The Indigo Girls

It's no secret, my favourite singing group is "The Indigo Girls". An American duo hailing from Decatur, Georgia.

Despite Our Differences is the name of their most recent album - I thought it was a bit slow when I was listening to it at home, and I had a hard time getting in to it. However, now that I've heard so many of the songs played live at various venues in the IG UK Tour Feb'07 - I have to say that they really are great songs! Little Perennials and Pendulum Swinger are pretty catchy tunes among others -- Go buy it and judge for yourself :-)

Their prior album, "Rarities", is available in stores now It's a good album - I thought it would be a bit boring because I had most of the songs on bootleg already - but no, it's a great compilation of the more rare of the Indigo Girls' tunes - however I still think the 'Shed Your Skin Tom Morello remix' sounds a bit like the sound track for an adult movie.

Also fairly recent is a solo album by Amy-Ray called "Prom". Prom is a good listen though not as edgy as Amy's last solo "Stag", in my opinion. It fascinates me how different her music is in these solo endeavours - a much more indy feel than stuff done with Emily - really good stuff.

Amy Ray's website

Amy Ray now has her own website - See it here: www.amy-ray.com. A warning though, be patient - it's nearly 100% FLASH. Even with broadband, it takes a long time to download - on a dial-up connection, only the most dedicated fan will have the stamina. Also, unfortunately, the flash is in a pop-up window which won't show up in EITHER IE6 or Firefox unless you specifically tell the browser it's ok. - Amy! your website is NOT accessable, and there is no straight html-equivalent. It's a GREAT site, it's just out of the reach of a lot of folks.

Indigo Girls Concert - Bootleg List

I have a small but respectable collection of IG bootlegs (Official Indigo Girls Taping Policy ) I'm keen to trade concert for concert, or if you have none - for blank CD-R's, or other artists' bootlegs

Some will be unhappy to know that I keep all of my concert in MP3 format - with the odd one in CD Audio. You have been warned, so don't whine, I mean let's be frank, live recordings aren't always the best quality to begin with, and MP3 compression simply don't make much of a difference.

Les Cowboys Fringants

My trip to Québec wasn't a complete waste of time, I found a new band I like. Les Cowbowys Fringants are a Québecois group that are quite popular right now. I like them because they have a very 'Canadian' feel to their music - I think they sound a lot like 'Great Big Sea' - except of course - they sing everything in French. My French is very bad, so I only vaguely get that most of their songs are quite political - It might be annoying if I actually understood the lyrics - but since I don't, I recommend them.

james keelaghan

I've seen James Keelaghan in concert only about 3 or 4 times. The first was at the Canmore Folk Festival back in the late 80's or very early 90's. Tunes like "Hillcrest Mine" and "Jenny Bryce" turned me into an instant fan. Originally I had Timelines on vinal - yup.. real a real live record. These became hard to listen to when I got rid of my record player.

Not long ago I had the pleasure of seeing him again here in England at the Red Lion Folk Club in Birmingham. I think the Calgary school system has something to answer for in terms of how well versed I am in Canadian history. Thankfully, artists like James Keelaghan and Tamarack have made up for my lack of education - if you like guitar music - and story songs - and good ole' folk tunes - you'll like James Keelaghan.

Pictures of the Indigo Girls from UK Concerts

Here are some pictures that I took during some of the Indigo Girls various tours through the UK I have shots from three different concerts - come back! I have a digital camera now!