"The coverage you get when you're gay is so tied into sexism," she says. Ignoring the Significance of the Sheep’s Ears. The line was, “I’m treading water with no sign, keeping my head just high enough to holler,” which is to say I’m just kind of getting by, but I still have the strength and the presence to be able to holler. Amy Ray Performance 1. Amy Ray of Indigo Girls: We Were Afraid to Say We Were Gay. My neighbors, even those who don’t agree with me, often step in to help when there are things that need to get done—when there’s an ice storm and we all have to pitch in to clear the road, or whatever’s going on. Ray shares parental duties with her partner of 13 years, Carrie Schrader, a teacher at North Georgia College and a filmmaker. Picked the word "Indigo" out of a dictionary because she "thought it sounds cool", lyrics: "Measure of Me" - as Amy Elizabeth Ray / music: "Measure of Me" - as Amy Elizabeth Ray / performer: "Measure of Me" - as Amy Elizabeth Ray, TV Movie writer: "Pendulum Swinger", "Shame On You", "Little Perenials", "World Falls", "Lay My Head Down", "Three County Highway", "Money Made You Mean", "Dairy Queen", "Last Tears", "Tried to be True", "Let it Ring", "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate", "Tether", "Land of Canaan" - uncredited, TV Series performer - 1 episode writer - 1 episode, Video documentary writer: "Secure Yourself", "Land Of Canaan", "Blood And Fire", "Strange Fire", "Kid Fears", "Welcome Me" - uncredited, Shining Through: Behind the Scenes at True Colors, Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music. I always wanted to live this way. Hier sollte eine Beschreibung angezeigt werden, diese Seite lässt dies jedoch nicht zu. [citation needed], In March 2001, Ray released her first solo album, Stag, a southern and punk rock album. Such casual conversation about same-sex weddings is far removed from the climate Indigo Girls experienced as out lesbians in the ’90s. But I like the challenge, I think, of rubbing up against things that make me uncomfortable and learning to open my mind and not judge a book by its cover. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. As for the new audience members who will face the Indigo Girls for the first time at Eaux Claires, there’s more to be learned here besides the fact that the Bon Iver dude is very into them. On their new release, One Lost Day, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, otherwise known as the acoustic-guitar-based duo Indigo Girls, take listeners to rural towns with expansive skies and throttled dreams. She has contributed the live track "Lucy Stoners" on Calling All Kings & Queens (2001) and the Mr. Lady Records sampler album as well as a live recording of "On Your Honor" on a compilation for Home Alive. Tola Rotimi Abraham's "Black Sunday" is this year's winner of the Kirkus Prize for fiction. Few acts have toured and recorded as consistently or for as long as Ray and Saliers.

I find them to still be highly underappreciated.”. When I’m at home now, I’m at home in the moment. Ray has had long-term relationship with musician Cooper Seay and feminist author Jennifer Baumgardner, and is in a relationship with documentary filmmaker Carrie Schrader since 2003. They also perennially attract the graying hacky sack crowd, college-age kids in tow, at summer folk festivals.

“Just for the hell of it.” She likes the sound of age and damage.

Amy Ray, one half of the Grammy Award-winning folk rock duo, Indigo Girls, performs solo Jan. 26, 2014 at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. [citation needed] Ray's backup band for her 2012 Lung of Love tour was The Butchies.

I don’t want to leave it because it’s hard. What made you choose Holler as the title of the album? (“We love everything about that place — except the bugs.”). Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard. As of this writing, Indigo Girls have 174,425 friends on Facebook, not bad for an act that hasn’t charted since 2006, when they recorded “Dear Mr. President” with Pink on her I’m Not Dead disc. In April 2005, Ray released the softer edged[4] Prom, and in December 2006, she released Live from Knoxville. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism.

Only about five of the album’s 11 songs have remained part of their live repertoire.

“It’s not one of my favorites,” she admitted. August 23, 2018. photo: Carrie Schrader.

Activist folk duo the Indigo Girls will return to the Minnesota Zoo before stepping out with Vernon at Eaux Claires. Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. Required fields are marked *. Hoping Georgia will be another domino in … Indigo Girls' newest release "Become You" in stores March 12.

"When you're in college, all your college friends come out and then after college, your life is like the music scene. It was very, 'Let's just go have a good time,'" she recalls.

I like a small town and a small community. And I have a community here that’s a lot of really good people—artists, teachers at the local college, people that fix cars, people that build things, people that wait tables. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. “It’s my favorite album of all time,” Vernon emphatically told us. Politically, it’s really different from where I am. “It’s very much a prototype Indigo Girls album. There was a moment in time when that was still allowed to happen,” she said, adding of our current era of single downloads versus fully formed vinyl projects, “It’s really hard to get a core audience like that anymore.”. Hoping Georgia will be another domino in the states that have tipped in favor of marriage equality, Ray said, “I’m holding out, because I don’t want to get married anywhere else.”. But Ray isn’t bitter about being pigeonholed.

“Swamp Ophelia” featured the Sailers-penned single “Least Complicated” but otherwise wasn’t a critical or commercial hit. I don't want the only people enjoying it to be people who are sentimental about the record. © 2007-2020 Garden & Gun Magazine LLC. I know it's hard to believe that we would have been scared to even say we were gay [back then], but we were." "Until the people that are coming up now are the ones that are holding the power," she begins again, "I think things are still going to be a little status quo. The skyline of downtown St. Paul seen from Raspberry Island. Amy Ray is on Facebook. In addition to the Indigo Girls[7][8] and her work as a solo artist, Ray also runs an independent record label, Daemon Records, which she founded in 1990 and which is based in Decatur, Georgia. She is suspicious of perfection.

You stay up 'til 4 a.m. Ray and Saliers are also rolling out “behind-the-scenes” webisodes. Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. Some of the songs came quickly; others, like “Dadgum Down” were a longer time coming. And, according to Ray, it's a form of discrimination that has its own hierarchy. I love the drive there. She points out, for example, that schoolteachers who reveal they are gay can have a hard time keeping their jobs. A debut novel about four Nigerian siblings and a family torn apart has won a $50,000 award. In 1998, administrators canceled an entire tour of free concerts at high schools around the South, simply because of their sexuality. It touches lyrically on addiction, despair, and the need for a clean slate, and, like much of Holler, offers fuller instrumentation than Ray’s previous solo work. “We do shorter tours now, usually just two weeks out. Photo Credit: Carrie Schrader.

Besides, she argues, “the pedal steel will make everything sound in pitch.” The engineers at Asheville, North Carolina’s famed Echo Mountain recording studio (aka the Church) waste no time complying. [Laughs] There’s vintage gear everywhere, and the microphones are old—from the ‘60s and ‘70s, some of them from the ‘50s—and everything has an organic quality. Lung of Love, which has more of an indie-rock sound,[4] was released in 2012. Minnesota Zoo: 7:30 p.m. July 17, Weesner Amphitheater, $54. "The gatekeepers for the majority of the media industry are still white men. It's a cultural thing, a cosmos, as much as anything else. "Some of the stuff I had to go back in and figure out how to play. “Holler” was the last song on the record that I wrote. As to how they built and now maintain their listener base, Ray said, “When we started out, we weren’t great, but we got better as we went along. It runs the gamut. I want to stay and help make change.”. Join Facebook to connect with Amy Ray and others you may know.

“We weren’t being superstrategic. She often collaborates with The Butchies, a punk band featuring drummer Melissa York and vocalist/guitarist Kaia Wilson. Derby, who?

Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. $6 Million 1964 Amy Amy Elizabeth Ray Amy Ray Amy Ray Net Worth April 12 Carrie Schrader Decatur Georgia Indigo Girls Ozilline Graydon Ray Record producer Singer-songwriter Singers The Indigo Girls United States “But we’re very flattered,” the Indigo Girls co-founder quickly added with a laugh. Here are 14 great ones, Hundreds of protesters arrested after marching onto I-94 in Minneapolis, 2020 Latest: Mich. Democrat Peters wins Senate reelection, AP sources: Texas AG's affair tied to criminal allegations, The Latest: Minnesota hospitals brace for wave of patients, 2 Colorado wolf opponents concede; ballot count continues, Portland, Oregon rejects bid to cut $18M more from police, Debut novel set in Nigeria wins $50,000 Kirkus prize, Justin Vernon's Eaux Claires Fest unveils its full inaugural schedule, Justin Vernon talks Eaux Claires fest and the return of Bon Iver, Twin Cities music scene on thin ice again as outdoor season ends, Megachurch Pastor Carl Lentz fired, admits cheating on wife, Gospel star Rance Allen dead at 71; he performed at White House, Bob Dylan's first musical had a devil of a time, Bob Mould is on fire with new album echoing his Hüsker Dü years.

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The feel is mercurial, unsettled, as if to say that after more than three decades of socially conscious musicianship, Saliers and Ray, who began performing folk-rock as high-schoolers in Decatur, Georgia, are still pricked and prodded by inequity in its various incarnations. Over time, the Indigo Girls audience has largely reverted to its core of queer fans. ", Social strides notwithstanding, Ray still insists that "there's still a lot that needs to happen" within the industry to which she has dedicated her life's work. Stream the Georgia singer-songwriter’s new song “Dadgum Down” from her forthcoming solo album Holler. It’s a haven. All rights reserved. ", "The hardest to learn was the least complicated. In 1993, she and Emily Saliers co-founded Honor the Earth with Winona LaDuke. ", Since releasing Ophelia at age 30, Ray has gone on to release nine additional albums with Saliers, five solo efforts, and become a mom to daughter Ozilline Graydon with partner Carrie Schrader. Jenn Stone, former keyboard player for Kesha, also performed on the tour. They circled the wagons after Ray and Saliers were persistently branded a “lesbian folk duo” in the music press after they came out in 1994. To hear Amy Ray tell it, Justin Vernon might be a little off his rocker. Why did you choose to record there? She and her partner, Carrie Schrader, have a daughter, Ozilline Graydon.[6]. “This song has definitely morphed over a period of years—I’ve just been adding on and subtracting,” Ray says.

However, she said, she learned not to let music take charge when it comes to juggling career and parenthood.