When Emily Saliers and her best friend Amy Ray first took the stage in Atlanta bars and began making a name for themselves, and paving the way for the next generations of LGBTQ+ musicians, there was a sense of optimism that surrounded what they were doing.
There was a feeling that they were not only opening doors, but ripping them down, not expecting that by 2026, they would find themselves having to do it all over again, with the renewed need to stand up for the same causes through their music and activism.
The Indigo Girls will perform at the Chautauqua Institution on Thursday Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. Saliers, in an interview on Saturday, spoke about the need, four decades later, to reiterate the band’s advocacy not just for the freedom to be LGBTQ+ but for equality, environmental responsibility, racial justice, immigration reform, Native American rights, and education.
That’s why, she said, it’s important to gather their fans around them, to create a space through music and storytelling, where the positive energy can regenerate and their devoted fan-base community can live to go back into the world and fight another day. When people are buoyed by others who share the same goals and aren’t overburdened by those who want to tear them down, energy can be regenerative.
And the source of that energy is strong. The Indigo Girls have put out 16 studio albums, sold more than 15 million records and won a Grammy. Their 1989 self-titled major label debut, powered by classics like “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears,” pushed them into the mainstream. Though their songwriting, they showed it was right to have a social conscious.
Saliers said the cohesiveness of their shows and their desire to include their audiences — a recent show saw a woman who was involved in an immigration protest come to the stage — creates what Saliers called “a beautiful connection. A lot of the content (of the shows) is social issues, matters of the heart … to bring about some healing.”
At the shows, Saliers said Lucy Wainwright Roche is singing harmonies and Lyris Hung is playing violin. Jeff Fielder is playing a variety of stringed instruments, as well as keyboard and bass. Jeff plays in Amy’s country band, the Amy Ray Band.
The show includes songs across the Indigo Girls’ entire catalog, including their most recent release, “Look Long.” And it’s best, Saliers said, when everyone sings along and has a good time. Crowd sings have long been an integral part of Indigo Girls’ shows.
When asked if there was anything else she wanted to highlight, Saliers was quick to mention those coming to hear the Indigo Girls should not miss their opening act, Brian Dunne, who she said Ray discovered.
Also important to Saliers is what she feels is a calling to champion other queer artists, including Jessi Mason, who has toured with the band. Saliers said she’s impressed with a lot of the young queer performers she’s meeting. They are engaged and they have a strong awareness of their presence in music and how they fit in. She mentioned a band called MUNA and her friendship with Katie Gavin. She said the band not only makes relevant music but also travels the world and does the work behind social change.
For Saliers herself, she finds it’s never too late to take on new projects, new work, new writing. She is involved in writing a musical theater production called “Starstruck.” She described it as a modern, queer twist on “Cyrano de Bergerac, set in an Idaho mountain town. It has a park ranger trying to establish a Dark Sky Reserve (a protected area of land managed to reduce light pollution and preserve the natural nighttime environment) who gets emmeshed in a love triangle.
“Beth Malone and Mary Ann Stratton wrote the book and I’m doing the music,” Saliers said. “But it’s not like regular songwriting, when you write a song and you’re done; this is always changing and constantly evolving.”
The show had its world premiere at the Bucks Country Playhouse in New Hope, Pa. in February.
One of things that attracted her was that her 13-year-old daughter, Celo, who is a big-time fan of musicals. Sailers shares her with her wife, former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristin Chipman.
Tickets: tickets.chq.org