Music Monday: Brandi & Amy

As we head toward the waning weekends of Pride this year, I feel the need to double up on The Gay. After years of real, tangible and long-overdue progress for the LGBTQ+ community, the return of this administration has seen a terrible backslide. It’s always been a fight, but somehow this regression feels extra awful – and the scapegoating of trans people in particular is beyond cruel. For such a small sliver of the population with possibly the least power base possible to be demonized instead of – oh, I don’t know – the fact that trillionaires exist is unfathomable. Anyway, be gay, sing songs, and down with the oligarchy. Also, please enjoy Brandi Carlile and Amy Ray gaying it up at the Gorge! Happy Monday, kittens.

Music Monday: Always Our Girls

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I am, for the moment, at a loss for many words. Of course, anyone who has seen the Indigo Girls in the last few years knows Emily's voice has not been the same. But to have them confirm that it is not just normal aging, but two incurable medical disorders that will continue affecting Emily’s voice, well, yeah. I cried. I am so thankful that at almost every opportunity possible I have gone to see the extraordinary harmony of heart and head that have been Emily Sailer and Amy Ray as the Indigo Girls for the last thirty-plus years. That they asked for grace as they navigate performing to the best of their abilities together on this new tour, well, I cried some more. I hope they know we, their listeners who love them, are just so grateful for everything they’ve given us show after show, year after year, decade after decade. I sure hope we’ll have many more years to come. But so thankful for all they’ve already given us. Happy Monday, kittens.

My Weekend (Girls) Crush

I have, quite honestly, lost count of how many times I’ve seen the Indigo Girls. I’m going on 30-plus years of fandom at this point, so hopefully you can forgive my forgetfulness. But I have to be closing in on close to a dozen times. More recently I have proven my allegiance by seeing them two consecutive prides in a row, because I’m simply that gay.

So, obviously, I’m thrilled that a new documentary will help to jog all of our collective memories about these wonder women. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have provided the soundtrack to so many significant parts of my life. They were out there, before Melissa and before Ellen before everyone who has subsequently stepped on stage as out and proud voices. And I will forever be grateful for their music, passion and queerness. So start the music, I’m about to singalong at the top of my lungs. Join me, won’t you. Happy weekend, all.

Ray of Hope

I’ve been an Indigo Girl gal since, well, since I was a girl. And I have the (quite literal) receipts to prove it. I’ve reveled in the harmonic miracle of the combined voices of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers for decades. But I’ve also appreciated them apart. So Amy Ray’s latest song “Subway,” with an assist from none other than Brandi Carlile, is truly a gay celebration. Amy has said the song recalls the freeing feeling she had as a small-town queer going to the Big City. It’s something I think is a universal dream for most queer youth, at some point or another. And in particular it’s a tribute to the late NY radio DJ legend Rita Houston, who championed queer artists like our Girls and Brandi and so many others. Ah, youth and all that endless feeling of possibility — isn’t it pretty to think so, once again.