Amy Ray - If It All Goes South

 

2022 solo release from Indigo Girls co-founder Amy Ray

Recorded and mixed to analog tape

Guest artist performances by Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, The Highwomen's Natalie Hemby, Phil Cook, I'm With Her and others!

On her tenth solo album, Indigo Girls' Amy Ray traverses the musical landscape, traveling from funky gospel to Gypsy folk to a hoedown shouter, and beyond.

Ray's If It All Goes South is an album born from deep devotion to creating music that strengthens the soul. Over the course of 10 gracefully crafted and galvanizing tracks, the Georgia-bred musician reflects on our collective history and shares her vision for a better future, threading every song with both intensely personal storytelling and clear-eyed observation.

Rooted in the warmly incisive songwriting Ray has long brought to her role as co-founder of Indigo Girls — the seminal folk duo now in their fifth decade — If It All Goes South ultimately provides the kind of forward-thinking perspective needed to carry on with purpose, hope, and irrepressible joy.

"Most of this album was written during the pandemic, so I wanted to write songs that were healing and hopefully offered some sort of comfort," says Ray. "At the same time, I was going to protests and watching what was happening in the world, and that all went into the music too. The whole time I kept telling myself, ‘You've got it really good, so just do what you can to bring some positivity to people and let them know they're not alone.'"

Recorded live to tape at Nashville's Sound Emporium and mainly produced by her frequent collaborator Brian Speiser, If It All Goes South owes much of its freewheeling vitality to the potent chemistry between Ray and her longtime bandmates, including guitarist Jeff Fielder (a Seattle-based musician known for his work with artists such as Mark Lanegan and Duff McKagan), keyboardist Daniel Walker (Heart, Ann Wilson, John Fullbright), pedal-steel player Matt Smith (also a member of The Honeycutters), banjo player Alison Brown, fiddle player/guitarist Adrian Carter, bassist Kerry Brooks, and drummer Jim Brock. The follow-up to 2018's Holler (a widely acclaimed release featuring Vince Gill and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon), the album also includes a dazzling lineup of guest musicians: Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, The Highwomen's Natalie Hemby, Phil Cook, I'm With Her, to name a few.

In keeping with the spirited eclecticism that's always defined Ray's work (the cathartic punk of her 2001 solo debut Stag, the finespun country of 2014's Goodnight Tender), If It All Goes South encompasses everything from gospel to punkabilly to folk, each handled with equal parts unruly ingenuity and extraordinary precision. "Every day we had a new challenge-we'd have a string section in one room, the band in the main room, the backup singers somewhere else, and we had to figure how to make it all happen live," says Ray, who also had the album mixed to tape by sound engineer/mixer Bobby Tis (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Neal Francis). "But even though the parameters were much stricter, I think it really added to the character of the record," she adds. "You had to either love what you'd done, or commit to doing it all over again."

1. Joy Train

2. Chuck Will's Widow

3. They Won't Have Me

4. From This Room

5. Tear It Down

6. A Mighty Thing

7. Subway

8. Cowboys and Pirates

9. Muscadine

10. North Star

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