lifeblood: listlogs: 2001v04n042-news

ig-news-digest thursday, march 8 2001 volume 04 : number 042

today's subjects:
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  [ig-news] amy ray 7" in washington dc.                  [aaogilvie@aol.com]
  [ig-news] another amy article               [bonster <bonster@drizzle.com>]
  [ig-news] amy on the ap wire              [heidi smith <indigokat@aol.com>]

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date: wed, 7 mar 2001 17:25:05 est
from: aaogilvie@aol.com
subject: [ig-news] amy ray 7" in washington dc.

i wanted to give a heads-up to dc people.

on thursday (march 8), 3 area olsson's books & records should have some of
the 7" promos being given away with purchase of amy's stag.

these are the stores in georgetown, dupont circle & in arlington, virginia at
the courthouse store. the dc stores open at 10 & the virginia store opens at
8 i think.

i think each store will have 10 copies, & i know they have been fielding a
lot of calls.

good luck!

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date: wed, 7 mar 2001 11:32:58 -0800
from: bonster <bonster@drizzle.com>
subject: [ig-news] another amy article

[sherlyn's note: this message was originally sent to the indigo
girls mailing list at netspace.org.]

my apologies if this already has been posted:

from the ny post:

http://www.nypost.com/03042001/entertainment/25379.htm

lone indi girl
sunday,march 4,2001

by mary huhn

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

amy ray considers herself a late bloomer. it's an odd statement coming
from a grammy-winning artist who formed the roots of the hit group the
indigo girls in junior high school with her classmate emily saliers, more
than 20 years ago in decatur, georgia.
but it's only recently that ray, now 36, went into the studio for her
first solo effort, "stag," which comes out tuesday on her own indie label,
daemon records.

the singer-guitarist said she needed the time to get comfortable with
creating and performing songs without saliers, who ray's known since the
age of 10.

"it took a long time for me to get the confidence to be my own guitar
player, make up my own harmonies, all those things," she says. "emily is a
superpower as far as music goes. she's way beyond me, technically. i've
always been able to fall back on that."

ray says that during the last five years she's focused on becoming a
better songwriter and musician, until she got to the point where she
imagined she could go it alone.

and when she imagined it, she had no choice but to do it, she says, to
find another musical outlet.

the indigo girls are known for their folk-rock sound, though they traded
their acoustic guitars for electric ones back in 1993. ray says she began
writing songs that didn't "feel like" indigo girls songs about four years
ago.

"i got tired of fitting it into the mold," she says. "i thought if i
worked on this other project i would be able to get that side of me out
and have a place to put it."

so she rounded up members of the bands she liked - atlanta's rock*a*teens
and the butchies - to contribute to "stag."

one of the album's songs, "hey castrator," was done in new york with ray's
own dream team of musicians: joan jett, the breeders' josephine wiggs and
luscious jackson's kate schellenbach. (jett hit the studio after an
all-night dress rehearsal for broadway's "the rocky horror picture show.")

"we're all good friends and i have jammed with them before," ray says.
"joan can play anything. she's the consummate musician."

the songs deal with her "confrontations with the oppressive elements of
the music industry, my frustrations with the imposed standards of gender
all around us and the shortcomings i see in myself," ray wrote in a
statement.

"stag," the finished product, was less radical than ray and others,
thought it would be, she says.

"it's almost seems tame compared to some of bands i listen to and put
records out by [on her label]," she says.

the musicians turned out to sound better - as musicians - than she
expected, so in the end, the sound was less raw.

"i didn't want the guitar parts to be buried, or f--ed up and muddy. i
wanted it to sound good," she says.

"it's punk in its approach and its sensibility, in that punk is the music
of the community and implies that diy [do-it-yourself] sense that any one
can do it. in that way i'm a real flag bearer for punk. musically, i think
it has lot of rock of in it, just regular old rock."

she hopes that music fans who don't particularly like the indigo girls
will go "stag."

"maybe those who haven't heard what the indigo girls have done in the last
five years, which isn't folk rock - maybe they'll check out our last
album, ^qcome on now social,' [which]was very electric, very rock. it's
probably louder than this record is in some places."

stepping into the studio was also partly a matter of being ready to let go
of some control of daemon records.

ray has been running daemon, based in decatur, for more than 11 years. she
describes the label as having a "co-op kind of vibe" as it supports indie
bands and works with other indie labels, in building an indie community.

ray used to hit the stage solo, but that was back in the duo's early days
together.

saliers and ray began performing as a duo in high school, initially as the
b band, then saliers and ray.

ray only left georgia to attend vanderbilt university in nashville for a
year.

"it wasn't my cup of tea," she says. "i thought i wanted to be away from
home and have a different music scene."

but nashville wasn't her music scene, so she returned to georgia to attend
emory university in atlanta, where she majored in english and religion.
while she listened to artists such as neil young, patti smith and the
clash in high school, she reveled in the underground scene of atlanta,
listening to bands such as mercyland, nightporters and drivin' and cryin'.
saliers and ray renamed themselves the indigo girls at emory, releasing
albums on their own label. in 1988 they were signed to epic records.

but when she and emily weren't playing together during college, ray played
solo gigs for extra money.

"i was pretty bad," she admits. "i played covers. i even played at a
country bar. i wasn't a very good writer. i was pretty tame and acted
timid. but i was learning. i've learned the best stuff i know in the last
five years."

as she says, she's a late bloomer.

there's no crystal ball to predict how "stag" will do on the billboard
charts or the grammy scorecard, but ray is happy to be where she is,
making music.

"the future definitely feels like a better place than the past," she says.

which is always a good way to feel.

************************************************************************
"those who cast the votes decide nothing.
those who count the votes decide everything." -joseph stalin

people appreciate non-invasive art.
-betsy bertiaux

the book list has been updated! go to: http://www.bonster.com/
************************************************************************

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date: wed, 7 mar 2001 10:58:16 est
from: heidi smith <indigokat@aol.com>
subject: [ig-news] amy on the ap wire

[sherlyn's note: this message was originally sent to the indigo
girls mailing list at netspace.org.]

amy ray goes solo with 'stag' album
decatur, ga. (ap) - the indigo girls' amy ray makes her solo
debut on the new album ''stag,'' produced on her own small
independent label.

ray describes the album, released tuesday by decatur-based
daemon records, as having a ''thread running through it....
gender identity, high school - kinda sorta 'what's going on
with my hormones' kind of thing.''

ray, 36, is best known as half of the folk-pop duo indigo
girls, which she and emily saliers put together in the early
1980s.

the songs on ''stag'' are ones she wrote in recent years,
she told the atlanta journal-constitution. ''i feel a bit
like a late bloomer. it's kind of about the whole idea of
this record.''

ray plans to tour in april with the butchies, a north
carolina punk band.

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end of ig-news-digest v4 #42
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