Indigo Girls still in harmony

Indigo Girls w/ Coyote Grace, Fri. Oct. 22, 8 p.m., Mellow Theater, 501 Vine St. Scranton. Tickets: $25-$35 by calling 570-955-1455 or visiting www.etix.com

Singing together since elementary school, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers began sharing their love for music well before they became known to legions of fans as Indigo Girls.

The musical relationship progressed as the two first went to separate colleges, then met back up at Emory University near Atlanta. Open-mic nights, paid bar and club gigs and eventually record deals followed.

“Hopefully the songwriting has evolved since that time,” says Ray, asked how Indigo Girls have changed since those early days. “As far as the live format, hopefully our harmonies got even tighter. … The live experience? I don’t think that’s changed much. It’s always been kind of raucous and people singing along and feeling very free.”

Ray, speaking from her Georgia home before a tour that will bring the group to the Mellow Theater in Scranton Friday, Oct. 22, chatted about the duo’s fanbase, the recent ill-fated Lilith Fair comeback and how she and Saliers have managed to stay together for so long.

At the Scranton show, Ray and Saliers will be backed by keyboard player Julie Wolf and the band Coyote Grace, which will also open the show. Earlier this year, the band released the double-disc set “Staring Down the Brilliant Dream,” its first live album in 15 years. Last week, it released a holiday album, “Holly Happy Days.”

WEEKENDER: After all these years working together, how have you and Emily avoided killing each other?

RAY: (Laughs) Well, I think the main thing is we give each other a lot of space. Honestly, that’s the main big thing. We respect each other’s music. We give each other the space to write. We each write separately from each other, so that gives a lot of creative space. And when we’re kind of at home and not touring, we don’t really hang out that much, so there’s a lot of space there. And we do our own thing.

We have little rules. You don’t tour for more than three of four weeks at a time. You go home between things. Whoever wrote the song has sort of say over what happens to that song, and that kind of enables each person to have some control, which you need to feel. Everyone I know that’s in a band that breaks up, they feel they kind of don’t have any control, or feel their voice hasn’t been heard.

WEEKENDER: Your fanbase is known for being very loyal. How do you feel that fanbase has evolved over the years?

RAY: There’s a core of people that hand the music down. But it’s a core of people that are sort of connected to each other that way. When we have a little radio play — which is rare — it expands, and you can tell what it’s expanding like, because the newer people are not as familiar with the older material.

WEEKENDER: From 1997-1999, Lilith Fair was a massive success. Founder Sarah McLachlan brought it back this summer, and it didn’t do nearly as well. Indigo Girls played a few shows on this year’s tour, what did you think of it?

RAY: I think that they did some miscalculations in the planning and had to cancel a few shows. I think they took it as a learning experience. It’s not a perfect machine, and we’re going to keep trying.

WEEKENDER: Will it be back?

RAY: They think it will be. It was really fun; musically speaking, it was a blast. Cat Power played the nights we played, and really just to be able to see her from the side of a stage a few nights in a row, that’s pretty much worth the whole experience for me. It was good to see Sarah, and we did a bunch of stuff together.

WEEKENDER: Did you and Emily have to work hard at creating your trademark vocal harmonies?

RAY: No, it was pretty immediate. Emily was already a very good harmony singer, from singing with her sisters and her dad. … So she became the one that sang most of the harmonies. I learned by really picking up on what she did.

WEEKENDER: Indigo Girls are very politically active. You have to be one of the few bands with an activism link on its website. What issues are important to you guys these days?

RAY: Oh, God. So many. It’s ever-evolving. We continually work on issues of energy justice with our group Honor the Earth. … Sweet Home New Orleans, which is still working on Katrina aftermath. Work on issues around getting licenses for small community radio. … I could keep going. It’s endless. I probably left out a million things.

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