lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: didn't know a damn thing

2018-08-24: an interview with amy ray of indigo girls, qnotes:

gs: i'm glad you mentioned collaboration. as always, you have a stellar line-up of guest musicians on the new album, including brandi carlile, vince gill, justin vernon (bon iver), lucy wainwright roche and rutha mae harris of the freedom singers. when you are writing a song - "last taxi fare," for example - do you hear the guest artist's voice, in this case brandi carlile, as part of the process?

ar: sometimes. on that particular song, as i was finishing it, believe it or not [laughs], i actually did hear brandi, and i did hear vince. i wrote that song over a very long period of time. i think i had watched a cmt award show or something and vince was singing with taylor swift and allison krauss and a few other people. i've always loved him, but in that moment, i was like, "that guy can really sing harmony!" in any situation. i was working on that song and it was in my fantasy head that brandi and vince would form a trio with me. it's the weirdest thing, but alison brown, who plays banjo on the record, happens to be friends with vince. it was like one of those moments where it was like, "i can't believe this is going to work out." in that case, i was definitely hearing them. vince was an "if you could have anything in the world" kind of thing.

i did hear justin and phil cook when i wrote "didn't know a damn thing." i had played with them, so it was an easier thing to hear. that really informed that song. when i first wrote it, that version was harmony the whole way through, because i was thinking of them. then i decided to change it up to make it more effective when they came in. lucy wainwright roche tends to be a muse, with indigo girls, as well. i'll be working on a song and, in my head, i'll use her as a harmony singer for inspiration as to where to go musically.

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gs: in the four years between the release of "holler" and "goodnight tender," we have had to endure the election of donald trump and all that came with it. am i on the right track when i say it sounds to me like you address that somewhat in the songs "sure feels good" and "didn't know a damn thing?"

ar: yes, for sure! i don't know if it was so much affected specifically by the presidential election as more of the whole vibe of the country and my own community. the polarization and thinking about issues around being a southerner. trying to take on some accountability myself, and to try to understand where people are coming from, as well. "sure feels good" is my song of where i live and the dynamics of people like me that are coming from a different place than other folks. how do we rectify that? how do we understand each other? it's easy to dismiss people because they don't agree with you about things because you dogmatically think they're going to feel a certain way about things. or it's not possible for them to come around to a place of tolerance or understanding. that's not where i exist. i exist in a place where you get to know your neighbors and you help each other out, regardless of where you come from. eventually those barriers start to fall away and you begin to understand each other. hopefully, things change. racism is the hardest thing to change in the south. but i've found that there are still people who do change. i've also found that there are people who have a knee-jerk reaction because of the way we're put into niches and demographics who aren't being their best selves all the time, and i say, "i know you're a better person than this. i've seen you in my community. i've seen the things you do to help other people. and i've seen you at church. i know you have it in you to be better than this." we all can be better than this.

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2018-11-12: amy ray on new album, acceptance and rock 'n' roll, the windy city times:

wct: in "didn't know a damn thing," you have this cool line: "if anything will save the worl,d it's rock 'n' roll." could you talk about how you see rock 'n' roll saving the world?

ar: that song is a trajectory of what was going on ... with the civil-rights movement, the atlanta child murders and the wounded knee american indian movement and all the activity [that] was just the background of my life. i had no idea what was going on when i was in high school, thinking i was so liberal and progressive. i didn't really know-what i didn't know, y'know? [laughs]

but the thing about rock and roll is that i also had this earnestness where i dove in with this idea that music can set us free and help make change. i was taught that by everything i listened to, and so that's why i put that in there.

it's like me saying that all this stuff is true, but the other thing that's true is that i still have that belief that rock and roll is this thing that was always a savior to me. as a kid it set me free and helped me not feel like an outsider-like david bowie was such a great formative person for me because he was so queer, which is just so beautiful. and all the women that mentored me ... were musicians, in atlanta, the punk-rock people, and so that's where that comes from.