lifeblood: listlogs: 2002v05n151-news

ig-news-digest wednesday, july 10 2002 volume 05 : number 151

today's subjects:
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  [ig-news] article                            [mirinda.kovacs@westgroup.com]
  [ig-news] "on the tracks": ig on german radio interview show  [kathrin sie]
  [ig-news] cheerer-upper                [andrea crain <acrain@idea-inc.com>]

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date: mon, 8 jul 2002 12:39:24 -0500
from: mirinda.kovacs@westgroup.com
subject: [ig-news] article

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

<http://www.townonline.com/tol/entertainment/music/36888686.htm>

copied and pasted without any permission what so ever! enjoy.

the short-term future of emily saliers and amy ray - better known as indigo
girls - is certain: they'll play saturday and sunday at the fleetboston
pavilion. but the long-term future of the veteran folk-pop-rock duo is up in
the air.
their songs get virtually no radio play, and their epic contract runs out
after the next album. that's not a good combination. so there's some
concern.
" the record company was behind us as far as radio goes early on in our
career, " says saliers. " and then they just gave it up. this is a very
youth-oriented culture. there's barely any sustaining of careers going on
any more. we've been fortunate because we're a grassroots touring band, and
for whatever reason we've been able to maintain a career, while other
artists are just getting dropped like flies. "
she and ray have been thinking about what to do when they part ways with
epic, but don't have much of a plan yet.
" we need to have a team meeting with our manager to decide what's best for
us, " she says. " it's an ever-changing world in the business right now,
with the internet and how cd burning is affecting sales, and what does
independent versus major mean. and there are serious problems with
distribution. so i think we'll make our next record and then just sit down
and decide a course of action based on what's going on at that time. "
it's hard to imagine the pair would break up, because they've been playing
together so successfully for so long.
" we played for our english class in our high school, and it went over
really well, " recalls saliers, who won the talent and congeniality awards
in the miss shamrock high school pageant. " our english teacher, ellis loyd,
was very encouraging for us; he was the first mentor of our duo. "
but the duo's evocative name didn't come until much later in their careers.
at one point " we called ourselves saliers and ray - really original, " says
saliers in a most self-deprecating manner. " then around '84 or '85, we were
starting to make our own recordings and traveling and setting up tours. we
needed a name and we switched to indigo girls. indigo was just a word that
sounded good to us. "
their original sound was pretty much two women playing two guitars and
making some lovely, somewhat offbeat, harmonies within the realm of
contemporary folk music. over the years more instruments and more than a
hint of rock were added, along with a large dollop of political activism.
as far as the harmonies, saliers now says they never really analyzed their
sound.
" i think we were just a couple of kids having fun, " she admits. " and all
of a sudden we were building a career. the harmonies came naturally. that's
been easy for me. i grew up singing in church choirs, and all that sacred
music with all the harmony and counterlines was in my blood. and our voices
occupy different places in the sonic spectrum, so that was good. "
when, last year, they settled down to do their new album - " become you " -
the decision was made to get away from the mixed-bag program of their
previous release, " come on now special, " and return to the kind of music
they were doing all those years ago.
" i had to wait for when it felt like the right time for me, " says saliers.
" amy would have wanted to make 'come on now social' acoustic. but i felt
like playing electric guitar then and doing more production layering. so we
waited until the next one, and then the time was right. amy felt it was
important to get back to our roots and get in touch with what we do
together.
" we worked really hard on arrangements, " she adds. " because we knew it
was going to be an acoustic record, and it's gonna be out there and be bare.
and we're very happy with it. it's like an old shirt; it feels comfortable
and it's very pure and straightforward. "
one would think that with talk like that, saliers was happy to go the
acoustic route. but her feelings actually go in more than one direction.
" i sort of wish i could bring more of my rock out, " she says. " i love
rock music and i love orchestrated music and r&b, but i always seem to
gravitate toward a pretty melody and a ballad. at times that's pretty
frustrating for me. so i'm really glad to be playing with amy because she
sometimes pulls me more in the direction that i want to go.
" she's always pulling me, " she adds, laughing. " she's like gravity. "
always outspoken, saliers also feels the pull of politics. she is asked if
she can think of any positive comments about george w. bush.
she ponders this and slowly says, " oh, he's probably good to his wife. "
then she picks up the beat. " but he's not my man. i didn't vote for him.
his policies are antithetical to my own. i don't like that crap about how
you can't speak out against the government because we were attacked. if this
is america, the land of free speech, that means that bill maher should be
able to come out and say whatever he wants to about the armed services. it
was very scary just after the attacks, when it sort of felt like the
mccarthy era again. there's such a thing as loving your country and being so
grateful to be an american, but also to be self-critical about it. there's
not a lot of that going on right now. bush's policies are not the policies
that i want implemented. "
indigo girls perform of june 1 and 2 at the fleetboston pavilion. showtimes
are 8 p.m. tickets are $28-$37. call 617-931-2000.

mi rinda

"if there's nothing to lose, then there's nothing to gain."

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date: tue, 9 jul 2002 20:34:59 +0200
from: kathrin siegmund <kathrin_siegmund@gmx.de>
subject: [ig-news] "on the tracks": ig on german radio interview show

[sherlyn's note: this is an excerpt of a message which was
originally sent to the indigo girls mailing list at
netspace.org.]

hi all!

and now for something completely different...

just got a tape from the radio show ig did in bremen (may 4th) during
the german leg of their last european tour.
i'll mp3 it and put it all up on my site for y'all to download. will post
again once it's up.

[...]

furthermore, the same radio station did an interview show with them,
too, called "on the tracks". now this should be really interesting
because on this show the guests get to play dj and pick the songs that
are played in between interview segments and they get to say why they
chose them.
this will be on nordwestradio on august 4th 10:05 pm cet.
unfortunately they aren't webcasting this show. hopefully, i can get my
friend to record this for us (this list), too (same friend also taped the
concert show), though.

be well,
kathrin
_______________________________________________________
never let yesterday's disappointments overshadow tomorrow's dreams.
_______________________________________________________
www.indigogirls.de

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date: tue, 9 jul 2002 21:45:14 -0500
from: andrea crain <acrain@idea-inc.com>
subject: [ig-news] cheerer-upper

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

i was going through some stuff and found a really good picture my gf took
at an amy ray & the butchies show last year. it was at the metro in
chicago. we were really close. up against the barrier close.

http://www.idea-inc.com/~acrain/pics/amy_smiling.jpg
that's the whole scene, complete with a professional photographer's head
in the way. ;)

http://www.idea-inc.com/~acrain/pics/amy_smiling_close.jpg
that's a close up of amy. aw!

- -andrea

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end of ig-news-digest v5 #151
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