Amy Ray and Emily Saliers make up the American folk rock duo known as Indigo Girls, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The two started performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, where they first met when they were in elementary school. When they were Emory University students, they began performing under the moniker Indigo Girls, appearing once a week at The Dugout, a bar in Emory Village.
They signed a deal with a big record label in 1988 after releasing a self-produced, full-length record album called Strange Fire in 1987. They resumed self-producing albums with their own IG Recordings firm in 2008 after releasing nine albums through major record labels from 1987 to 2007.
Saliers is an entrepreneur in the restaurant business as well as a professional novelist; she also works with her father, Don Saliers, in performing for specific groups and causes. Aside from launching a non-profit organization to support independent musicians, Ray has recorded solo CDs. Saliers and Ray are both politically and environmentally engaged lesbians.
