lifeblood: listlogs: 2002v05n030-news

ig-news-digest monday, february 4 2002 volume 05 : number 030

today's subjects:
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[ig-news] articles/reviews from british papers [memememi@aol.com]
[ig-news] re: nashville tickets? [todd green <green@cmc.uab.edu>]

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date: sun, 3 feb 2002 10:33:14 est
from: memememi@aol.com
subject: [ig-news] articles/reviews from british papers

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

indigo girls
3 stars - shepherd's bush empire, london
john aizlewood
guardian
friday february 1, 2002

amy ray and emily saliers can't quite remember the last time they played
london. it may have been six years, or seven. whatever, they tell the packed
crowed, it's been too long. last time out they were the world's most popular
female vocal duo; today that position seems even more unassailable. they have
their market - good-natured, eco-friendly, sapphic protest - as sewn up as
limp bizkit have theirs and the evening's defining moment comes not when the
crowd takes over the infectious closer to fine, but when former haircut 100
drummer blair cunningham ambles on stage to shake his maracas to power of
two. "he's really good," chuckles saliers, "for a guy." the overwhelmingly
female audience collapses as if this is the funniest thing it has ever heard
and the circle of affirmation is complete.

the duo's vocals are superlative, whether harmonising like the everly
brothers on you got to show or spinning off each other at the weirdest of
junctures, as when ray takes the lead on shame on you with saliers providing
the magical counterpoint. together since 1987, they now sing with as much
instinct as polish. they fit together perfectly: saliers's plaintive
just-fallen-in-love balm (heartbreaking on kid fears) leavens ray's gruffer
tones.

but the stand'n'strum format ensures there is little movement on stage, the
lighting is dreadful and - ray's ill-advised leather trousers aside - the duo
and their two british backing women (the roadies are female too) make no
concession to stage clothing. worse, they seem chary of playing new songs,
taking great pains to point out that an older one will follow.

this is baffling, for our deliverance and moment of forgiveness are
especially lovely. in turn, this leads to a reluctance to run through the
standards one more time: "we'll do galileo later," snaps a far-from-pleased
saliers. they do, but perfunctorily. in fact, they rather lose the plot
towards the end. they exchange songs of luminous beauty for a lengthy, lazy
hoedown that one "y'all" after another cannot render authentic. once a most
thoughtful duo, they have become mentally flabby. 7

at glasgow fruitmarket (0141-287 5511) tonight.

indigo girls go round the outside
lesbian feminist anti-war bands are rare in the us,
by burhan wazir
observer
sunday february 3, 2002

amy ray, one half of the indigo girls, laughs when asked about a benefit
concert the duo recently performed in atlanta. 'i said to the crowd that we
should remember homeless people everywhere and even think of those in
afghanistan. well, that got a reaction. one guy down the front yelled out:
"fuck 'em!"'

in a 15-year career, the indigo girls have patented themselves as the voice
of america's disenfranchised - lesbians and gays, and the native american and
hispanic populations. their interests, which vary wildly from record to
record, have won them a modest but loyal fan base.

it wasn't an easy start. in their early days, the duo, both lesbians, battled
industry stereotypes. 'fans couldn't always understand what we were trying to
say,' ray recalls. 'and the men? well, they were just petrified.'

'i think we're too set in our ways,' says emily saliers. 'so it's difficult
to change. but then you look at what is happening in the charts and it just
makes you more determined to stick to your guns.'

their latest album, become you , pits the duo against a backdrop of acoustic
guitars, mandolins, accordions and violins. the record is a homage to
americana: a sweeping narrative that takes in the great plains imagery of the
wild west. it could be a companion piece to larry mcmurtry's epic lonesome
dove.

'we were keen to make a record that was more rootsy and more american,'
saliers says. 'hell, we even had the idea that we wouldn't use any drums,
just some light percussion. but we scrapped that plan. one of us said that it
might make for the most boring album of all time.'

the record is startlingly different from their two most recent albums, come
on now social and shaming of the sun. both releases ventured into tougher
territory as the group tried to make concessions to alternative rock. it was
an unsatisfactory venture.

'i think we were trying to do something different,' ray says. 'we were
interested in moving away from our traditional sound. but maybe we lost
something. the sound tended to swamp our voices. although it was an
interesting experience.'

their status as feminist role models has won them fans including natalie
merchant, ani difranco and lucinda williams. these days, the pair spendmuch
of the year running a private grant-making trust which awards money to
activist projects. ray has recently signed john trudell, the native american
singer-songwriter, to her independent label.

while their causes are well publicised, both admit that sympathy for those
affected by the war in afghanistan is limited. 'i think people in america
aren't ready to take that chance,' saliers says.

'people at home just don't seem to understand. they don't get any information
from anywhere. i'm hoping that will change. we have to understand exactly
what it is about america that people hate so much.'

become you is released on 25 february on epic

feeling a kind of blue
indigo girls
this is london
by claire allfree

georgia's indigo girls have been knocking around for ten years or so now,
slowly sharpening the acoustic kernel of their songwriting and blithely
resisting all corporate pressure to get, you know, a bit hip by merrily
ignoring all passing music trends.

as is often the way, history has caught up with them rather than the other
way round: their homespun, rather earnest backwater folk is, no doubt
unwittingly, more in vogue than it's probably ever been as american roots
music becomes increasingly popular.

that said, the girls' uk support has, to date, consolidated their lesbian
fanbase rather than matched their us success in terms of record sales, with
most people over here oddly unaware of a band whose albums regularly linger
at the top of the billboard charts for weeks.

the girls - emily saliers and the more darkly voiced amy ray - favour a
restrained, downbeat songcraft, with their emphasis on emotional integrity
reflected in the close vocal harmonies, the pareddown planes of their
technically proficient arrangements and unflashy presentation. it makes for
some rather worthy listening (this is not a band likely to appear on sm:tv,
for example) but the indigo girls are unlikely to care about such things:
their music is conservative and resistant to change and, for many people,
that's part of their appeal.

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date: sun, 3 feb 2002 07:01:33 -0600
from: todd green <green@cmc.uab.edu>
subject: [ig-news] re: nashville tickets?

[sherlyn's note: this message was originally sent to the indigo
girls mailing list at netspace.org. i don't actually know if
this is true or not, and even if so it's still going to be tough
to get tickets the day of the show, but just fyi...]

hello megan,

my understanding is that the pre-sale is sold out, but that additional
tickets will be sold on the night of the show. if i remember correctly
there will be ~30 tickets on the day of the show, plus whatever number of
tickets they normally sell for standing room.

good luck - todd

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end of ig-news-digest v5 #30
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