I was 12 years old when Indigo Girls released their album Rites of Passage in 1992. Already five-foot-nine, I had size 10 feet and a mouth full of braces. My skin stretched tight around my bones. I remember lying on my bed, all angst and dreams and swirling thoughts, and studying the fuchsia-colored CD jacket while “Love Will Come to You” played.
Guess I wasn’t the best one to ask.
Me, myself, with my face pressed up against love’s glass.
To see the shiny toy I’ve been hoping for, the one I never can afford.
The wide world spins and spits turmoil, and the nations toil for peace.
The paws of fear upon your chest, only love can soothe that beast.
I thought, in my sixth-grade mind, that I understood what the lyrics meant. Whether or not I did, the words pierced me. I clutched the CD case against my heart, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. I listened to the rest of the album, and when it ended, I pressed play on my boom box again.
And through the years, I just kept playing it. I remember driving my three younger sisters to school and all of us singing different parts of the harmony for “Chickenman.” I went to the (now-legendary) Lilith Fair three times; the Indigo Girls performed each time. Singing along to “Galileo” next to thousands of fellow fans felt less like a concert and more like a religious experience. When I married my husband in 2005, my sisters—maids of honor, all—surprised everyone with an a cappella rendition of “Chickenman” during the reception.
One of those sisters has since passed away. Remembering her holding a glass of champagne, singing that song in her green dress next to my other sisters while the whole wedding cheered, is a mental reel I can describe only as bittersweet.
So here I am in 2026, and it’s a very unexpected and incredible thing to have Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls in my list of phone contacts. I’ve interviewed her twice before, and I was lucky enough to speak with her and the other half of the group, Emily Saliers, via Zoom for our music feature while they toured the country. When I asked them to reflect on their careers and what Atlanta’s music community has meant to them, they were as thoughtful and gracious as I’d hoped.
It made me think that if I could go back and talk to that 12-year-old girl lying in her bed, listening to Rites of Passage, I’d tell her a few things. One: It’s cool to be tall. Two: You’ve got good taste in music, and guess what? One day, you’ll get to meet these women. And three: Life is full of joys and devastation. But take it from the Indigo Girls: Only one thing soothes, and that’s love.
This article appears in our November 2026 issue.
