Indigo Girls

Released in 1989, Indigo Girls' eponymous major label debut sold over two million copies under the power of singles “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears” and turned Indigo Girls into one of the most successful folk duos in history. Over a thirty-five-year career that began in clubs around their native Atlanta, Georgia, the multi-Grammy-winning duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray has recorded sixteen studio albums, sold over 15 million records, and built a dedicated, enduring following across the globe. Rolling Stone describes them as the “ideal duet partners.” Committed and uncompromising activists, they work on issues like immigration reform (El Refugio), LGBTQ advocacy, education (Imagination Library), death penalty reform, and Native American rights. They are co-founders of Honor the Earth, a non-profit dedicated to the survival of sustainable Native communities, Indigenous environmental justice, and green energy solutions.

Their latest record, Look Long is a stirring and eclectic collection of songs that finds the duo of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers reunited in the studio with their strongest backing band to date. “We joke about being old, but what is old when it comes to music? We’re still a bar band at heart,” says Saliers. “While our lyrics and writing approach may change, our passion for music feels the same as it did when we were 25-years-old.” “As time has gone on, our audience has become more expansive and diverse, giving me a sense of joy,” she adds. To hear those collective voices raise into one, singing along and overpowering the band itself, one realizes the importance Indigo Girls’ music has in this moment. In our often-terrifying present, we are all in search of a daily refuge, a stolen hour or two, to engage with something that brings us joy, perspective, or maybe just calm. As one bar band once put it, “We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains…we go to the Bible, we go through the work out.” For millions, they go to the Indigo Girls. On Look Long they’ll find a creative partnership certain of its bearings, forging a way forward.

With support from Deb Talan

Deb Talan has been writing songs since she was 14 years old. As a teen, she played clarinet, wrote songs on piano, later taught herself to play guitar in college, was a vegetarian for 4 years, ended that with a hotdog and a swim in lake Michigan, taught skiing to kids in Colorado, played cover songs at night, started a band in Portland, OR with her friend Mark, named it Hummingfish, wrote a lot of fun songs that people danced to ‘til they were all sweaty in that hipster/grungy/geeky Northwest kind of way, moved back to the east coast 6 years and a divorce later and began playing solo in Boston coffee houses, met up with Steve Tannen and formed The Weepies, played shows all over North America, toured in a real tourbus! moved to LA, got married to Steve, made 5 records and 3 amazing boy-children together with him, had songs placed in loads of movies and tv shows, moved to Iowa, got diagnosed with breast cancer received treatment in 2014, made a solo album, struggled with mental health (CPTSD from childhood incest abuse) and relationship issues for 6 years, divorced from Steve in 2020.

Presently, Deb tours the country with her guitar-playing friend Dan Padley, bringing her music to people who need it. Her songs are equal parts prayer, meditation, medicine. But, rather like the medicine in Mary Poppins: tasty, colorful, and full of the bittersweet joy of being fully alive.