Amy Ray

For The Record...

Born Amy Ray on April 12, 1964, in Georgia. Sang with Indigo Girls, c. 1985-; founded Daemon Records, 1990; released Stag, 2001; Prom, 2005; Live in Nashville, 2005; Didn't It Feel Kinder, 2008. Addresses: Record company—Daemon Records, P.O. Box 1207, Decatur, GA 30031.

Singer, songwriter

Singer Amy Ray is well-known as one half of the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, with bandmate Emily Saliers, but she is also a record producer and a solo performer in her own right. While the Indigo Girls' songs are acoustic and melodic, Ray's solo work is loud, tough, and defiant. Although she uses an acoustic guitar when she performs with the Indigo Girls, she switches to electric guitar for her own work. On her Web site, she quoted Jon Gilbertson, who wrote in No Depression, "Cranking the amplifier toughens her stance and streamlines her attitude."

Ray founded her own label, Daemon Records, in 1990, with the idea of producing other musicians' work, allowing local musicians who had not yet hit it big to get a recording contract. She also mentored them, teaching them how to promote their careers. But after ten years of working with other musicians, she decided it was time to pursue her own solo dreams. She had been writing songs that were too angry, too political, or too tough to fit into the Indigo Girls' repertoire. On her Web site, she wrote that she realized that these songs were "something I need to sing alone rather than with Emily." She told Carolyn Lamberson of the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard that when she did solo work, "I tend to deal more with gender stuff and queer identity and my frustration with the corporate music world." And she added, "I don't have to think about whether Emily would feel the same way or not, or whether the listener would be confused about whether Emily's talking about gender identity or I am."

Her debut album, Stag, was released in 2001, and had a punk rock sound, appealing to listeners who wanted harder, tougher music than the Indigo Girls put out. For the album, she worked with punk girl band The Butchies, and she invited other musicians to record with her. She wrote on her Web site, "The songs on this album are mostly inspired by the bands that play on it." She added that she had created songs with them in mind. Other performers on the record included the Rockateens, Josephine Wiggs of the Breeders, Kate Schellenbach of Lucious Jackson, and punk icon Joan Jett.

The songs on Stag also explored Ray's relationship with the music industry, particularly issues related to gender roles and expectations. She wrote on her Web site, "The heart of that record is in that rebellion and in a certain spirit of recovery."

In Prom, Ray continued to explore issues from her high school years, as well as those of current-day teenagers: suicide, racism, gender identification, politics, and homophobia. She commented on her Web site that adolescence is a tumultuous time. "In high school I fell in love with a woman for the first time, played my first gigs, learned about rebellion, experienced the idea of community, and felt the innocence of genderless childhood fading away into the reality of puberty." She told Shane Harrison in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that when she was in high school she was a tomboy, and she was "infatuated with the boys because I wanted to be them. I wanted all that freedom they had. There was something about that energy … that I didn't find with high school girls, and I think that that's part of the problem. As a girl you completely lose your self-esteem." In one song, she talks about having young people who were confused about their own sexuality ask her about whether or not they were gay. She told Harrison that this was based on her own experiences in rural North Georgia, when teens did visit and talk to her. She told Harrison, "A couple of them became gay, and, you know, a couple of them became gay bashers. In a way they were like one person, because they both went through hating themselves and talking to me about what was going on in their lives." Reviewer Kurt B. Reighley wrote in the Advocate that the songs on Prom were "more rough-hewn and hard-rocking" than any of Ray's work with Indigo Girls.

Didn't It Feel Kinder was the first album in which Ray used a producer. First she drafted Melissa York, the drummer from the band The Butchies. York introduced Ray to her friend Greg Griffith, who had done production work for The Butchies. The three of them played some songs together, with Ray on guitar and vocals, York on drums, and Griffith playing keyboards and guitar. As Ray wrote on her Web site, "Something must have clicked. … as Greg's ideas came to fruition, it just felt inevitable." She commented, "I didn't want to be limited by habit or insecurity or gender or place. Sometimes I sang a song right the first time, and some songs I sang over and over until I found the voice. … I let the songs control the experience." When the album was finally recorded, Ray added other musicians to the trio: Kaia Wilson and Tomi Martin on guitar, a guest band named Arizona, and another singer, Brandi Carlile. They took ten months to mix, remix, and master the album. She wrote on her Web site, "It took longer than we expected, it cost more than we had, and it came out far better than we could have imagined."

Joan Jett told Karen Iris Tucker in the Advocate, "Amy Ray is one person that walks it like she talks it. She is committed to doing whatever she can to make the world better and to fighting injustice wherever she can. That is one of the many reasons I am proud to call her my friend."

Selected discography
Stag, Daemon Records, 2001.
Prom, Daemon Records, 2005.
Live in Nashville, Daemon Records, 2005.
Didn't It Feel Kinder, Daemon Records, 2008.

Sources
Periodicals
Advocate, May 8, 2001, p. 48; May 10, 2005, p. 73; August 12, 2008.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 23, 2005, p. C1.
Curve, August 2005, p. 35.

Herizons, Fall 2004, p. 22.
Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), July 15, 2005, p. T4.

Online
Amy Ray Official Web Site, http://www.amy-ray.com (November 23, 2008).