It's just an expression of our upbringing." They met in elementary school in Decatur, Ga., two sixth graders with guitars. But we'd never use language and imagery to the point that it would alienate people of another faith. If you're fairly familiar with the Bible, it's a great source to draw from. So religion is a major background for us. Amy was also a religion major in college. "My dad is a Methodist minister and a professor of theology, and both Amy and I grew up in the Methodist church. There may be songs coming up that take a completely different attitude, but, frankly, I think a purely happy song is one of the hardest things to write." Still, there's something else about the lyrics, something to do with the biblical imagery and allusions found on songs such as "The Land of Canaan" and "Prince of Darkness." Or contained in this verse from Saliers' "History of Us": There are mountains in Switzerland, brilliant cold as they stand/ from my hotel room, watching the half-moon/ bleeding its light like a lamb/ and the town is illumined, its tiny figures are fast asleep/ and it dawns on me the time is upon me/ to return to the flock I must keep." As Saliers explains it, the two were simply born to the manner. I feel I let whatever is in my system out. If some of the lines seem a tad melodramatic here and there, well, "sometimes you feel melodramatic about things and sometimes you don't. I think if you come to our shows, you'll find that we're not depressed people or anything." What you will find, says Ray, are performers who write honestly about reality and relationships.
but then we started hearing from the people we intended to reach in the first place that the music was uplifting. Like, you know, 'What did the critics say? What did the critics say?' We really took the first ones personally. "When the reviews first came out," recalls Saliers, "we used to read them hungrily. The little criticism the album has generated usually centers on the lyrics, which some reviewers have found despairingly dark and "self-centered." Ray's "Blood and Fire," for example, begins: "I have spent nights with matches and knives,/ leaning over ledges, only two flights up/ cutting my heart, burning my soul/ nothing left to hold/ nothing left but, blood and fire." There was a time when this bothered Indigo Girls. and Ireland's Hothouse Flowers, has also received glowing reviews. The duo's eponymous major-label debut album, which features contributions by fellow Georgians R.E.M. Folk-rock for the '90s, some are calling it, from two women with acoustic guitars and wraparound voices.
From music trade publications to national news weeklies, the duo has been hailed for its emotional, edgy folk-rock, its blend of familiar '60s folk revival harmonies and Athens, Ga.-bred rock. "It was great press, our manager said." Great press on all fronts, it seems, has not been slow in coming for Atlanta's Indigo Girls, who perform Tuesday night at the Birchmere and Wednesday night at the 9:30 club. But as Ray soon discovered, having your name become the butt of a Letterman joke has its advantages. Turned out, the two were lucky to get a song in edgewise. "He kept asking that over and over again," recalls Saliers, 26. Meanwhile Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, who prefer to be known simply as Indigo Girls, waited nervously backstage, anxious to perform. Is it Indigo Girls or The Indigo Girls, he repeatedly wondered aloud on "Late Night" recently.
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