‘My voice will not be what it was’: Indigo Girl has incurable medical issues

Emily Saliers of the Atlanta duo the Indigo Girls revealed Friday evening that she has two movement disorders that have negatively impacted her voice.

She addressed for the first time why her once-smooth soprano has been shaky of late in a video released on the band’s social media platforms. She and her bandmate Amy Ray sat next to each other on a couch, holding guitars.

“Many of you have noticed that my voice is not what it once was,” Saliers said in the video.

Ray and Saliers, who met in elementary school in Decatur and formed the Indigo Girls at Emory University, have been touring regularly for more than 40 years. Their loyal fan base happily sings along to their harmony-infused tunes like “Closer to Fine,” “Galileo” and “Shame on You.”

Saliers said she has cervical dystonia, a rare but painful condition that causes the neck muscles to contract involuntarily, forcing the head to twist and turn to one side, according to the Mayo Clinic. “It’s impossible for me to hold my head centrally without shaking,” Saliers said.

It most often impacts people in middle age, women more than men. Symptoms generally begin gradually, then plateau, the site said. There is no cure.

The second disorder, which Saliers said is “harder,” is more common: essential tremor, a neurological condition that causes involuntary rhythmic shaking. The Mayo Clinic says essential tremor isn’t a dangerous condition but could worsen over time and is sometimes confused with Parkinson’s disease.

“It impacts all parts of my singing apparatus: the larynx, the pharyngeal muscle, the jaw, my diaphragm where I get all my air for singing,” Saliers said. “I’m unable to make the connections muscularly or structurally because of the essential tremor.”

The result: “It gives me this vibrato I never used to have. I am physically unable to hold a straight tone the way I used to. And this is what you, the community, have come to appreciate and love … our harmonies, the way we can hold long, straight tones together.”

Essential tremor also has no cure, but Saliers in the video said she is doing everything she can to mitigate the symptoms of both disorders. That includes therapeutic massage, physical therapy, chiropractic acupuncture and Botox shots every three months in her neck and shoulders.

“I’m also seeing a vocal coach who is an expert in movement disorders for singers,” she said.

The duo is still planning to tour this year, including performing a sold-out concert during the FIFA World Cup in downtown Decatur Square July 19.

“My voice will not be what it was,” she said. Her voice broke a little when she added: “That’s really hard for me. Amy has been super supportive and we want you to know as we get ready for these shows, we’re doing everything we can to make the songs sound as good as they possibly sound, which includes all the modern digital tools that front of house engineers use to help singers sound better.”

They are using other people such as singer-songwriter and frequent collaborator Lucy Wainwright Roche to fill in some harmony parts. “There may be some new arrangements,” she said.

Saliers, who declined to be interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, did not say when she was officially diagnosed with either disorder but said she has been grappling with them for a while.

“The conditions get incrementally worse over time,” she noted. “I hate that I’m only 62 and this is happening to me. But we are both aging. We’re trying to see this organically as a process of our own aging.”