Indigo Girls bringing new music to Iowa City

Hats off to the Indigo Girls for accomplishing a musical feat no one else has matched.

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray are the first duo in history to reach the Billboard Top 200 in five different decades. “Look Long,” their latest album, charted shortly after its release in 2020.

The folk/rock singer/songwriters have been remarkably consistent since the release of their debut album, “Strange Fire,” in 1987.

The Georgia natives’ fan base has been loyal, which is understandable since their 15 albums are solid projects with primarily melodic and provocative songs. “Look Long” is similar to 1999’s eclectic “Come On Now Social,” arguably the duo’s finest album. Producer John Reynolds is the common denominator between the two albums.

“When we made ‘Come On Now Social’ we really enjoyed working with John,” Ray said while calling from New York. “We would see John whenever we returned to England. We were having tea in London a couple of years ago with him and we said that it was time to make another record together. In so many ways, John is our musical accomplice.”

The notion that once musicians reach a certain age their creative output wanes. That’s a common misconception, despite recent exceptional albums by Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

Some of Indigo Girls’ finest work has been crafted after Saliers, 60, and Ray, 59, reached the half-century mark. “(Expletive) Kickin’ ” is the fiery track that kicks off “Look Long.” The catchy tune is a terrific coming-of-age cut, and a slice of Ray’s young life.

“The song was like seeing a home movie, but it’s fast-paced with all of these different cuts of my life,” Ray said. “I look back to my childhood at a lake house during the summer in a rural area. I remember riding dirt bikes and riding horses. I was a tomboy who had a sneaking suspicion that everything wasn’t right around me. It was the end of the innocence for me.”

Not long after Ray learned that the world is a difficult place to navigate, she and Saliers formed Indigo Girls and made the most of their time on a major label. They enjoyed emerging at a time of artist development and the diverse roster at Epic Records.

“I think about how cool it was that we were on a record label with Rage Against the Machine and Oasis,” Ray said. “We started in an era with these amazing recording artists like the Replacements and Husker Du. We came up on the heels of some great post-punk bands. We were lucky to come along in an era when labels did support you.”

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Making it work

It’s been a fabulous run for Indigo Girls, coming Wednesday, April 17, and Thursday, April 18, 2024, to the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. The pair have sold millions of albums and balance their solo and duo projects with ease. It’s worked out well for them, since they get along — but they are a study in contrasts.

Saliers, the fingerpicking half of Indigo Girls, complements vocalist/guitarist Ray, who has always been about the rock riffs.

“We are like yin and yang,” Saliers said. “If Amy says, ‘day,’ I’ll say ‘night.’ For some reason, that’s the way it is for us. We play different styles of guitar. Amy has the lower voice. My voice is higher. We’re very different people who balance each other out.”

The Grammy-winning act remains relevant and continues to sell out theaters across the country.

“I think part of the reason for our success is that we never strayed from our core values,” Saliers said. “We’ve tried to expand on our sound, but we’ve never done anything we didn’t want to do. We only play songs we want to play. If someone from the audience yells out a request we don’t want to do, we don’t do it.”

It’s evident how well Ray and Saliers get along when they perform. It’s hardly a given that a long-running duo will last. Two of the most successful and iconic tandems of all time, Simon & Garfunkel and Hall & Oates, may never share a stage again.

“We really do enjoy each other’s company,” Saliers said. “There’s no way Amy and I could fake that. We can’t be disingenuous. It would be misery if we pretended to be anything that we aren’t.”

There is no pretense with Indigo Girls. That’s evident after experiencing the documentary “It’s Only Life After All,” which debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Ray and Saliers are candid, amusing and surprising.

Indigo Girls is a unique story about a pair of singe/songwriters who initially connected in elementary school during the ’70s as misfits coming of age in Georgia. Their story is akin to a novel, with more chapters to write.