Indigo
Moms Amy Ray on parenthood, mellowing and the Indigo Girls’ 30-year anniversary By Bret Love
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fter nearly three decades of making music together, you might think you know everything there is to know about the Indigo Girls. But Amy Ray and her musical partner, Emily Saliers, have both seen huge changes in their personal lives in the three years since their last album, Beauty Queen Sister, was released. Last September Saliers announced at a Vancouver concert that she had married her girlfriend, former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristan Chipman, with whom she has an 18-month-old daughter, Cleo. Ray lost her father last year, just before her longtime partner, Carrie Schrader (a music teacher at North Georgia College), gave birth to their daughter, Ozilline. 28 ENCOREATLANTA.COM
If the mostly mellow, traditional country-influenced music on Ray’s latest solo album, Goodnight Tender, is any indication, these changes could lead the duo down some intriguing pathways when they head back into the studio in October. We recently spoke with Ray from her home in Dahlonega, covering topics ranging from her first several months of parenthood to how to make a musical partnership last longer than many marriages do. Question: How has parenthood impacted your life? Answer: You reorganize your time and energy in a way that makes you see things from a