lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: bitterroot

2002-02-08: become you bonus cds, official indigo girls e-mail list:

(3) coalition of independent retail music stores - the website is the-ird.com . you can go there and get a coupon for a limited edition cd with the following three tracks: (a) hope alone (without strings); (b) bitterroot (bass, drums, vocals only mix); (c) late bloom (from amy's solo record called "stag" on daemon records). the site lists all of the independent stores that are participating in the program. the coupon will not be available until the week of the release.

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2002-03: indigo girls - on records, record labels, music and fellow musicians..., musicomh.com:

i asked her how 'become you' differs to other indigo girls albums from her point of view. "there's less production on it," she rejoined. "it doesn't have loops or samples and it's very organic. some people say it feels a little rootsy, perhaps due to production simplicity."

amy's always certain that, whichever album she's just finished recording, that's the best she's done. "'rites of passage' was a pivotal record," she muses, "but 'become you' combines our earlier sound with better songwriting. i'm not consistently proud of my songwriting on earlier albums - i'd go for the later stuff." emily is also happy with 'become you', and tells me why. "so many great moments; from the drummer stomping on this platform that got mic-ed underneath which adds this cool percussive thing in the song 'bitter root'... but it is his spirit out there, laughing and talking and stomping... and there was a really soulful camaraderie with people we worked with on this record. also, the world trade center attacks had just happened on the second day of our rehearsal, so there was a lot of talking about that, bonding about the issues that it all brought up so there was a lot of discussion outside of our own musical experiences."

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2002-03-12: "become you" (epic, $18.98) - indigo girls, associated press:

"bitterroot," which features backing vocals and outstanding harmonica by michelle malone, is an out-and-out toe-tapper. listeners will have a tough time sitting still while listening to lyrics such as "tonight i'll be sleeping on the mountaintop, i got a billion stars for my witness; in the morning i'll go down and the sun comes up, i'll take a drink from the bitterroot river."

fans of indigo girls, drink up.

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2002-07-05: indigo girls delight with perfect harmonies, the st. louis post-dispatch:

from the country-tinged "bitterroot," a head-bobbing number off the new album that started the show, the audience of 3,042 was up and pumped. other new tunes included the title track (with lovely flourishes from carol isaacs on penny whistle and accordion), along with "starkville," "yield" and "you've got to show," a saucy number showcasing saliers' honey vocals and the girls' gorgeous harmonies.

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2002-11-11: indigo girls: faith, love, politics., (unknown):

ray and saliers have experimented with various musical styles in the past, including native american chanting on "shaming of the sun" (1997). become you experiments more subtly and adeptly. on "you've got to show," saliers is backed up by a blues saxophone. the song has a jazz ambiance and could well be crooned by a lounge singer in a smoky bar. "bitterroot," on the other hand, written and sung by ray, could have been written a half-century ago in the heart of the appalachians. accompanied by harmonica and hand slapped percussion, ray twangs as well as any bluegrass musician. and on the final song, "nuevas senoritas," the two experiment with a latin sound as a spanish guitar strums gently in the background.