Just because we are gay doesn't always make us gay for each other. This couldn't be further from the truth, driven as it is by the slightly phobic assumption that anyone of the same sex will do for anyone who identifies as a lesbian. Nevertheless, I'm constantly surprised by the number of listeners - my own wife included - who assume the two must have dated each other at least once in their lifetimes. Such information doesn't bear repeating for those of us who have carried their music like touchstones for most of our gay adult lives. But even though Emily and Amy have been together forever, they are not, nor have they ever been, romantic partners. All have aspired to hit their deceptively simple countermelodies and harmonic intervals so locked-in that people assume they could only be achieved by a romantic couple. Generations of guitar-strumming camp counselors and rootsy stoners of all ages and genders, as well as the global Sapphists who loved them from the beginning, have sung along to the Indigo Girls' expansive songbook by heart.

During the festival's original run between 19, the duo acquired a reputation for being the most convivial of the Lilith brood by encouraging jam sessions, group-singalongs and backstage card games among artists as spiritually distinct as Sheryl Crow and Sinéad O'Connor. Most commonly known for their modest chart hits peppered throughout the 1990s, like 'Closer to Fine,' 'Galileo' and 'Shame on You,' the Indigo Girls were a cardinal constellation in the Lilith Fair cosmology.

Indigo girls austin