NEPA Scene Staff

Folk rock duo Indigo Girls perform at Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on March 20

Folk rock duo Indigo Girls perform at Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on March 20
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From a press release:

It was just announced this morning that the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls will perform at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Sunday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets, which are $39, $49, and $59, plus fees, go on sale Monday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. and will be available through the Kirby Center box office (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre), online at kirbycenter.org, and by phone at 570-826-1100. A special Kirby Member pre-sale begins today, Thursday, Feb. 4, at 10 a.m.

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are the Indigo Girls. Rolling Stone describes them as the “ideal duet partners. Their voices soar and swoop as one, alternately raucous and soothing. When they sing together, they radiate a sense of shared purpose that adds muscle to their lanky, deeply felt folk-tinged pop songs.” Together they write, arrange, record, and perform music which, over the course of 25 years, has become a vital part of the lives of their legion of devoted fans around the world, informing and rewarding them day to day.

With 16 original studio albums, three live records, various greatest hits compilations, a rarities collection, and a Christmas record to their credit, the iconic duo continues to challenge themselves creatively, over and over again, adding to a body of work that contains such contemporary classic songs as “Galileo,” “Shame on You,” “Closer to Fine,” “Kid Fears,” “Love of Our Lives,” “Making Promises,” “Get out the Map,” “Moment of Forgiveness,” “Least Complicated,” and “Go.”

After one Grammy, seven Grammy nominations and awards, gold and platinum certifications, and decades of touring in clubs, arenas, and everything in between, the Indigo Girls remain active and relevant, always viewing their music as a fresh opportunity for exploration and discovery.

They first met as fifth and sixth graders in Decatur, Georgia and began singing together during high school. Originally billed as Saliers & Ray, the pair adopted the name Indigo Girls during their undergraduate days at Atlanta’s Emory University.

The Indigos were attending classes by day and performing as an acoustic duo in local clubs by night when they made their first stab at recording in 1985 with the single “Crazy Game/Everybody’s Waiting (for Someone to Come Home),” which they issued on their own label, followed by an EP and, in 1987, their first full-length LP, “Strange Fire,” produced by John Keane.

In 1988, the big time beckoned Indigo Girls. Signed to Epic Records and EMI Music, they recorded “Indigo Girls” with producer Scott Litt at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. With Ray and Saliers on vocals and acoustic guitars, the album featured contributions from REM, Hothouse Flowers, and Luka Bloom.

The record was released in 1989 (the Boston Globe stated, “The Indigo Girls have simply made the best debut album so far this year”) and the Indigo Girls began crisscrossing the country on tour (a process that has continued without pause throughout their career), headlining or supporting the likes of REM, Neil Young, and the Violent Femmes.

Decades into their career, the Indigo Girls still amaze conventional pundits with their ability to grow and thrive no matter what the state of the music industry is at any given point. The duo’s constant touring, as well as staunch dedication to a number of social and environmental causes, has earned them a fervidly devoted following over their 35 years performing together.

The Indigo Girls released their 16th studio album, “One Lost Day,” on June 2, 2015. Vast in its reach but unified by the traveler’s sense of wonder, gratitude, and empathy, the album moves like a centrifuge, pulling the listener close to linger in the small moment, then casting out onto sonic currents.

This is music of the past, present, and future – a boundlessness earned and not bestowed. “One Lost Day” has a feeling of music composed across time, not just in time. These songs are rooted in tradition and inventive, too – nourished in dark soils, leafing and luminous.