The Indigo Girls are having a major moment.
Their Grammy Award-winning self-titled album debuted in 1989, yet the iconic folk rock duo has maintained cultural relevance thanks to song placements in films like “Barbie” and recent jukebox musical “Glitter and Doom,” as well as the recent documentary “It’s Only Life After All,” which shares the story of the Indigo Girls via never-before-seen footage.
Now, the band is back on tour. are recently joined The Culture Show host Jared Bowen ahead of their show August 30 at Tanglewood, where they’ll perform alongside Judy Collins, Rufus Wainwright and special guest Lucy Wainwright Roche.
Saliers says the convergence of releases that fueled the band’s resurgence was coincidental.
“We actually tried to separate those releases in a way,” she explains. “So they each had their own time, but they ended up sort of coming out, or at least being brought to the public’s attention around the same period of time. [...] Really, it’s just timing and another stroke of good luck among many, many years of good fortune for me and Amy.”
Ray added, “It’s always a mystery why people embrace your music, or form [a] community around it.”
When it comes to their song “Closer to Fine” being featured in 2023’s summer blockbuster “Barbie,” Ray said, “Greta Gerwig really sort of has her finger on the pulse and, to me, her vision around women is so relevant and vibrant. [...] I think she picks up on something, and then that sort of puts it up in the spotlight again for a minute with a certain crowd.”
The band have never shied from the political, particularly existing as queer performers in the 1990s, but it has become especially acute as their careers have progressed.
“I remember the first time we played in Texas after Trump was elected,” Saliers said. “It was a moment where I realized, oh, this is what people are needing, and this is what we’re needing in this moment because of what’s going outside of this venue.”
Ray added that the band often shares the same feelings about current political events as their audience — both the good and the bad. “We’re all going through our own things at home and at work and with our friends and family,” she says. “And at this age, it’s a lot. And you’re thankful for your audience, your community.”
Over the band’s decades of work, the duo also reflected on what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown.
“If you go through enough therapy and you get older, you understand what drives people and where negativity comes from, and then it becomes more manageable over time,” Saliers said.
While she acknowledged, “right now, women with acoustic guitars are having their day in the sun again,” Saliers also thinks back to the experiences of artists in the past.
“I think of the women on whose shoulders we stand, queer women,” she says. “There’s just so many more people who went through so much more than we actually did. So you just take the punches and you learn to navigate them. But overall, it’s been an incredibly rewarding, gratifying, joyful and profound career, in my opinion.”
Listen to the full interview above, and catch The Culture Show every week day at 2 p.m. on GBH.
