Amy Ray - Didn’t It Feel Kinder

Produced by Greg Griffith | Mixed by Danny Kadar and Greg Griffith | Recorded by Danny Kadar at Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, NC | Mastered by Glenn Schick

From a recent tour stop in Austin, Texas, Amy Ray, the more rocking half of Atlanta’s legendary Indigo Girls, admitted that writing songs has become, in some ways, a more difficult endeavor as she’s matured, especially in terms of not repeating herself — not an easy task considering the impressive body of work Ray has compiled after more than 20 years of songwriting. On the other hand, the renowned Decatur native added that she enjoys the process more now because of all she’s learned in the lifelong study of songwriting. Ray also added that she’s much more disciplined now than when she first started writing generally devoting several pre-planned hours daily to her craft when she’s in songwriting mode. That discipline and ever-increasing compositional alacrity have resulted in the upcoming Didn’t It Feel Kinder (out August 5 on her own Daemon label), her third solo offering and her most confident, eclectic (yet focused), effort to date.

One of Ray’s most endearing qualities as a songwriter is her innocent idealism, a quality present on the opening track “Birds of a Feather” where the chorus logically asks, “If we are birds of a feather, why can’t we fly in formation or just be friends on the way?” Questioning human behavior and attitudes permeate the CD’s 10 tracks, most notably on “SLC Radio” and the infectious “Who Sold the Gun,” a tune propelled by the stuttering beat of drummer Melissa York (York, by the way, is also responsible for convincing Amy to use an outside producer, Greg Griffith, for the first time). The CD also features some of Ray’s most direct love lyrics on songs like “She’s Got To Be,” which Ray admitted she might not have been brave enough to write 20 years ago, and “Stand and Deliver,” written from the viewpoint of the male residing within the author.

Musically speaking, Ray has the musicians she’ll be working with in mind as she writes, therefore the band Arizona must be partially thanked for the album’s most melodic moment, “Out on the Farm,” a song Ray calls “a cynical little number about the music business” couched in such a beautifully arranged tune that it evokes more pastoral splendor than skeptical condemnation. And Ray’s ubiquitous punk influence also happily makes an appearance on “Blame is a Killer.”

For Atlantans, The Indigo Girls have become as much a part of the city’s landscape as the Braves, Coca-Cola, or the Big Chicken, and with Didn’t It Feel Kinder Amy Ray takes another step forward in carving out her own individual iconic presence. (Daemon)

www.amy-ray.com

-Scott Roberts