THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 37 lines
COMPARED TO the current crop of edgy female singer/songwriters - Alanis Morrissette, Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham - the earnest Indigo Girls are downright tame. The duo's sturdy sound, built around twining vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars, toes a safe line between pop and folk.
And for a crowded house in Norfolk Saturday night, safe was just fine.
The Georgia pair's zealously received Boathouse performance was just one stop on their summer ``working'' tour. The Grammy-winning Girls are currently between albums - their last release was 1995's double live ``1200 Curfews'' - and the cross-country jaunt is serving as a practice session for their return to the studio next month.
Along with comfortable renditions of familiar favorites, virtually all of which became crowd singalongs, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers mixed in new material, new arrangements and even new instruments, including mandolin and banjo.
In the downtime since the Girls' last studio album, 1994's popular ``Swamp Ophelia,'' Saliers has taken up piano, and she serenaded her enthusaistic audience with a new ballad whose lyrics reference current affairs, such as the recent black church burnings.
Other new material proved similarly topical, including ``It's All Right,'' whose lines ``Do you hate me 'cause I'm different?/Do you hate me 'cause I'm gay?'' brought supportive whoops and applause from the largely female audience. In recent years, Ray and Saliers have made public their own homosexuality.
For several songs the Indigo Girls were joined by old pal and opening act Michelle Malone on guitar, harmonica and third-part vocals. Malone, who in her more intense moments sounds like a gentler Janis Joplin or a junior Melissa Etheridge, kicked off Saturday's concert with a guileless set comprised largely of songs from her forthcoming album. by CNB