Musicians perform seminal Indigo Girls album
We go to the Bible, we go through the workout, we read up on revival, we stand
Continue reading the rest of "Musicians perform seminal Indigo Girls album" by Athens Banner-Herald
up for the lookout
There's more than one answer to these questions, pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine ...
From "Closer to Fine," by the Indigo Girls
The final lyrics from "Closer to Fine" on the Indigo Girls' self-titled sophomore release are just a peek into the album's soul-searching and impassioned lyrics that drew in countless listeners when it was released in 1989.
The album earned a Grammy for best contemporary folk album and a nomination for best new artist for its players, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers (though they lost to Milli Vanilli).
Athens musicians Julie Caldwell and Noel Blackmon were teenagers when the album was released, and knew "Closer to Fine" by heart.
"The songs were kind of easy - in that even if you weren't a great guitarist, it was clear what you were playing," says Caldwell, who remembers as a 14-year-old, she played "Closer to Fine" on a mission trip from Marietta to Mexico for the "70,000 hours of the bus ride."
"I had started composing around the time that album came out," adds Blackmon, who's been in a number of Athens bands and currently plays in Klezmer Local 42 (formerly called Lokshen Kugel), and with her husband, renowned fiddler David Blackmon, also plays in Curly Maple. "So I was naturally thinking of another woman's voice in my head as the counterpart," she says, citing the indelible influence of Ray's and Saliers' harmonies.
It's one reason Blackmon jumped at the chance to perform the album in its entirety with Caldwell, who'd been mulling over the idea for about three years. She said from the moment she had the idea, she thought of playing with Blackmon, who seemed the perfect fit. Tonight, the two will take the stage at Hendershot's to perform it straight through.
"I hope we can do it in a way that honors it well," Caldwell says.
There's little chance that won't happen. Caldwell, who currently serves on the music staff for Athens First United Methodist Church (she formerly headed up the music portion for the contemporary services the church held for Sundays at the Morton), earned her master's degree in music composition from the Un
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