Rolling Stone (8/25, p.89) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...moved beyond the tenuous yet optimistic first steps of post-graduation freedom for a complex look at real relationships..."
Indigo Girls: Emily Saliers (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, bouzouki, dobro); Amy Ray (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar).
Additional personnel: John Painter (guitar, flugelhorn, accordion); Lisa Germano (violin, mandolin); Kristin Wilkinson (violin, viola); Sheila Doyle, David Davidson (violin); Jane Scarpantoni, Anthony Lamarchina (cello); Bill Newton (harmonica); Joel Sonnier (accordion); Connie Grauer (melodica, synthesizer); James Hall (trumpet); Chuck Leavell (piano, vibra chimes); Danny Thompson (acoustic bass); Sara Lee, Jan Dykes (bass); Tony Levin (stick bass); Jerry Marotta, Kim Zick (drums, percussion); Michael Lorant (drums, background vocals); Jane Siberry, The Roches, Sam "Shake" Anderson, Larry Ray, Sr. (background vocals).
Recorded at Woodland Sound Studio, Nashville, Tennessee.
SWAMP OPHELIA was nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album in the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.
Emerging from the Georgian musical hothouse which germinated bands like R.E.M., the Indigo Girls walk the line between pop aspirations and folk sensibilities. And on their latest offering, SWAMP OPHELIA, they continue to plumb the enigmatic depths of relationships and the feminine persona with rare spiritual resolve, and practiced lyric grace.
Song stylists Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are The Indigo Girls, and you couldn't get much farther away from the prevailing riot grrrl stance than in beautiful songs like "Power Of Two" and "Touch Me Fall," stories in which the protagonists are strengthened and buttressed by the love of another. With their acoustic guitars and distinctive vocal harmonies, the Indigo Girls are throwbacks to a bygone era of music, when folk troubadours like Dylan and Joni Mitchell transformed all the prevailing notions of what constituted pop songforms with their ultra-personal imagery and bold melodic styles.
It is that intimate quality, animated by a '90s point of view, that distinguishes Amy and Emily's music from the rest of the pack.
