And I remember leaving so unsatisfied, I was like, “I have this signature, but I need to be friends with them. I took my first and, at that point, only guitar with me, which was this shitty little beat-up Ovation knockoff called an Applause. I had a friend drive me to Portland in the pouring rain, because I had won a contest to meet them before a radio show. I met the Indigo Girls when I was about 17. The harmonies are so clever that you can’t predict the note that’s about to be sung next. He’s not easily impressed, but he was so impressed by their harmonies - it was the first time we’d heard anyone, other than the Everly Brothers, where we couldn’t tell who was singing at any given time, even though they don’t sound similar to one another. My brother, who is only 11 months younger than me, we’ve been singing harmonies together since we were little. In retrospect, I realized that I was being galvanized towards something that I was only just beginning to understand about myself. It’s a dreary subject matter, but it was so poignant to me that I felt this pull in my stomach. He fights for himself and other LGBTQ+ people and people with HIV/AIDS, until he dies at the end. Obviously, it’s about a gay man who has AIDS, who gets fired from his job, and he’s made a pariah.
INDIGO GIRLS RED ROCKS MOVIE
I snuck it into my bedroom, popped the movie into my VCR. I got home, and my parents had rented the movie Philadelphia on VHS. I was about 13 or 14 years old, and I had come home from a friend’s house - it was a girl who I had a total crush on - and I was very confused about it.
The representation and the visibility that they managed to scrape together at that time, despite all odds and all the obstacles against them, were really important for me in my life. The Indigo Girls were so deeply influential in my life - not just musically, but also as an activist and as an out queer person. Here, Brandi Carlile talks about what the Indigo Girls meant to her as a young fan, how they helped her early in her career, and how they’ve become close friends. For this year’s annual Women Shaping the Future issue, we asked 12 of today’s top musical acts to talk about the women who have inspired them most in their lives and careers.
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