Indigo Girls ‘Look Long’ at their career in tour that brings them back home

Fortitude and passion. What else can you say is driving Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls? In an April video statement, Saliers and creative partner Amy Ray shared that Saliers is dealing with a pair of incurable medical issues — cervical dystonia and an essential tremor — that have affected the Connecticut native’s ability to sing clearly and constantly.

The message was more of a heads-up about what concertgoers can expect at live shows with Saliers sharing that she’s getting a combination of therapeutic massage, physical therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture and Botox shots along with working with a vocal coach skilled at adjustments to address these physical obstacles.

While the last album the duo released was 2020’s “Look Long,” the combination of a solid backing band and a catalog that runs 15 studio albums deep and includes classic songs such as “Closer to Fine,” “Galileo” and “Least Complicated” means there is no shortage of material to draw from in concerts. That includes the Indigo Girls’ hometown show at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Friday.

Saliers also pointed out that contingency plans are in place for her vocal issues on the tour, with singers Lucy Wainwright Roche, Lyris Hung and Jeff Fiedler on hand to beef up the trademark harmonies of Ray and Saliers.

“It’s kind of like a band without drums and extra keyboards,” Saliers said. “Jeff is going to be playing some bass, keyboards and different instruments. We’re going to be focusing a lot on the harmonies — bringing Lucy’s voice in, and in particular support of my (vocals), but also all the beautiful harmonies she does.

“We do songs from ‘Look Long.’ Amy and I are both writing songs right now. Our intent is to probably release a group of songs as single releases and probably not an entire album. How we end up getting those new songs finished and learned is still up in the air. It’ll be all of us on stage and then a mix of songs from albums past, including solo stuff.”

For the 63-year-old Saliers, music has been a constant in her life dating to an early musical memory of her being a diaper-clad toddler placing a hand on a piano at her grandmother’s house and being drawn to the sound of it. Coming from a musical lineage that included a grandfather who toured as a big band violinist/saxophonist, a vocalist mother and a father who was an accomplished pianist/organist who veered into sacred music, Saliers’ pursuit of a musical path was akin to pivoting into the family business. Key moments when she was growing up included learning how to harmonize with her siblings and being inspired by her cousin to learn guitar around age 9 when she brought a flyer home from the YMCA advertising guitar lessons.

“My sisters and I sang together in this house full of music,” Saliers said. “I learned about descants and harmonies singing in church choirs when I was really little, so that’s always been my jam. My cousin was a singer-songwriter who was very influential to me and my sisters. When I brought home this flyer about guitar lessons at the YMCA and said I wanted to do this, he helped me pick out my first guitar — it was $24. I’d already taken drum lessons for one second and we all played recorder in school. But this was it. I took classical lessons when I was 11 for two years, but the start of it all was third grade at the YMCA.”

Sailers’ father, a Yale professor, moved the family to Atlanta when the aspiring singer-songwriter was 12, to take a job at Emory University. There, Saliers quickly found a group of friends and even went as far as forming a group in seventh grade with two other girls called the Blue Skies. But it was connecting with Ray, who was a grade younger and “the other kid in school that played guitar,” that planted the seeds for what became the Indigo Girls.

After a brief stint attending college (Tulane University for Saliers, Vanderbilt University for Ray), the homesick duo eventually transferred to Emory. The Indigo Girls’ 1987 debut album “Strange Fire” was independently released on Canada’s Indigo Records before the duo signed a deal with Epic Records, which rereleased the debut the following year.

In the subsequent decades, the Indigo Girls went from a world of DIY touring on the college radio circuit to enjoying considerable commercial success during a nine-album run on Epic (which included three platinum-selling releases and worldwide touring) before moving to Vanguard Records in 2007 and most recently forming IG Recordings, their independent imprint.

For Saliers, the duo’s longevity can be traced to a blend of differences and philosophical intersectionality.