Indigo Girls to perform with CU-Boulder’s University Symphony
The popular folk duo gives a sold-out performance in Boulder March 31
CU Presents’ 2015-16 season continues with a joint performance by the Indigo Girls, an internationally-renowned folk duo, and the University of Colorado Boulder’s all-student University Symphony Orchestra. The already sold-out performance takes place Thursday, March 31, at CU-Boulder’s Macky Auditorium.
The Indigo Girls are Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, two folk musicians known around the world for their ethereal harmonies and gritty sincerity. Audiences at Macky can expect to hear symphonic arrangements of of the Girls’ greatest hits, such as “Closer to Fine,” “Galileo” and “Least Complicated,” and a handful of songs off their latest album, “One Lost Day.”
Saliers describes “One Lost Day” as a diary of the last four years disguised as a travelogue. Most of the track titles are references to locations—”Southern California is Your Girlfriend,” “Findlay, Ohio 1968,” “Alberta”—but deal mostly with the major life changes both musicians have seen in the last few years.
“Amy recently lost her father and experienced the birth of a child, and I married my partner and have a 3-year-old daughter,” Saliers says. “A lot happened after the last record we released [in 2011], and we address that in ‘One Lost Day.’”
For more than three decades, the Indigo Girls’ lyrics have inspired people to stop sweating the small stuff. The words of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers reassured fans from all corners of the globe that it’s OK to take life a little less seriously—it’s only life, after all.
Little do fans know, it took the folk duo many decades and milestones before they began to heed their own advice.
“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned in life, now that I’m married and I have a daughter, is not to worry much about anything anymore,” says Saliers. “I just don’t fear the future. There’s not much that’s in your control … you keep going and weather your storms.”
Over the years, the Indigo Girls have used their musical talents to champion people on the margins of society. Their songs often tackle such topics as civil rights, prison reform and marriage equality. Their biggest hit, “Closer to Fine,” has become an unofficial anthem for millions of gay men and lesbians who grew up grappling with their sexuality.
Saliers says she and Amy Ray love the way the music brings diverse groups of people together in concert halls and amphitheaters across the world.
“When we play shows, I want people to sing, to yell out things, to feel a sense of connection with other people in the audience,” she says. “I don’t want there to be any barriers. I want the music to bring us together.”
Tickets for this show are sold out. To join the waiting list, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway) or call 303-492-8008 during business hours.