Indigo Girls

Singer/songwriters Amy Ray and Emily Saliers began their long-running musical partnership in the early '80s, when both were students at Shamrock High School near Decatur, GA. The pair went separate ways for college, but then reconnected when both transferred to Emory University in Atlanta. This time they performed more seriously, trading their former name Saliers & Ray for Indigo Girls, and made their first indie single "Crazy Game" in 1985 (it was later on their 1987 debut album Strange Fire). With major labels (briefly) becoming friendly to female artists, the Indigo Girls were signed to Epic soon afterwards, releasing their self-titled label debut in 1989. A bigger production, it featured Michael Stipe singing on Ray's "Kid Fears" (he'd occasionally sing it with them live) and the rest of R.E.M. on "Tried to Be True." The pair nearly always wrote separately and Saliers provided the hit single, "Closer to Fine," recorded with the Irish band Hothouse Flowers. A signature song for decades to come, it takes on the themes of lost innocence and coming of age-two themes that would turn up in many Indigo Girls songs. The album won a 1990 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album (They lost as Best New Artist to Milli Vanilli), and remained the best-selling album in their catalogue. Mainstream success came and went, but Saliers and Ray continued on their creative path. They made seven more albums for Epic, mixing folk and rock to different extents. The radio hit "Shame On You" (from 1997's Shaming of the Sun) was a rare full-fledged rocker, albeit one with a banjo; its lyrics looked at Chicano culture and assimilation. That year they co-headlined the inaugural year of the female-centric Lilith Fair tour. The duo became associated with various progressive causes, notably environmentalism and LBGT rights (both Ray and Saliers were lesbians, but were never a couple). They even appeared on a Lilith spoof in Ellen DeGeneres' TV show. During the '90s Ray became a strong supporter of the feminist indie-rock movement, working with North Carolina queercore band the Butchies on her first solo album Stag. She also ran the Daemon label which released indie artists Michelle Malone, Rose Polenzani, Magnapop and others. The Indigo Girls remain active in the new millennium. In 2006 they collaborated with Pink on her politically-charged song "Dear Mr. President," and the following year appeared on the gay-friendly True Colors Tour organized by Cyndi Lauper. Returning to folk and indie roots they signed with the Vanguard label in 2009, their label debut Poseidon & the Bitter Bug, was a double album with the same songs in acoustic and electric versions. They made their first holiday album, Holly Happy Days the following year and 2015 brought One Lost Day, recorded in Nashville and featuring a more countryish sound. That year Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon commissioned the Indigo Girls to perform his favorite of their albums, 1994's Swamp Ophelia, at his Eaux Claires festival in Minneapolis.