lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: hope alone

2002-xx-xx: indigo girls, keppler associates inc:

"hope alone" was co-written by emily saliers with annie roboff, and is graced with a shimmering string arrangement by jerry hey. emily and annie met during the indigos' trip to cuba in 1999. it's only the second co-write ever to appear on an indigos album.

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2015-05-21: es.2001, official indigo girls "a year a month blog" on tumblr:

that fall, we began work on become you. after the layered musical elements of come on now social, become you was a return to a more simple, stripped down approach of production. we brought peter collins back in to produce, and we cut tracks in a smaller room at tree studios, atlanta. it was a nice shift to keep the focus simple and record like a band playing. there weren't a lot of overdubs. we also had our old friend, michele malone, join us on harmony vocals, and her voice just melded with my and amy's voice on songs like "moment of forgiveness" and "hope alone." "hope alone" was special to me because it was the first co-write of mine i had ever put on an ig record, and i wrote it with my dear friend, annie roboff. i met annie when she, beth nielsen chapman, and bonnie raitt came to cuba on the same trip that amy and i took. we didn't get to hang much in cuba, but we professed our mutual admiration for each other's songwriting and made a promise to get together while back in the states and write together. so, later on i drove to nashville where annie lived, and i brought the musical beginnings of what would become "hope alone." annie basically wrote the chorus music and melody and one thing i learned from her was that you could extend a note over as many beats as you wanted without having to fill in a word for every beat. this was a bit of a revelation to me, as i was so used to filling up space with words, as if i needed to use more words to get everything said in a song. so, at the beginning of the chorus, when i sing the word "you" over three notes, it's a new thing for me. i love co-writing with a consummate pro like annie (she co-wrote 'this kiss" for faith hill) because i always learn something that may inform my individual writing.