lifeblood: listlogs: 2005v08n121-news

ig-news-digest friday, october 14 2005 volume 08 : number 121

today's subjects:
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  [ig-news] street team help needed asap  ["dee yellowlees" <tomboy1969@exci]
  [ig-news] rolling stone article   ["sherlyn koo" <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>]
  [ig-news] emily in st. paul on sunday  ["sherlyn koo" <sherlyn@pixelopolis]

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date: thu, october 13, 2005 11:50 pm
from: "dee yellowlees" <tomboy1969@excite.com>
subject: [ig-news] street team help needed asap

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

hey ya'll

we need your help in some extra promotion for amy's shows in the following areas:

10/15 - st. louis, mo (blueberry hill)
10/18 - ames, ia (the maintenance shop)
10/19 - madison, wi (high noon saloon)
10/20 - chicago, il (abbey pub)

if you can hang posters, send a quick email to us at:
daemonstreetteam@gmail.com, and we'll overnight some to you. please include
your address so we can get them out right away. word of mouth works too. tell
your friends about the show, call your local radio dj and request a song,
bring a co-worker, etc etc. they will not be disappointed!

the first person, in each area, to volunteer to help us out with this extra
special request will receive a pair of tickets for the show.

thanks!

lisa & dee
daemon street team coordinators

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date: fri, 14 oct 2005 10:34:05 +1000 (est)
from: "sherlyn koo" <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] rolling stone article

hey kids,

here's an amy interview from rolling stone online - i don't know if it's in
the magazine also. you can read it online at (long url, needs to be all on
one line) -

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7702899/amyray?pageid=rs.news&pageregion=double1&rnd=1129249447328&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1212

- -sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded article---
indigo girl goes to prom
amy ray's second, grittier solo effort draws on teen life, sexuality and the
clash

on her second solo album, prom, amy ray -- half of grammy-winning folk-rock
duo the indigo girls -- tackles heady social topics including homophobia,
racism and sexism through stories of a southern high school. released on her
own daemon records (currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary), the
follow-up to her 2001 debut stag is equal parts tom petty and the clash, and
stands as a defiant statement of ray's political activism and diy ethos.

following a fifteen-date solo tour with her band the volunteers -- guitarist
les nuby, bassist tara jane o'neil and drummer will lochamy -- ray will head
back to the studio with fellow indigo girl emily saliers for an album due next
summer. rolling stone catches up with the singer-songwriter to talk about her
own prom, falling in love and just how many men really go to her shows.

why did you choose the south as the setting for prom?

i always heard that you should write about what you know, and that's where i
am, where i've always lived. but although the record's really thematic, i'm
not that directed. i was just writing, and it started coming out that way. i
have a sort of backlog of stories about neighbors, my life and my friends'
lives that i draw from.

and all the songs take place at a high school, specifically . . .

it ended up being set in a time that was very young, probably because i was
thinking about that -- i had some younger neighbors that i talked to a lot,
and i had a second cousin who died when she was a teenager. i spent a lot of
time meeting with her friends. emily [saliers] and i did this sort of
punk-rock high school benefit show to make a memorial garden for her, and all
her friends came and played -- they were all in bands. that was the impetus
for the song "put it out for good" -- and the rest of the stuff that came out.

how do you inhabit the people whose stories you're telling?

i use things that they've told me directly. like in "rural faggot" -- that's
actually two or three guys i've watched grow up since they were seven,
conflated into one person. i used pieces of stories they told me from
different times in their lives that applied to what i saw as the trajectory of
a young, rural gay man. that song is the most fun to play because the gay guys
sort of pop out of the audience. all of a sudden, i'll see all these hands go
up in the air and i'm like "wow, there's a lot of guys in here."

"let it ring" sounds like an attack on the christian right.

pretty much. it's an attack against the christian right, but it's supposed to
depict any orthodox religion, really. there's just so much power from the
christian right through the administration -- it's definitely scary. i read up
on all the ways this administration has let the christian right influence the
way scientific studies are done. these are important policies that people
aren't really going to know about because it's not going to be covered. the
media can't cover everything.

why did you decide to go solo?

i just needed to get my ya-ya's out and be independent. my heart's in a very
independent sector, and i wanted to not only make a solo record but put it out
independently. that's a world i love and feel more a part of than any other.
and i was writing a lot of songs that weren't fitting in. there are some
things that are just more graphic and more personal, and i thought to add
emily's voice in there would just be weird. and honestly, there's songs that
she doesn't really want to do.

your music has a strong punk influence. how did you get turned on to punk rock?

i think that husker du, patti smith and the clash were the people that i heard
and went "ok." mostly i was more interested politically in what was going on
underground, and, lyrically, i was more attracted to bands that were in that
movement. when you went into the punk world, people were doing their own thing
and putting out their own records, and everything was backed up by what they
were saying and what they were saying was backed up by what they were doing.

what about today's punk?

well, i love green day. i love them. i think they're great. i might be moved
by green day the way i'm moved by the clash -- if they weren't so popular
[laughs]! but it's not their fault that they're so successful. of course,
because of urban outfitters, it's hard to even say punk with a straight face.

gender issues are a prominent theme on the album. how is gender being defined
- -- or redefined -- today?

i think we've learned how to separate gender from sexuality, so it's not tied
to who you sleep with. i'm not sure that's a nuance the gay movement talked
about years ago, but it's almost a point of entry now to talk about gender to
people who aren't necessarily familiar with the queer movement. there's this
weird phenomenon in the south where they can almost understand a woman who
inhabits or has a female body but is more male. they can understand why that
person would end up being queer because they can see it.

do you feel like you're misunderstood?

i have no idea, actually. i have a good part of me that feels like i'm
inhabiting the wrong body and have felt that way my whole life. i can't tell
whether that's a societal influence or that i was born in the wrong body or
that i'm just really split chemically. but it's not enough of me to want to
have a different body. so instead, i try to love the parts of me that i've
always hated gender-wise, and those are the female parts. i know that i'm
happy now the way i am, and i've worked for it.

when did you come to terms with your own sexuality?

i had a girlfriend my senior year of high school and just struggled. i was so
in love, but with my age group and where i grew up in the public school system
of the south, i thought gay meant you had sex with farm animals or something.

some would probably still argue it is.

[laughs] i know some of my neighbors still think that because of the things
they say to me. but [back then], i was just really idealistic, like "i'm in
love, and nothing else matters." and then all of a sudden people started
saying things, and i thought, "ok, i have to deal with this."

i had a couple of boyfriends, too, but not for any other reason other than
they were just people i liked. then i discovered, "wow, i'm really gay." it
was kind of a bummer because i like guys a lot. i realized i was attracted to
guys because i wanted to be like them, not be with them. you grieve for
something that you're just never going to feel or have. and then you get over
it and realize, "i have what i have, and i love it."

do you fall in love easily?

not really. i fall in like easily [laughs]. i'll meet somebody and be really,
intensely interested in them, but i don't ever really want to sleep with
somebody. it's not like this instant sexual feeling.

did you go to your own prom?

yeah, i went to all of those [high school] dances. i liked all of that stuff.
i was really participatory in high school. i didn't wear a dress or anything.
my senior year i actually went with my girlfriend -- but we didn't go as
"girlfriends." everybody knew, but no one knew what to call us. but the
teachers knew what to call us . . . and they were concerned.

jessica robertson
(posted oct 13, 2005)

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date: fri, 14 oct 2005 11:03:42 +1000 (est)
from: "sherlyn koo" <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] emily in st. paul on sunday

hey folks,

emily's going to be performing at a church in st. paul this sunday with her
father. details below, and/or go to the church's website
(http://www.pilgrimstpaul.org/) for contact details...

- -sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded message---
an insightful, intimate evening
with indigo girl and her father

emily saliers and dad coming to pilgrim lutheran church in st. paul

enjoy a musical and spiritual evening with popular singer and songwriter emily
saliers of the indigo girls and her father, rev. dr. don saliers. together
this father-daughter team reflects on the profound power and spirituality of
music.

emily saliers and amy ray of the indigo girls have been performing together
for more than two decades. they are known for a folk rock sound with lyrics
that address love and empowerment. emily saliers father, rev. dr. don
saliers, of emory university, is a composer, cantor, professor and church
musician who writes and arranges for congregations.

during their visit to pilgrim lutheran church, emily and don will perform and
talk candidly about how their music, shared with different kinds of audiences,
has brought healing to people in many settings and circumstances. they will
also explore themes from their recent book a song to sing, a life to live:
reflections on music as spiritual practice -- themes of music and justice,
music and human emotions, music and the search for god.

when: sunday, october 16 @ 6:51pm

where:              pilgrim lutheran church
                              1935 st. clair avenue
                              st. paul, mn 55105
                              651-699-6886

tickets:            $20 per person
                              proceeds benefit pilgrim lutheran church doors
open at 6pm
                              for advance tickets, mail checks to "pilgrim
lutheran church";
                              tickets will be held at will call.
                              send email or phone number for confirmation

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end of ig-news-digest v8 #121
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