It's been a busy year for Amy Ray. As half of iconic folk duo Indigo Girls, she received the Americana Music Association's Spirit Award along with a heartfelt introduction by longtime friend Brandi Carlile. Her acclaimed solo album, If It All Goes South, featuring a stunning collection of songs dealing with Ray's conflicted relationship with her beloved South, reached #10 on the Americana radio album chart and remains in the top 15. 2023 will see the Amy Ray Band, a tight, compelling outfit that has been together nine years now, hitting the road in February for over two weeks of dates. Highlights include Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour on February 20 and Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on February 23 supporting the Tedeschi Trucks Band, along with headline shows in her native Georgia at the legendary 40 Watt in Athens and Variety Playhouse in Atlanta.
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 like 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, and I’m With Her, to name a few. Recorded live to tape at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, the album was mainly produced by her frequent collaborator Brian Speiser.
Go to www.amy-ray.com for updates.
RECENT PRAISE FOR IF IT ALL GOES SOUTH
"Ray clearly possesses an emotional clarity as well as the innate ability to shift the settings, a skill that results in a varied set of songs that can be, by degrees, both tender and tempestuous.” —American Songwriter (4/5)
“Amy Ray has reached another milestone” —Relix
"There’s nothing quite like watching people do the thing they’ve spent a lifetime training to do: Winning Wimbledon, dancing lead in Giselle, breaking a 1,000-year-old Viking weightlifting record, cooking dinner in 8 minutes and 37 seconds. Listening to If It All Goes South, the latest solo outing from Indigo Girls co-founder Amy Ray, falls under that umbrella." —No Depression
"a creation that’s uniquely Ray and uniquely Southern, with its driving Dobro guitar and lively fingerpicking set to an imaginative folk-art romp" —Garden & Gun ("Joy Train" video premiere)
"She always finds a powerful and often positive spin to drive her songs, whether they talk of community, inclusivity, social justice, the climate emergency or coping with loss.” —Holler UK
"the production captures the energy and immediacy that you only get from a band flying live and without a net"
—Salvation South
"I think this is one of the best songs ("Muscadine") of the year. It’s about a dog, about unconditional love, about not knowing if you can love, about deciding to love anyway." —Ann Powers/NPR
"One of this year’s finest local releases as well as a highlight of Ray’s work, both as a solo act and even with her full time Indigo Girls gig.” —Creative Loafing Atlanta
“Ray’s band is cooking with the sort of rich, instinctive chemistry here that less seasoned players only dream about…” —Country Queer
AMY RAY BAND SHOWS
09 Feb 2023 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater #
10 Feb 2023 Austin, TX - Stubb's Jr.#
11 Feb 2023 Houston, TX - Continental Club: Houston #
13 Feb 2023 New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's Uptown #
14 Feb 2023 Jackson, MS - Duling Hall #
15 Feb 2023 Birmingham, AL - Saturn #
17 Feb 2023 Saxapahaw, NC - Haw River Ballroom #
19 Feb 2023 Nashville, TN - The Basement East #
20 Feb 2023 Lexington, KY - Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour
21 Feb 2023 Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum #
23 Feb 2023 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN (supporting the Tedeschi Trucks Band)
24 Feb 2023 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club #
25 Feb 2023 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse #
# dates with Kevn Kinney supporting
