Summary

This episode’s all about the Indigo Girls, because yes, your mixtape from 1992 deserves a comeback.

We’re diving deep into the origin story of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, the Atlanta folk rock duo who gave us harmonies, heart, and a healthy dose of political fire long before it was cool. From open mic nights to major labels, from protest lines to platinum albums, they’ve never stopped marching to their own beat (in perfect harmony, of course).

We’ll break down how their wildly different songwriting styles somehow make perfect sense together, and how they’ve kept the magic alive through decades of change.

So whether you’re here for the nostalgia, the activism, or just need something chill to drift off to, press play, and let Indigo Girls lull you to sleep.

Show Notes

We start slow and mellow, easing into the roots of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, two Georgia kids whose grade-school friendship morphed into a decades-long creative force. From Emory University open mics to major-label success, their rise was equal parts grit, harmony, and stubborn integrity.

We’ll spin through their breakout albums like Strange Fire and the self-titled ‘89 classic that gave us "Closer to Fine" (you just hummed it, didn’t you?). Then we trace their bold shift from corporate studios back to indie freedom—because staying true to their sound meant rewriting the rules.

Of course, the Indigo Girls are more than music. They’ve long been at the frontlines of activism: fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and always weaving purpose into melody.

As we reflect on their legacy (and their still-going-strong career), it’s clear: these aren’t just folk-rock icons; they’re cultural changemakers. So whether you’re tuning in to learn, reminisce, or drift off under the stars, this episode is your acoustic blanket.

No need to stay awake—just stay present.

Takeaways

• The podcast introduces the Indigo Girls, a notable American folk rock duo originating from Atlanta, Georgia, and discusses their significant impact on music.
• Listeners are encouraged to utilize the podcast as a tranquil aid to facilitate relaxation and improve sleep quality through soothing storytelling.
• Repetition of listening to the podcast can create a mental association that signals the brain to prepare for rest and tranquility.
• The Indigo Girls have a rich history, having formed during their high school years and achieving notable success in the music industry over several decades.
• The podcast emphasizes the importance of letting the soothing words wash over you, facilitating a peaceful transition to sleep rather than demanding active engagement.
• The episode emphasizes the importance of taking time for oneself to unwind and release the day's tensions, contributing to overall mental well-being.

Links

• indigogirls.com
• Wikipedia
• Mixed tape playlist from this episode

Mentioned in this Episode

• Indigo Girls
• R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe (You might also like this episode "Sleep with R.E.M.")
• Epic Records
• Hollywood Records
• Vanguard Records
• Watershed
• Flying Biscuit Cafe
• Daemon Records
• Honor the Earth
• Greenpeace
• P!nk
• Ellen James Society
• Lilith Fair
• Emory University
• Tulane University
• Vanderbilt University

Recommended If You Like

sleep podcast, Indigo Girls, Gen X musicians, sleep stories, relaxation techniques, music for sleep, folk rock duo, Amy Ray, Emily Saliers, queer icons, LGBT rights, political activism in music, songwriting process, acoustic music, meditation and sleep, calming music, nostalgic songs, calming bedtime stories, indie music history, how to relax for sleep

Transcript

Tonight on Sleep With Rock Stars Indigo Girls welcome to Sleep With Rockstars, the Gen X Sleep Podcast. Because you deserve a good night's sleep or whatever, I'm Sloane Spencer.

In each Sleep With Rockstars Sleep podcast, I will read from Wikipedia about your favorite Gen X musicians and bands. If this podcast helps you relax and fall asleep, please leave a five star rating and a kind review in your favorite podcast app.

You may find that the more you listen, the more your mind will begin to associate these stories with sleep. So feel free to return to each episode again and again. Repetition can help create a signal to your brain that it's time to rest.

And if the musical act isn't your favorite, that's perfectly okay. You don't need to pay close attention. Instead, let the words flow over you. Let their rhythm and softness lull you, not for interest, but for sleep.

You are not here to be entertained, you are here to let go. Now let your breath guide you deeper into stillness. Take a moment to settle in. Gently close your eyes and let your body begin to rest.

There's nowhere you need to be, nothing you need to do. This is your time. A time to let go of the day. Unwind and allow your mind to slow down with each breath in, invite calm.

With each breath out, release the tension.

As your body begins to soften into the surface beneath you, imagine a gentle wave of warmth from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes, carrying away the weight of the day. Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Salyers.

The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at the Dugout, a bar in Emory Village.

They released a full length record album entitled Strange Fire in 1987 and contracted with a major record company in 1988.

After releasing nine albums with major record labels from 1987 through 2007, they formed the IG Recordings Company in 2009 and resumed self producing albums.

Outside of working on Indigo Girls related projects, Ray has released solo albums and founded a non profit recording label that promotes independent musicians. Salyers is an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry as well as a professional author.

She also collaborates with her father, Don Saliers, in performing for special groups and causes. Salyers and Ray are both lesbians, though not a romantic couple and are active in political and environmental causes.

They are regarded as queer icons recording and touring Early Years Amy Ray and Emily Salyers first met and got to know each other as students at Laurel Ridge elementary school in DeKalb County, Georgia, just outside Decatur, Georgia, but were not close friends Because Salyers was a grade older than Ray.

While attending Shamrock High School, now Druid Hills Middle School, they became better acquainted and started performing together, first as the B Band and then as Salyers and Ray. Salyers graduated and began attending Tulane University in Louisiana.

A year later, Ray graduated high school and began attending Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University in Atlanta, where Salier's father was a professor.

By 1985, they had begun performing together again, this time as Indigo Girls.

Salyers stated in a March 2007 National Public Radio Talk of the Nation interview, we needed a name and we went through the dictionary looking for words that struck us and Indigo was one. Their first release in 1985 was a 7 inch single named Crazy Game with the B side Everybody's Waiting for someone to Come Home.

That same year the Indigo girls released a six track extended play album named Indigo Girls and in 1987 released their first full length album Strange Fire, recorded at John Kean Studio in Athens, Georgia and including Crazy Game. With this release they secured the services of Russell Carter, who remains their manager to the present.

They had first approached him when the EP album was released, but he told them their songs were immature and they were not likely to get a record deal. Strange Fire apparently changed his opinion.

Epic Records 19882006 the success of 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega encouraged Epic Records to enlist other folk based female singer songwriters. Epic signed the duo in 1988.

Their first major label release, also named Indigo Girls, which scored number 22 on the album chart, included a new version of Land of Canaan, which was also on their 1985 EP album and on Strange Fire.

Also on the self titled release was their first hit Closer to Fine, a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers, which scored number 52 on the popular music chart and number 26 on the modern rock chart. They even managed one week on the mainstream Rock Album Oriented Rock music chart at number 48.

In 1990 they won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary folk album.

Their second album, Nomads Indians Saints, went gold in December 1991 and included the hit song Hammer and a nail, a number 12 Modern rock music track. It was not as successful as their first which was certified platinum at about the same time.

The Indigo Girls followed it with the live Back on the Bus y', all in 1992's album Rites of Passage, featuring the song Galileo, the duo's first Top 10 Modern Rock Music Track 10.

During the accompanying tour in December, they invited on a few dates Suzie sue of Susie and the Banshees, a special guest to sing a couple of songs with with them. They then recorded Swamp Ophilia in 1994, which went platinum in September 1996 and charted at number nine on the Billboard 200 album chart in 1995.

The Indigo Girls released a live double CD, 1200 Curfews. Shaming of the sun was released in 1997, followed by Come On Now Social.

In 1999, Shaming of the sun debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's contribution to the Lilith Fair Music Festival tour.

The track Shame on youn received more airplay on Adult Alternative Top 40 and Adult Top 40 radio stations than any of their previous singles, although this seemed to be a peak in their crossover success retrospective. A compilation album with two new tracks was released in 2000 and Become youe followed two years later.

Their last Epic studio album was all that We Let in, released in 2004 with an accompanying tour.

On June 14, 2005, they released Rarities, a collection of B sides and rare tracks partially decided by fans input, which fulfilled the album count obligation for their contract with epic. Hollywood Records 2006-2007 after departing Epic, the Indigo Girls signed a five record deal with Hollywood Records.

Their first and only Hollywood album, Despite Our Differences, produced by Mitchell Froome, was released on September 19, 2006. John Metzger from Music Box Online described Despite Our Differences as the most infectious pop infused set that the duo has ever managed to concoct.

In fact, its melodies, harmonies and arrangements are so ingratiating, the album carries the weight of an instant classic. Tom Jurek from Allmusic wrote, part of an emotional journey as complete as can be more relevant than anyone dared expect.

It's accessible and moving and true. It's their own brand of rock and roll hewn from over the years that bears a signature that is now indelible, a moving and utterly poetic offering.

After releasing despite our Differences, the Indigo Girls contract was terminated by Hollywood records during their 2007 tour.

Independent work 2007 present following their break with Hollywood Records, the Indigo Girls announced their next record would be released independently. Poseidon and the Bitter Bug was released on March 24, 2009 from IG Recordings, the Indigo Girls label, and distributed through Vanguard Records.

This album is their first fully independent release since 1987's Strange Fire and their first two CD set since 1995's live album 1200 Curfews.

The first disc has the ten tracks accompanied by a backing band, and the second includes the same 10 songs with only Ray and Salyers on vocals and acoustic guitars and an additional track. On June 29, 2010, Indigo Girl's second full length live album, Staring down the Brilliant Dream, was released on IG Recordings Vanguard Records.

This was followed on October 12, 2010 with their first holiday album, Holly Happy Days.

Indigo Girl's 13th studio album, Beauty Queen Sister was released on October 4, 2011 and their 14th studio album, One Lost Day, was released on June 2, 2015, both on IG Recordings Vanguard Records. Beginning in 2017, the Indigo Girls have toured the United States performing their music arranged for symphony orchestra.

After more than 50 performances in 2018, they released a live double album entitled Indigo Girls Live with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

In 2020, they followed this with the studio album Look Long Songwriting and Influences Ray and Salyers do not ordinarily collaborate in writing songs. Saliers described herself as a lyric person I've always respected Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Amy is much more a combination of music and lyrics.

She really likes alternative rock a lot and she likes the feel of certain kinds of music as well as the lyrics. Amy is more stream of consciousness. She doesn't censor herself at all, she just channels it through herself.

So in her lyrics she has tons of different kinds of images, sensual images, things of the earth, that connection to nature. Mine is much more singer, songwriter, intellectual, narrative style. I take an idea and try to really pinpoint it, make it as clear as possible.

They write separately and work out the arrangements together. 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 a benefit for Honor the Earth Campaign, featured Ray's verses in chorus and Salyer's bridge.

Finally, I'll Give youe My Skin, which appears both on Tame Yourself, a benefit album for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and on the Indigo Girls release.

Rarities is a collaborative work by Ray Salyers and Michael Stipe, which is doubly rare because Salyers and Ray usually write their songs without outside collaborators.

For their 2002 release Become youe, Ray reported that they handed instruments back and forth to compose leads collaboratively, something they had never done before. In September 2020, the Indigo Girls released Long Ride, the first song Ray and Salyers had written together in 30 years.

Touring band the Indigo Girls have toured as a duo and with a band. In 1990, they toured with Atlanta band the Ellen James Society, backing them.

They have also toured with side players with one distinct group from 1991 to 1998, a second from 1999 to 2009, members of which appeared on all of the Girls subsequent albums and which reformed as a live band in 2023 and a third from 2012 to 2016. Names in bold are the mainstays of the touring band.

First touring band Sara Lee bass guitar 199198 Jerry Morata drums, percussion 199298 Budgie drums 1992 Galen Dorsey bass, guitar support vocals 1994 Scarlett Rivera, violin 19921993 Jane Scarpantoni, cello 1992, 93 and 1995 Joshua Siegel, guitar, violin, mandolin, vocals 1997 Second touring band Brady Blade, drums 20022004 Again 2023 Matt Chamberlain, drums 2006, 2009 In 2024 Lyris Hong violin 2012 through present Carol Isaacs keyboards, accordion 1999 through 2007-2015-2016-2023, 2024 Claire Kenny bass guitar 1999 through 2007 2023, 2024 Matt Brubeck cello, percussion, vocals 2000 Blair Cunningham, drums 2000 and also 2024 Caroline Dale, cello 1999 Jeff Fielder, kadar 2023, 2024 T.K.

johnson drums 2025 Caroline Lavelle, cello 2000 John Reynolds, drums 1999 Julie Wolf, keyboards, accordion 200720112012 through 2016 Touring band Jaron Perlman drums 2012 through 2016 Benjamin Ryan Williams bass 2012, 2016 Lyra Song, violin 2012 through present Carol Isaacs Keyboards, accordion 1999 through 2007, 2015 and 20162023 through 2024 Solo projects In 1990, Ray founded Damon Records, which assigned Magnapop, Ellen James, Society, New Mongrels, Kristen Hall, Rose Polansani, Girly Man, Athens Boys Choir and James hall, among others. Saliers was a founding co owner of Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia. She sold Watershed in 2018.

Saliers was an initial investor in the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2005, Salyers and her father, Don Saliers, a theology professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, released the book A Song to a Life to Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice.

They promoted the release of the book together, including several days of speaking and performing together at the Washington National Cathedral College in Washington, D.C. ray has put out six solo albums entitled Stag Prom Live from Knoxville, Didn't It Feel Kinder? Amy Ray Live mvp, Lung of Love, Good Night Tender and Holler Through Damon.

She has toured with both the Butchies and her bands the Volunteers and the Amy Ray Band. Salyers also released a solo album, murmuration nation in 2017.

Appearances in other media Ray and Saliers appeared in the 1995 film Boys on the Side, playing short experts of their songs, joking in Southland in the Springtime, as well as singing Feliz Compagnas Happy Birthday in Spanish with a gathered group of friends during the birthday cake scene and standing on the far side of several shots over the next few scenes. Neither had spoken lines.

The duo 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. They performed on Stage in the 1994 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar in Atlanta titled Jesus Christ Superstar A Resurrection.

Ray starred as Jesus when Salyers as Mary Magdalene. They later reprise their roles in stagings in Austin at the south by Southwest Music Festival and in Seattle.

Ray and Saliers made several cameo appearances on the sitcom Ellen. In the episode Women Fest, Ellen and her friends attend a feminist music festival and catch the end of a performance by the Indigo Girls.

The Girls are mentioned multiple times in Stephen King's 1995 novel Rose Matter and Curtis Sittenfield's 2023 novel Romantic Comedy, as well as being name dropped in various TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Will and grace, South Park, 30 Rock, the office squid, Billies, the Big Bang Theory, Saturday Night Live, Harley Quinn and Nip Tuck. Their posters are seen on the British soap Brookside and the 1996 slasher film Scream.

The duo appeared on stage alongside stand up comedian tig Notaro during Notaro's 2018 show Happy to Be Here at the Heights in Houston, Texas. As a closing bit, performing one song in the 2023 film Barbie, Barbie sings along to Closer to Fine.

The song appears three times in the film as well as in its trailer. A collection of Indigo Girl songs is used in the jukebox musical movie Glitter in Doom, which has been touring music

Tonight on Sleep With Rock Stars Indigo Girls welcome to Sleep With Rockstars, the Gen X Sleep Podcast. Because you deserve a good night's sleep or whatever, I'm Sloane Spencer.

In each Sleep With Rockstars Sleep podcast, I will read from Wikipedia about your favorite Gen X musicians and bands. If this podcast helps you relax and fall asleep, please leave a five star rating and a kind review in your favorite podcast app.

You may find that the more you listen, the more your mind will begin to associate these stories with sleep. So feel free to return to each episode again and again. Repetition can help create a signal to your brain that it's time to rest.

And if the musical act isn't your favorite, that's perfectly okay. You don't need to pay close attention. Instead, let the words flow over you. Let their rhythm and softness lull you, not for interest, but for sleep.

You are not here to be entertained, you are here to let go. Now let your breath guide you deeper into stillness. Take a moment to settle in. Gently close your eyes and let your body begin to rest.

There's nowhere you need to be, nothing you need to do. This is your time. A time to let go of the day. Unwind and allow your mind to slow down with each breath in, invite calm.

With each breath out, release the tension.

As your body begins to soften into the surface beneath you, imagine a gentle wave of warmth from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes, carrying away the weight of the day. Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Salyers.

The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at the Dugout, a bar in Emory Village.

Outside of working on Indigo Girls related projects, Ray has released solo albums and founded a non profit recording label that promotes independent musicians. Salyers is an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry as well as a professional author.

She also collaborates with her father, Don Saliers, in performing for special groups and causes. Salyers and Ray are both lesbians, though not a romantic couple and are active in political and environmental causes.

They are regarded as queer icons recording and touring Early Years Amy Ray and Emily Salyers first met and got to know each other as students at Laurel Ridge elementary school in DeKalb County, Georgia, just outside Decatur, Georgia, but were not close friends Because Salyers was a grade older than Ray.

While attending Shamrock High School, now Druid Hills Middle School, they became better acquainted and started performing together, first as the B Band and then as Salyers and Ray. Salyers graduated and began attending Tulane University in Louisiana.

A year later, Ray graduated high school and began attending Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University in Atlanta, where Salier's father was a professor.

They had first approached him when the EP album was released, but he told them their songs were immature and they were not likely to get a record deal. Strange Fire apparently changed his opinion.

Also on the self titled release was their first hit Closer to Fine, a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers, which scored number 52 on the popular music chart and number 26 on the modern rock chart. They even managed one week on the mainstream Rock Album Oriented Rock music chart at number 48.

In fact, its melodies, harmonies and arrangements are so ingratiating, the album carries the weight of an instant classic. Tom Jurek from Allmusic wrote, part of an emotional journey as complete as can be more relevant than anyone dared expect.

It's accessible and moving and true. It's their own brand of rock and roll hewn from over the years that bears a signature that is now indelible, a moving and utterly poetic offering.

She really likes alternative rock a lot and she likes the feel of certain kinds of music as well as the lyrics. Amy is more stream of consciousness. She doesn't censor herself at all, she just channels it through herself.

So in her lyrics she has tons of different kinds of images, sensual images, things of the earth, that connection to nature. Mine is much more singer, songwriter, intellectual, narrative style. I take an idea and try to really pinpoint it, make it as clear as possible.

They write separately and work out the arrangements together. 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 a benefit for Honor the Earth Campaign, featured Ray's verses in chorus and Salyer's bridge.

Finally, I'll Give youe My Skin, which appears both on Tame Yourself, a benefit album for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and on the Indigo Girls release.

Rarities is a collaborative work by Ray Salyers and Michael Stipe, which is doubly rare because Salyers and Ray usually write their songs without outside collaborators.

Saliers was an initial investor in the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia.

They promoted the release of the book together, including several days of speaking and performing together at the Washington National Cathedral College in Washington, D.C. ray has put out six solo albums entitled Stag Prom Live from Knoxville, Didn't It Feel Kinder? Amy Ray Live mvp, Lung of Love, Good Night Tender and Holler Through Damon.

Ray starred as Jesus when Salyers as Mary Magdalene. They later reprise their roles in stagings in Austin at the south by Southwest Music Festival and in Seattle.

Ray and Saliers made several cameo appearances on the sitcom Ellen. In the episode Women Fest, Ellen and her friends attend a feminist music festival and catch the end of a performance by the Indigo Girls.

The song appears three times in the film as well as in its trailer. A collection of Indigo Girl songs is used in the jukebox musical movie Glitter in Doom, which has been touring music festivals across North America.

The film has no confirmed release date.

They long identified themselves as lesbians, but more recently, Ray and Salyers have publicly commented that they are or previously have been sexually attracted to men in their lives and that they identify as queer. More specifically, Ray has openly talked about her gender dysphoria and identifying as gender fluid and the challenges she has felt in her own body.

I definitely still feel like a guy a lot of the time, but I guess I've just gotten to a place where like, well, I fought really hard to be in this body and I'm just gonna stay here and also felt somewhat evenly split between male and female to the point where I was like, I don't know if I can choose. Like, I think I'm gonna just have to live in the center, ray said. Both Salyers and Ray have spoken openly about having internalized homophobia.

Because of their engagements for LGBT rights, they are regarded as icons of the movement.

Political activism the Indigo Girls have been politically active, championing the causes of and held benefit concerts for the environment, gay rights, the rights of Native Americans and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

For many years, they incorporated a recycling and public outreach program into their road tours by including Greenpeace representative Stephanie Fairbanks and their road crew. They helped Winona leduc establish Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to creating, support and education for Native environmental issues.

Vanguard's Records Reached Number 36 in the U.S. number 14 on the U.S. rock charts, Number 2 on the Folk Charts and Number 9 on the Indie Rock Charts.

Indigo Girls singles that have charted are selected from a complex grid, which I will summarize.