By JOHN PATRICK GATTA

By JOHN PATRICK GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
THE INDIGO GIRLS USE musical arrangements and evocative lyrics like a painter uses a palette filled with a multitude of vibrant colors. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray began their professional career as an acoustic duo, but over the span of seven albums, they've brought in added instrumentation for a fuller sound. The duo's 1999 album "Come On Now Social," reached the zenith of these forays and included guests such as Sheryl Crow and Joan Osborne.
When it came time to write and record "Become You," which was released Tuesday, Saliers and Ray went back to their roots to move forward.
"Amy wanted to make an acoustic record for a long time, even for the record before this one. She just wanted to get back and check in with what we did originally," explained Saliers during a phone interview from her Georgia home.
Emphasis: While the Indigo Girls' band members contribute to the recording, the overall emphasis is on the blending of voices and acoustic playing by Saliers and Ray. "We just kept it really simple and straightforward. That's the kind of record we wanted to make. Rather than bring all these different kinds of people in like we always do, we just wanted to keep it us as a unit and cut a lot of the record live."
While the album's 12 tracks aren't completely stripped down, it does allow the musicians to make an even stronger emphasis on their songwriting. "We make the kind of records we want to make. We've never been influenced by the record company to do this or that creatively," she said.
Loyal fans: Saliers points out that the loyalty of the group's fans has allowed the Indigo Girls to pursue variations of their core sound without creative constrictions. To her, they've been loyal for the right reasons -- an identification with the material -- rather than briefly following the artists due to fashionable tastes.
"Luckily, our fans are just the fans who support and enjoy what we do. The songwriting continues to be personal, a lot of times confessional. It deals with a broad range of emotional and social issues," she said. "Whether we make a record that's acoustic or a record that's more produced, they still feel the sensibilities of the songs.
"Also, we're a touring band. We're a grass-roots band. We're always out there playing. We change the set lists every night. Sometimes, it's just me and Amy, like this tour. Sometimes we bring the band. Sometimes Michelle [Malone] is with us. We constantly mix it up. Keep it fresh. We don't play songs we don't feel like playing. We keep it pure from the songwriting standpoint. We keep it fresh for ourselves. I guess it translates to the fans."
When they appear Monday at Edward W. Powers Auditorium, it will be just Saliers and Ray onstage. Michelle Malone will be the opening act. This type of show allows an even deeper sense of intimacy between the artists and fans.
"We have fans, certainly, who prefer to hear us this way. It's very stripped down. It's us at our core. You can hear all the arrangements coming through because what we play onstage is how we arranged it at the beginning of the process. It's really fun playing with Amy. We've been doing it for 21 years now and still enjoy it," she said.
The opportunity to tour nationwide in this format and simply bring the music to the people is just one example of how the Indigo Girls take control of their career.
Background: Saliers and Ray met during grade school in Decatur, Ga.
Not only did a friendship develop, but also a musical kinship. What's particularly striking is that the inner core of their musical sensibilities are worlds apart -- Saliers leans more toward Joni Mitchell introspection, while Ray makes her feelings known by wearing a T-shirt of alt-rock legend Husker Du on their major label debut.
But when their harmonies intertwine and the guitars strum out a lively melody, the result is unabashedly their own sound. Despite their close bond, they continue to write separately.
"We express ourselves differently. We share so much of our time and work together that there's just that part that we don't really want to share. We've never really been able to sit down and write a song together. So, this has always worked for us."
They do get together for the final woodshedding of material before it's recorded. It's at that moment when the song serves the band instead of a single viewpoint.
"It's no longer just an Emily song or an Amy song, but it becomes, I think, better by our collaboration," Saliers said. "I know that because when I play my songs solo, I never liked 'em as much as what Amy and I did together on 'em."
Both attended Emory University in Atlanta, where performing local gigs eventually took on as much importance as their studies. They put out three releases on their own, and -- thanks to the neo-folk movement in the late '80s (i.e. Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman) -- record companies expressed an interest. The Indigo Girls were signed to Epic records, and its fresh sound that blended folk with ebullient melodies immediately became a sensation.
Interest: Their self-titled album contained the hit single "Closer to Fine." That album helped the two win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Group in 1989. Although they continued to release albums and toured on a regular basis, they have never equaled that level of interest.
When this is brought up, Saliers doesn't react negatively. Instead, she sees multi-platinum sales as more of hindrance to creative health and career longevity. She feels that their modest yet steady success with each record and the ability to be a steady concert draw has enabled them to do what they want with little interference.
"Because we haven't had hit singles, we're not under pressure by the record company to produce the next single that sold like the last one. There's none of that pressure for this record to do as well or better than the last one did. I think that happens to a lot of artists. They may have a number one single and then there's a lot of pressure for that artist to go back and rewrite it. And then the album, for whatever reason, the single they pick doesn't do well. That's basically the end of their major label career.
"Gone are the days when major labels nurture artists. We got signed at a period of time where there was some of that still going on. We were just fortunate to be signed at that period of time. We were very fortunate to have the first record do well, well enough so that it established our name to a certain extent, and then we just took it on in our grass-roots fashion, the way we'd been doing it for the five years before that."
XTickets: (330) 744-0264. The Powers box office will be open all weekend.