lifeblood: listlogs: 2008v10n137-news

ig-news-digest thursday, august 7 2008 volume 10 : number 137

today's subjects:
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[ig-news] cnn amy article/interview [sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com]
[ig-news] "didn't it feel kinder" review from chart attack [sherlyn koo <]

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date: thu, 07 aug 2008 10:21:00 +1000
from: sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] cnn amy article/interview

hey folks,

here's the amy interview that kelly mentioned, from cnn. you can read it
online at
http://www.cnn.com/2008/showbiz/music/08/06/amy.ray/index.html - there are
some additional videos there too...

cheers,
sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded article---
another side of amy ray

    * story highlights
    * indigo girl amy ray has solo album out, "didn't it feel kinder"
    * sound on album harder-edged than indigos; ray says songs more apropos
    * ray on touring: can be draining, but "not like digging a ditch"

by todd leopold
cnn

atlanta, georgia (cnn) -- there's the amy ray of the indigo girls: blending
her voice with singing partner emily saliers on songs such as "closer to
fine" and "galileo" and writing songs that tap into the duo's shared
folk-oriented touchstones.

then there's amy ray the solo artist, letting out her inner joe strummer
and paul westerberg.

the two aren't mutually exclusive, of course.

"emily and i are frustrated sometimes with any kind of box," ray says
during an interview at her manager's office near downtown atlanta, "because
we want to experiment musically, and we do a lot of electric stuff. ... but
the reality is that we are a folk band."

however, ray adds, her influences include artists who have come out of a
punk mindset such as the clash, the replacements, the pretenders and patti
smith. "at some point i was hanging around with the butchies -- a band i
ended up playing with a lot -- and it just brought out this thing in me ...
and it felt very different from the indigo girls," she says.

which explains the appearance of "didn't it feel kinder" (daemon), ray's
third solo album.

(disclosure: ray and i were contemporaries at atlanta's emory university,
but we didn't know one another.)

the songs on "kinder" include "bus bus," a scorching rocker about the
longings felt while on tour; "who sold the gun," which alludes to a mass
shooting, counterpointed by rousing major chords; and "slc radio," which
praises the support of a salt lake city radio station in the midst of "lds
nation."

ray gives a great deal of credit to producer greg griffith for the album's
raw sound and melodic ideas, and she adds that the musicians on the solo
album helped guide the way the songs were presented.

"something like 'bus bus,' i wanted this lead thing going on with a kind of
raucous band, and the harmonies are very important but they are more of a
bed that you're singing over rather than the duo," she says. "i think the
musicians i play with solo do a certain thing that the musicians we play
with with the indigo girls don't do. it's just a different thing. ... and
it sort of steers my writing in some ways."

a number of the solo songs do share the same activist outlook as ray's
songs with the indigo girls. "slc radio," for example, is about krcl-fm,
which ray describes as "a really progressive community station." in the
song, ray, an out lesbian, sings "radio radio slc fighting the good fight
for me/ boys and girls lend a hand, bend an ear in god's land."

"i was thinking about community radio in general, and i was thinking about
mormonism and the fabric of the country and how much you see when you're
traveling ... and the idea that change comes, but it comes slow, and it
comes one person at a time," she explains.

but, she notes, "the song is not totally taking mormonism to task. i even
say, 'i'm sending love to all the mormons,' 'keep the good things throw out
the bad.' " respect flows both ways, she says.

ray's activism extends to the artist-centered daemon records, the label she
founded in 1990. though daemon is the furthest thing from corporate -- ray
and the label's staff still stuff envelopes themselves -- she acknowledges
that changes in the record business have forced her to adjust as much as
any major label.

"for indie labels it was a big adjustment because we ended up with a lot of
cds on hand when downloading [happened]. we knew it was coming, it came,
but it happened a little bit faster [than we thought]," she says. "there
were business decisions that were hard. ... but i love the freedom that
downloading has brought, and i love the way it saves resources."

besides, she adds, "the internet has revolutionized the diy movement, and
it's great to me. i don't even know if record labels need to exist. i don't
even know if i need to exist," she laughs.

but some things about being a musician don't change, such as promotion and
performance, which means it's time to hit the road again. ray will perform
with the indigo girls in september and then do some solo dates for the rest
of the year. a new indigo girls album is due out in early 2009.

isn't it exhausting, after more than 20 years in the business, to have to
get on the bus again? ray agrees that touring can be draining.

"it's like you're doing all this stuff, the traveling and the unpacking and
the packing, just to play the show. and in that one ... moment during the
show, that's the fun. that's where all the fun is," she says. "it's the
blessing and the curse of it.

"but it's not like digging a ditch," she adds. "you get to see different
places, get to go running in a different town every day. it's very
stimulating, and that can be a very good thing."

find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/showbiz/music/08/06/amy.ray/index.html

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

date: thu, 07 aug 2008 15:23:33 +1000
from: sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] "didn't it feel kinder" review from chart attack

hey folks,

i thought this was quite amusing - it's from
http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2008/08/0508.cfm...

cheers,
sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded article---
amy ray didn't it feel kinder (daemon)
amy ray sounds like the type of woman who could beat the shit out of a
bunch of knucklehead dudes at the local country bar and then steal their
girlfriends. she's hard and demanding, but stripped down and vulnerable on
this effort. she hangs with the "deviants and the tranny nation" who are
"so fucked they've got nothing to lose." she's folk, country, punk, rock
and one half of the indigo girls, which gives didn't it feel kinder a
comfortable, familiar sound thanks to those recognizable power-dyke vocals.
ray rocks it harder than her indigo persona, swearing and singing with
brutal honesty about things like how the gays have it rough and community
radio (on album highlight "slc radio"), all with her raw, flawless,
southern farm girl drawl. keeping back-up vocals low, ray really shines on
this rustic release, which is a must for indigo fans and a worthy summer
rock album for the curious. phil villeneuve

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

end of ig-news-digest v10 #137
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