Pema and I attended an Indigo Girls concert last night at The National, a revived theater here in downtown Richmond, Virginia. While I was there taking in the intoxicating harmonies of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, I began to think back on my initial introduction to the duo’s music and just how their influence shaped my life, both musically and personally.
It all began back in the 8th grade. A new educational television network called “Channel 1” had recently been delivered into every classroom at my middle school back in Borger, Texas. One day during Earth Week, Channel 1 featured bands whose musical message spoke to that of resource conservation and whose activism included earth-friendly overtones. I believe it was on the Tuesday of that week that I first saw the Indigo Girls flash across the classroom TV screen. Riding the heels of the their most recent release Nomads * Indians * Saints, they appeared in the talking box for only a couple of minutes…. but it was just long enough for me to hear a sampling of their sound – “Hammer and a Nail” was the song – and to find intrigue in their presence. It was my best friend Marie, however, who gets credit for following up. She – musical guru so ahead of her time in that small town – went out and purchased their self-titled album and slipped it to me for a more thorough listen. And there it all began.
“Closer to Fine” became the background on my answering machine, the album Strange Fire became a mainstay in my stereo, and a few months later, when Rites of Passage – arguably the pinnacle of their discography – was released, my entire world felt a shift. I, in fact, remember the very night I purchased the album. I was in Amarillo with my parents doing some last-minute shopping in preparation for a school trip to Washington, D.C. On the ride back to Borger, I sat in the back of our Pontiac Transport and listened intently to Amy and Emily as they quietly, but carefully, introduced me to “Three Hits,” “Galileo,” “Ghost,” “Joking,” “Jonas and Ezekial,” etc. I was in awe. I knew at that moment that there was something more to what my own music could be. I knew then that my guitar held so much more potential than what it had shown me previously with the lines of the Christian music I was all too familiar with.
My love for the Indigo Girls started to turn to an obsession – but one that I needed as a young teenage girl struggling with the charged socio-political atmosphere of a small town in Texas. I loved their music and heard it with fresh ears upon every listen. I watched Live at the Uptown Lounge like it was an after-school special until the tape began to furble. Shortly after the beginning of my freshman year of high school, my buddy Cam told me that they were gay... and I was taken aback and secretly relieved all at the same time. What I didn’t know was that this news would hit all too close too home within the next few years as I began my own coming out process. For some reason, I felt that my situation was made easier with the knowledge that two people, whose music I could relate to, now shared something even more personal with my station in life. It was nice to know that I could escape to a safe place just by listening to the warm acoustic stylings of my favorite group.
(more to come...)
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Ciao,
andy
