Songs with a view

How could they help it?

After being dumped by their record label, the Indigo Girls, among the most tenacious warriors in the music industry, have come back stronger than ever, with a new CD they did on their own. It is a masterpiece of their evolving talents, a collection of 10 songs presented in a 2-CD set, one with full band version of the songs, and the other with simple acoustic versions recorded in an empty room with a few mics.

The songs have all of the lyrical intelligence, harmonic majesty and acoustic energy their fans have long loved, with some wonderful sonic surprises, as well, thanks to the work of producer Mitchell Froom.

That the album “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug” was recorded in three weeks is remarkable; that it is as good as any work they’ve ever done in the 30 years (I know, right?) and 10 albums of music they’ve performed is an artistic achievement that ensures their legacy as master craftswomen in the world of singer songwriters.

As one of their new songs proclaims, “How can we help it, when we’re fighting for the love of our lives.”

The audience at the Pantages Theater where Emily Saliers and Amy Ray will perform as an acoustic duo (no band) on March 19 will hear the new material and favorites from their previous collections.

No regrets

After having recorded 10 albums on major labels, the duo has now returned to their independent roots, having recorded the studio album “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug” on their own Indigo Girls label, their first independently produced album in 20 years.

“In the beginning it (major label affiliation) was great, it was fruitful. The industry was different back then,” Saliers said in an interview last week. They switched labels about two years ago and were with Hollywood records, where they were dropped after one record.

“That turned out to be great, because it told us it was obvious we were meant to be independent. We felt liberated.”

In recording the new record independently, the duo had to adjust to realities of a smaller budget, but adjusted accordingly.

“I think the sound is really fresh as a result,” Saliers said. “We cut 10 rhythm tracks in four days and we worked straight for three weeks or so without a break. But we had to because the budget was smaller, time constraints greater. I think it adds an immediacy to the record. We didn’t belabor decision-making. We would play something and feel it in our gut, and if it was right, move on.”

Unclouding the Moon

The mood under which the duo wrote most of the material for the new record can probably best be described as world-weary.

It was a time of great social stress and change for both women, when realities became difficult to face and to cope with.  

Start with Bush-Cheney years, when the catastrophe of dissociation from constitutional governance was in its zenith, add the collapse of several relationships among numerous long-time friends and you have, well, a pretty depressing point of view. That’s where Saliers was.

“Have you looked at my clump of songs on this record? It was a little bit depressing? It was a bleak period in my life,” Saliers said. “So many people I knew have been affected by the George Bush administration. It was a time saturated in a loss of hope. It permeated everything, politically and socially. They were dark times. Almost everybody I knew who were in relationships over a decade broke up during the period of time when I was writing these songs.”

For many, though, the signature song on the record is “Love of Our Lives,” in which these sentiments are expressed. But so is the question: can anything be done, a formula devised to keep love safe?

“So the song is a lot about: isn’t there anybody who can give us a formula? You know obviously you don’t speak about love in terms of formulas. But just for the sake of a song, can someone point us in the direction of making love last? It’s about the difficulty and complexity of relationships, but we’re going to keep fighting for the love of our lives.”

One of the most unique capacities that this pair of musicians shares and has displayed in their songwriting careers is the manner in which they render their view of broken people, broken promises and broken hearts almost as a dramatist does, honing in on singular moments of discovery and moments of decision in the arc of the stories.

“One of the things we share is that we both write about things that strike us intimately throughout the given encounters in our lives,” Saliers said. “That’s where we find out material. You find yourself struck by something you find moving or profound, and you try to capture that moment and try to present it as an episode of life that means something.”

Not only their conscientiousness in their writing, but their hard work on social and political issues have won them high praise among their peers.

They are both engaged with social issues, environmental issues, political issues, education and public health issues. They do a lot of work on energy policy.

“We try to provoke people into dialogue about sustainable energy,” Ray said.

Hall-of-Fame singer-songwriter and founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, David Crosby commented for this article:

“I have been listening to the Indigo Girls since they started and I am convinced they are among the very best singer-songwriters we have. Not only that, but they command great respect for consistently standing up for what they believe in,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Crosby and Jackson Browne sang harmonies on one of the duo’s most revered songs, “Galileo.”

“I can testify that they are superb harmony singers,” Crosby said.  “And really nice people, as well. ”

The Power of Two

The two women write separately and describe themselves as very different in their songs and their personalities. How do they bridge that? How does it sound so cohesive?

“From the beginning we have been like a hand in a glove. Amy brought what she did. I brought what I did. We have different strengths. We’ve been able to come together when we arrange the songs to do it in a way that is fruitful,” Saliers said. “It is kind of a mystery how the differences have worked for us.”

Although heartache and loss are not unusual themes on Indigo Girls records, most of Saliers’ songs usually have some hope in them.

Ray’s? Well, yeah.

Here’s a bit from one of Ray’s new songs, “Second Time Around”:

“Here’s what I find about compromise/don’t do it if it hurts inside/

‘cause either way you’re screwed/you know, eventually you’ll find/

that you may as well feel good/and you may as well have some pride.”

“I think my songs are reflective of what I am experiencing at the time. ‘Second Time Around’ is about community and being an ally. And in some ways it was about myself and getting caught up on bitterness and cynicism,” Ray said.

So this duo that has known each other since elementary school and has been   playing together since 1980 as a bar band is now independent again, and it is only emboldening them to continue evolving as musical artists.

“We will always continue evolving as songwriters, as people who keep trying to challenge ourselves in different ways, maybe play different instruments or work with different people and collaborate with different people,” Ray said.

“Poseidon and Bitter Bug” represents some of that evolution. It is a recording to be savored slowly for its humanity, humor, wisdom and poetry.

In one of Ray’s older songs, entitled “Virginia Woolf,” she sings, “each life has its place.”

The lives of Saliers and Ray came together when they were children, and while the two very different women each have found places of their own, it is still when they are in the same place – on stage – that they are doing humanity a great favor, singing as the Indigo Girls.

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