welcome!

UPDATE: i’ve been a bit under the weather as of late, so i won’t be posting as much.  hopefully within the next few days, i’ll be up and around enough to get my act together over here!  ~e.

another side of amy ray : cnn.com : 06 aug 08

amy ray, not the photo from the article, that one's been used here already!

[Link to the article]  [Link to the videos]

There’s the Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls: blending her voice with singing partner Emily Saliers on songs such as “Closer to Fine” and “Galileo” and writing songs that tap into the duo’s shared folk-oriented touchstones.

Then there’s Amy Ray the solo artist, letting out her inner Joe Strummer and Paul Westerberg.

The two aren’t mutually exclusive, of course.

“Emily and I are frustrated sometimes with any kind of box,” Ray says during an interview at her manager’s office near downtown Atlanta, “because we want to experiment musically, and we do a lot of electric stuff. … But the reality is that we are a folk band.”

‘didn’t it feel kinder’ makes it to top 50 albums of 2008…

…according to jim derogatis of the chicago sun-times. and thanks for the heads up, museumliz, from indigovortex.  here’s the link to the article…with a-ray at #49, but she beat out madonna!  woo!

amy ray : sound opinions : chicago public radio : 5 dec 08

UPDATE: i checked back on the soundopinions.com website to see if they changed the error (they did!) and to see if there was any other info on amy’s appearance (there was!).  so here is the newest info up now.

“This week Jim and Greg welcome Amy Ray. Ray is best known as one-half of the duo The Indigo Girls. But a few years ago she also launched a solo career to indulge her inner punk rocker. This year she released Didn’t It Feel Kinder on her own independent label Daemon Records. Jim and Greg talk to Amy about her two decades long career and her experience on both the indie and major side of the recording industry. They also invite her and her touring band, two of whom are members of The Butchies, to perform some of their new songs.”

Here is the link to the show notes, complete with links to the live songs she played in the studio. I’ll try to a file upload widget on this site so you can directly upload from here instead of clicking through a zillion links.  Also, if you listen to the complete show, amy appears around the 9:30 mark.

amy ray and kaia wilson live in studio : sound opinions : chicago public radio

courtesy of sandy on indigovortex.com, here is a newly listed interview/podcast with amy ray.   i haven’t listened to the interview yet, but it appears amy and band played a few songs in studio, as noted in the set list below.  the date on the flickr photoset says october 29, (assuming they recorded the segment while in chicago for her tour), but i guess it just aired last night.  the producers or whomever made a blantant error in the listing, stating that ‘put it out for good’ is from the new album.  i just sent an email asking them ever-so-nicely to correct it.  sheesh!

oh, and how HOT does a-ray look? yum!

Amy Ray, “Blame is a Killer,” Didn’t It Feel Kinder, 2008
Amy Ray, “Lucy Stoners,” Stag, 2001
Amy Ray, “Bus Bus,” Didn’t It Feel Kinder, 2008 Live in Studio
The Indigo Girls, “Three Hits,” Rites of Passage, 1992
Amy Ray, “Hey Castrator,” Stag, 2001
Amy Ray, “Put It Out For Good,” Prom, 2005, 2008 Live in Studio
Amy Ray, “Laramie,” Stag, 2001 Live in Studio
Amy Ray, “SLC Radio,” Didn’t It Feel Kinder, 2008

links to photos and audio after the jump.

amy ray : afterellen.com : 01 aug 08

amy ray

Amy Ray Takes Your Questions
by Trish Bendix, Blog Editor, AfterEllen.com

There are probably few people in the world who know Amy Ray better than her fans. The out musician has had a dedicated base of them for decades as one half of the Indigo Girls, the iconic folk duo comprised of Ray and Emily Saliers. As the founder and owner of independent label Daemon Records and as a solo star, Ray has connected with a younger queer generation as an edgy, indie rock musician who doesn’t shy away from self-expression.

In 2001, she released her first solo album, Stag, to positive reviews, and followed that with 2005′s Prom and 2006′s Live From Knoxville. On Aug. 5, her fourth solo album, Didn’t It Feel Kinder, will be released. The album highlights a different side of Ray’s vocal talents. Fans will be likely be mesmerized by the sexy song “She’s Got To Be” and Ray’s ability to write pop gems like “Cold Shoulder.” It’s a fun side of Amy Ray that can arguably only be seen when she’s on her own.

Recently Amy Ray agreed to take questions from her fans on AfterEllen.com, and she was pleasantly surprised with the creativity and thoughtfulness of each inquiry. Here are your questions and her answers.

amy ray : possibly 4th street 17 : village voice : 3 sept 08

link to the interview after the jump.

“Much more than merely the dark-haired half of the Indigo Girls, lifelong Georgia resident Amy Ray also serves as activist (enough causes that to list them all without causing a run-on sentence would be near impossible), not-for-profit record label owner, and solo artist. And not to suggest that her day job is all that restrictive, but when singing alone, Ray’s lyrics unblushingly blossom and, even when playing an acoustic on a beautifully tranquil late afternoon in Central Park, her music rocks noticeably harder.

With Ray in town to play, fittingly, a benefit to celebrate the release of Didn’t It Feel Kinder, her third solo album on her own Daemon Records, we journeyed to the northernmost reaches of Central Park for a couple of songs and some conversation about openness, activism, life as a Southerner, and the costs of each.”

amy ray photo by rob trucks.

the gaze of amy ray

i stumbled upon heidi’s post on her blog,  virushead.net while doing a quick search for some amy content. it’s so eloquently written i had to ask her if i could post it on this site.  she graciously agreed, so here’s a snippet.  you can read the entire post here, dated 5 april 2006.

…from a distance Amy looked like someone I might have gone to school with – slightly gangly, she looked a bit younger than me. Actually, we are almost exactly the same age. We’ll both be 42 this month (Amy – 12th, Me – 15th).

I wish I would have managed to remember to thank her for her activism as well as for the music, but a strange thing happened and I couldn’t think of that or anything else. It wasn’t really a matter of being starstruck. I’ve had “brushes with greatness” before, and terrific conversations with people I have admired a great deal.

She was actually very gracious to me – especially considering that I had barged into what looked like an interesting conversation.

But here’s the strange thing: When she turned her head to look at me, she looked right at me, dead on, right into my eyes, and an image of her eyes burned through my retina right into my brain, where it remains. So struck was I by her piercing gaze – a kind gaze, but an incredibly direct one – that I felt stunned. Have you ever accidentally walked into a farm’s electric fence? Gotten a shock that knocked you back a few feet? It was like that.

I barely remember anything either of us said. It was a short conversation.

Her charisma depends on a face-to-face encounter, where the space between two people is defined.

I sometimes have a powerful gaze myself – but this was pure lightning.

thanks again, heidi! what a great experience!

uncensored interview: amy ray : shame on you

for more where this came from, click here.

working out the kinks & adding content

we are currently under construction. please check back again soon…you won’t be sorry!  in the meantime, watch amy rock out on ‘blender’ from the bowery ballroom show in new york city on november 12, 2008!