The early years

The two women got to know each other as students at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia just outside of Decatur, Georgia. While attending Shamrock High School, they started performing together as the B-Band and Saliers and Ray. Saliers graduated and began attending Tulane University. A year later, Ray graduated and began at Vanderbilt University. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University. By 1985, they began performing together again, this time as the Indigo Girls.

Major label years

Their first major-label release, also titled Indigo Girls, which charted at #22 on the album chart, included a new version of "Land of Canaan", which was also on their 1985 EP and on Strange Fire. Also on the self-titled release was "Closer To Fine", their first hit, which charted at #52 on the pop chart & #26 on the modern rock chart. They even managed one week on the mainstream rock AOR chart at #48. [1] In 1990, they won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. They were also nominated for Best New Artist.

Personal lives

Both Ray and Saliers have long identified themselves as lesbians (although Saliers prefers gay because, she says, "lesbian has three syllables!" [2]). They have never been a couple. Ray has had long term relationships with musician Cooper Seay and feminist author Jennifer Baumgardner, and is currently in a relationship with documentary filmmaker Carrie Schrader. Saliers is in a long term relationship with Leslie Zweben. Because of their engagements for LGBT rights, they are regarded as icons of the movement, similar to Melissa Etheridge and other artists.

Political activism

The Indigo Girls have been active politically and musically. Among others, they have championed the causes of the environment, gay rights, the rights of Native Americans and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Songwriting

Ray and Saliers do not ordinarily collaborate in writing songs. They write separately. There are a few exceptions, mostly unreleased songs from their early, pre-Epic days: "I don't know your name" and "If you live like that." "Blood Quantum," which appears on Honor: A Benefit for the Honor the Earth Campaign featured Ray's verses and chorus and Saliers's bridge. Finally, "I'll give you my skin," which appears both on Tame Yourself (Benefit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and on the Indigo Girls release Rarities, is a collaborative work by Ray, Saliers and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

Solo projects

In 1990, Ray founded Daemon Records, which has signed Ellen James Society, Kristen Hall, Rose Polenzani, Girlyman, Nineteen Forty-Five, and James Hall among others.

Acting

Ray and Saliers appeared in the latter half of Boys on the Side, playing short excerpts from "Joking" and "Southland in the Springtime," and standing on the far side of several shots over the next few scenes. Neither had any spoken lines. They also appear in the 2006 documentary Wordplay, where they discuss their reaction to appearing in a New York Times crossword puzzle and then begin to solve one together.

Discography

• Strange Fire (1987, independent 11-song version, re-released 1989 in major-label 10-song version)
• Indigo Girls (1989)
• Nomads Indians Saints (1990)
• Back on the Bus, Y'all (Live EP, 1991)
• Rites of Passage (1992)
• Swamp Ophelia (1994)
• 4.5 (Compilation, UK only, 1995)
• 1200 Curfews (Live, 1995)
• Shaming of the Sun (1997)
• Come On Now Social (1999)
• Retrospective (compilation, 2000)
• Become You (2002)
• All That We Let In (2004)
• Rarities (2005)
• Despite Our Differences (2006)

Singles

Sound samples

• Download sample of a live cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song"