Closer to Fine: Folk Rock Duo The Indigo Girls Come to Chautauqua
An interview with Emily Saliers ahead of their regional performance
This is the original, complete version of the interview between Larry Wheaton and Emily Saliers. The version in the print edition was edited for length.
For over 40 years, folk rock duo the Indigo Girls have been fusing music with activism and awareness for marginalized communities. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers started their journey in Atlanta, Georgia in the '80s and have continued to work together, growing a dedicated fan base over the decades. Erie Reader contributing writer Lary Wheaton spoke with Emily Saliers about this tour, activism, faith, and the Barbie movie.
Larry Wheaton (LW): What does your touring live band look like for the current tour?
Emily Saliers (ES): We have Jeff Fielder on keys, bass, and guitar, and he sings. Jeff also plays with Amy in the Amy Ray Band, and we have Lyris Hung on violin, and Lucy Wainwright Roche on vocals and guitar. Then me and Amy. We run the gambit, we love playing with the band, but sometimes it's just me and Amy and Lyris. Now we have five players and Jeff has to go away in mid-October, then we will bring Julie Wolf out, so we kind of mix it up.
LW: I saw your online post regarding your recent health diagnosis (in April 2026 Emily Saliers was diagnosed with two incurable movement disorders: cervical dystonia with torticollis and an essential tremor), how has that affected your live performances or does it change how the songs may be performed?
ES: Basically, because of this neurological condition it's physically impossible for me to hold very long straight tones like I used to be able to and my voice gets more fatigued more easily. So we used to play three or four shows in a row, and now we are really trying to play two shows max and then take a day off for rest. The songs that we picked which are easier on me seem to be Amy's songs for the most part, but there are songs of mine that are just more difficult for me to sing, so we just picked songs that I am able to handle. Along with that there is this acceptance – hopefully our listeners know that I do not sound like I sounded five or 10 years ago and that's the way it is. It seems to be the case that we are bringing joy to the shows and my condition does not affect the shows so negatively that we should be hanging it up. We don't feel that way.
Lucy Roach helps, she will take some lines that are just too high for me anymore and sing those and she is a great harmony singer. So we have this really sweet harmonic glue together and basically do everything we can to bring the best show we possibly can to the standards we always held for ourselves.
We haven't changed the keys yet, but we have changed times where I will cut a note short, because I can't hold it long and Amy will sing the same, not long, and little things like that. I think eventually we will. There will be songs that I eventually want to play that are just a little bit too high and we will just change the key and it will be no big deal. Just trying to find our way through it now.
LW: You were last at the Chautauqua Institute in August of 2024 with Melissa Etheridge. It's a unique place with a long history. What is it that you remember the most about the venue?
ES: It is a very cool looking venue, it's a very unusual looking venue and as you drive in there you feel like you are in this camp setting. So, the people are coming just to stay in these cabins for vacation, so it feels like this ideal little world of its own. Also, when I was a little girl, my dad was a professor and he took me and my mom and sisters to Chautauqua. So I spent time at Chautauqua as a kid and I remember that really clearly – it's kind of a dreamy summer place.
LW: You worked with Amy on the Glitter and Doom soundtrack and recently finished the music for the musical *Starstruck. How does it feel watching other people perform songs that you have written, compared to singing them yourself and do you see more musicals in your future?
ES: I love it so much when other people sing songs that I have written. I would almost rather hear someone else sing it, than sing it myself. I never really thought of myself as a singer per se and when you write for musical theater and you have these women and men and everything in between with these glorious voices – it's just so exciting to me. I don't know if I will ever get used to that. I know I am coming late to the party, but we had a really good run with Starstruck at Bucks County Playhouse and now we want to move to New York to a theater next fall. I am working on two other musicals at the same time, so this is a completely different creative outlet. One of the greatest joys is when you get a singer or actor on stage singing the songs – it's very exciting to me. I always wanted to write music for other people.
LW: You have been very active with a lot of social movements over the decades. Any advice to younger artists facing the current state of our nation?
ES: It's more important than ever to be an activist. I have so many friends that live in Minneapolis that are on the street and taking care of their neighbors when ICE swept through and broke that city's heart for a minute. Then they just built each other back up emotionally to their best ability. So, I would say to young artists and young people just get involved everywhere you can and it's absolutely critical to vote, even if you feel removed from the political system. It is obviously abhorrent what people in office can do to a nation and its people. So, it's really important to get involved. Younger people have a lot of energy, they are not afraid. I see this a lot in young activists and it's very inspiring and, in a way, I wish there were other musicians who took their part. Amy and I are always knocking on doors and trying to get people to come along for benefits – like the work we have done for Indigenous communities. I wish there were more mainstream artists who really got down to hardcore activism because they could be so influential.
LW: I grew up listening to bands like R.E.M. and loved punk rock, especially the more politically charged bands. Now it feels that the younger artists seem to care about the activism more than the more established artists and it's a bit disheartening.
ES: There are, particularly queer artists, who are very political. I discovered all these young artists on Instagram and they are just very out there in their activism and progressive politics and it's very, very heartening.
LW: You wrote the book A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice with your father. It's now 20 years later – where would you place faith in your life today?
ES: We grew up in our family with my father being a professor of theology, we grew up going to church together, but we were always in an ecumenical academic setting so we went to church at Emory University. Even the chapel was set up so you could take the cross down and other groups of faith could have their religious gatherings in the space. So I grew up in a very ecumenical sort of progressive family. I never grew up with any conflict between sexuality and faith, identity and faith. Faith, to me, had to do with everything that you do to uphold the dignity of humanity in the natural world – that was something that was celebrated energetically. I have become less attached to dogma – I still enjoy the seasons, say for instance the Christian church, all the teachings of Jesus that have to do with diversity and love and that kind of activism. But I would say that my faith has become, while it is a guiding principle in my life, a much more indescribably and unfathomable energetic reality that responds to goodness. This isn't some Pollyanna belief system – this is about what supports things getting better, not worse. My faith guides my life, my faith guides my sobriety, my faith guides my music, but I don't subscribe to a particular denomination, dogma, or teaching because all the great faiths – and paganism and all of the faiths of nature and Indigenous faiths – all comes from the same source. It's very difficult to hold onto it in the face of what's happening in this country right now politically and socially with immigrants and LGBTQIA+ oppression and trans oppression. It's very difficult to maintain faith in something that's guiding us way beyond our understanding, but I always come back to it somehow.
LW: One of your most popular songs is "Closer To Fine," when it was featured in the Barbie Movie, did its success help you get a younger audience interested in your music?
ES: Totally! I have to say, we looked at the numbers for a while and our monthly listeners jumped stratospherically relative to what they were – and then we started noticing younger folks in the audience. But then it all kind of settled down in terms of the listening numbers and I can't tell whether the bump helped, because we have a lot of young people, we have young women, we have kids, we have young queers, we have young men, which is very interesting. We had a teacher come up to us, this was in New Jersey, and he had just won this big teaching award and he came to thank me and Amy. This is a straight male dude teacher, and he came to thank me and Amy for our influence on his work and we were like, what the heck? So I don't know now, when things have settled down after Barbie, how much of a younger audience we have now because of the movie or whether it's just part of this thing that you can't really take apart and identify. But there was definitely a bump in younger people sort of knowing who we were because of Barbie and I know this because I have a 13-year-old and there were a lot of kids who saw that movie, particularly young girls. I don't know if the staying power of the young demographic that we enjoy now is because of that movie or not. I like to think it was! We love Greta Gerwig and I loved the movie.
Indigo Girls will be performing at the Chautauqua Institution on Thursday, Sept. 10 with tickets ranging from $50 to $150. It is recommended to show up early due to the distance of parking from the venue and to go through security before entering the grounds. For tickets and info: chq.org
Larry Wheaton is a musician and record collector, who's listened to all different styles of music. Some of his favorite bands are political in nature like Neil Young and The Clash. He can be reached at wheaton1138@gmail.com
