigo Girls—their ineffable alchemy cannot be easily explained. As two individuals who craft magic together, they exemplify the arithmetic-defying adage: Their whole is greater than the sum of their parts.
“Why have a double bill if you don’t sing together?” No one was left asking the last time the Indigo Girls were in town. In 2021, the duo delivered one of the best shows of the summer, on tour with Ani DiFranco. At the end of the closing set, the icons paired up to cover the late John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” before launching into their own songs: DiFranco’s version of “Which Side Are You On?,” Amy Ray’s solo track “Tear It Down,” and finally the Girls’ anthemic “Closer to Fine.”
Ravinia-goers can experience the enchantment for themselves as one of the 2024 concert season’s most exciting double bills: On Sunday, August 11, the Girls and Melissa Etheridge co-headline in the Pavilion. Think of it as a mini Pride Fest. (And yes, we can look forward to hearing them perform a few songs together. “Why have a double bill if you don’t sing together?” Ray mused to Ravinia Magazine. “That’s what makes it fun!”)
The reasons behind the Indigo Girls’ very special success are myriad, involving everything from their natural talent to their courage to become openly queer role models in the early ’90s. And although the Grammy winners have known each other since they were kids in Decatur, GA—Saliers, 61, and Ray, 60, were one grade apart in elementary school, becoming friends in their teens—they have never been carbon copies of each other. An appreciation for their points of contrast is also key to their longevity.
“We’re very different, and our differences are hugely important to the duo,” Saliers observes. “Amy’s sensibilities and the way she writes music come from a punk-rock aesthetic. I was much more influenced by narrative style; Joni Mitchell’s my personal songwriting hero. We write our songs separately, and then we come together to arrange. I sing in a higher voice than she does. I’m more of a guitar picker; she’s a strummer. Those artistic differences keep us together.”
Finally, at the core of the Indigo Girls lies a bedrock of loyalty—to each other, yes, and to their entire found family. “We have had the same manager since 1987. We have the same agent,” Saliers notes. “Every step along the way has been quite organic, and the thing that feels really good is: Along the way, we never compromised our values or our standards. The fact that Amy’s and my friendship is wholly intact after 40 years, that’s absolutely remarkable.”
“Along the way, we never compromised our values or our standards.”
All these factors mean that the band still brings a palpable sense of joy to their concerts. “We have songs we don’t want to play anymore, mostly because they’re not that great,” Ray acknowledges. “But the classics—‘Closer to Fine,’ ‘Galileo,’ the ones where everybody sings along—they don’t get tiresome. For me, it’s a fun communal time. There’s not any song people love that we need to retire. The fact that people are still willing to jump up and sing along and not be jaded—yeah, it’s a positive feedback loop.”
The Indigo Girls’ 2007 and 2009 (pictured) dates at Ravinia both featured a then swiftly rising-to-prominence Brandi Carlile, who has cultivated similar values and standards as a citizen musician with extensive activist and humanitarian work alongside longtime companions the Hanseroth twins. Ray and Saliers both guested on Carlile’s 2007 breakthrough album The Story (on “Cannonball”), and Ray contributed to the 2009 follow-up Give Up the Ghost (on “Looking Out”).
A “Pinch-Me” Year
All of which probably explains how the Indigo Girls have remained culturally relevant in an ever-changing cultural landscape. While they never quite reached the superstar status of other 1990s bands (a fate that has something to do with a toxic mix of sexism and homophobia), not many other bands from that era have the Girls’ staying power.
Indeed, 2023 was something of a phenomenon for them—a year when music mixed with movies, creating a surprising pop-culture moment in which everything was coming up Indigo. Two of the projects were long planned: an acclaimed documentary about their career, Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All, and a jukebox-musical film, Glitter and Doom, with an all-Indigo Girls soundtrack. The third leg in this delightful trifecta is, of course, Barbie, which used “Closer to Fine” as a yearning leitmotif for Margot Robbie’s eponymous protagonist.
Director Alexandria Bombach’s documentary smartly tells the story of Ray and Saliers within the context of the culture they both fought against and slyly influenced. It’s Only Life After All includes fascinating tales from their early days, including how the late John Blizzard, the owner of Atlanta’s Little Five Points Pub, helped incubate their career in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, they grappled with sexism on all fronts, from the sound techs who dismissed their audio knowledge to the rock critics who, as Ray notes, could somehow understand complexity when it came from Rage Against the Machine but not from the Indigo Girls.
Meanwhile, the art-house gay romance Glitter and Doom received mixed reviews, but critics managed to agree that director (and former Chicagoan) Tom Gustafson nailed at least one element: He made excellent use of the Indigo Girls catalog, including some intriguing mashups, like blending the upbeat “Closer to Fine” with the moody ballad “Everything In Its Own Time.” Ray speaks of the experience with enthusiasm. “The script they sent us was really good, with really specific examples of how they’d weave the songs together and change them into something new,” she says. “That’s really what made me the most excited about it. The characters are colorful and queer; it felt like a good project to participate in.”
Of course, both of those films seem like footnotes when compared to the cultural juggernaut of director Greta Gerwig’s feminist comedy, which won rave reviews and conquered the box office last summer. Amid a soundtrack of new songs by current pop stars (Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Billie Eilish, and more) was one nearly 35-year-old tune—a song that reflected the hero’s journey: “Closer to Fine.”
“That was wild,” Ray says. “We’d been working on the other stuff—the documentary, Glitter and Doom—for a few years. Barbie came out of the blue.”
Of course, when the request came, no one had any idea what a Barbie movie could become. “I was like WHAT?!??!?!!—in capital letters and eight exclamation points and question marks,” Saliers recalls with a chuckle.
“When we heard the word ‘Barbie,’ ” Ray recollects, “I think both of us were like, ‘Hmmm, maybe we should read the script and make sure this is okay. Depending on the angle, it could be problematic.’ But as soon as our manager asked who the director was and we heard, ‘Greta Gerwig,’ we said, ‘Yeah, sure. No problem!’ ”
“That made it a no-brainer,” Saliers concurs. “Both Amy and I love Greta’s work.” But little did they know just how Gerwig intended to use the song, which the director described to the New York Times as “one of those songs that meets you where you are, wherever you are. It has spoken to me throughout my life, like a novel you revisit.”
All the Indigo Girls knew was that the song was going to be used in the trailer, and they got no advance screening of the film. They went to the movies like everyone else and experienced the big revelation.
“The first time I saw it, I was with my wife in the Faroe Islands on vacation,” Saliers says. “But I was actually sitting by myself—my wife was across the theater because we could only get single seats. That’s when I found out the song was actually in the film, not just in the trailer, and that it actually linked into the storyline, and it was thrilling. We had no idea that was going to happen.”
“That was a pinch-me moment of my life, for real,” Ray recalls. “Sitting there, loving the movie, just being totally honored to have that song included! Things like that don’t happen very often in someone’s life, where it all comes back around, right when you need a shot of energy.”
“It’s been a complete confluence of good things,” says Saliers about the past 12 or so months. “We tried to space things out, but then Barbie, Glitter and Doom, and the documentary all happened in the same timeframe. It felt like eating a really rich dessert!
“I don’t know why things reappear on people’s pop-culture radar, but we’ve enjoyed the resurgence, and we’ve noticed it in the crowds,” she continues. “We have an incredible loyal following with an energy that’s always spectacular, but now younger people have started to come to our shows. That’s always validating, to feel like your music can speak to the experience of a younger audience. So it’s been a great year.”
The Sinéad Legacy
The latest addition to the Girls’ ever-expanding discography is Look Long, their 16th studio album, released into the dark pandemic days of 2020. Its producer, John Reynolds, is another of the band’s longtime artistic partners. Ray and Saliers first met him during the summer of 1998, when they all toured with the second Lilith Fair; Reynolds, a drummer, rocked out as part of Sinéad O’Connor’s band. (He was also her first husband, and the two remained close after divorcing in 1991.) Thanks to their Lilith connection, Reynolds and the Indigo Girls became friends and collaborators, with him producing and sometimes drumming on several of their subsequent albums.
“John is an amazing man,” reflects Ray. “He’s a musical touchstone for us, a compass in so many ways. Our connection to him is super special, and we’re always thankful to Sinéad for introducing us.”
With the one-year anniversary of O’Connor’s death approaching when the Indigo Girls chatted with Ravinia Magazine (she passed on July 26, 2023), the conversation organically turned to memories of the bracingly courageous, iconoclastic Irish musician.
“I remember sitting in the audiences at Lilith, hearing her sing,” Saliers says. “It was a gale-force wind blowing against me, she was just so powerful.
“She was almost like our spirit guide in a way. She really didn’t give a shit about fame. She wanted to make music that was important to her, and she wanted to speak about injustice—the injustice from the church, the injustice from any force of oppression. We’re so grateful for her life, what she gave to us all. It’s a tremendous loss, coupled with tremendous gratitude.”
“We met her at Lilith and became friends,” Ray recalls. “We met her whole band. John was drumming, and our bass player now and our keyboard player, they were playing with her too. We got along so well. It was a golden moment, hanging out, playing cards together, listening to music. She really brought us a whole team of musicians who we still go to. That’s really special. What a gift.
“Sinéad really saw us. She saw us,” Ray continues. “Lilith was great, but as gay women during that time, it was still pretty hard. As great as it was, we still felt—not from [founder] Sarah [Mc- Lachlan], of course, who was amazing—but when you get that many people together, there’s still homophobia. Sinéad saw us for who we are, and it was a really good feeling.”
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Native Chicagoan Web Behrens has spent most of his journalism career covering arts and culture. His work has appeared in the pages of the Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Crain’s Chicago Business, and The Advocate and Chicago magazines.