Daemon Records
2001
Stag
About This Album
Amy Ray has a message. She always has. But as half of the Indigo Girls, she was a bit more measured, reserved, and polite, if you will. Still, she wants to be heard and what she has to say on Stag is very much worth listening to. The disclaimer that it's a return to her Southern rock and punk roots might turn some folkies off, but it shouldn't. Stag is punk done in the tradition of Patti Smith and the Replacements rather than the Sex Pistols. It is punk in its rebellious spirit, its contagious energy, and its anti-establishment calls to action. More than that, though, it is pure Amy Ray -- her activism and her artistry melding and achieving something remarkable. It shows the full panorama of her as a person and a musician, from political outrage to self-doubt, from hardcore guitars to mandolins. Yet the consistency remains unscathed, the potency of the message unabated. "Johnny Rottentail" leads the march to glory. A solo mandolin and vocal race each other to the end of this "tale of one bad seed" who was hanged for a crime feeling no remorse, and the sibling who tells the story. The next cut, "Laramie," is especially sobering in this era of political debate over hate crimes.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,6 and 9)

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