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Emily Saliers On World Cafe

As one half of Indigo Girls, Emily Saliers owns one of the most important voices of a generation. It should come as no surprise to those of us who have spent a lot of time with Saliers' voice that her debut solo album, Murmunation Nation, teems with warm sounds and winding words that oscillate between the urgent and the eternal.

But that's not to say the album, or our conversation about it, are devoid of other surprises. Saliers challenged my assumptions about some of the music that's influenced her most, and shared what it was really like for her to come out in the '80s, including the stigma of being a lesbian who plays acoustic guitar.

Saliers stopped by World Cafe with violinist Lyris Hung, who produced the album along with Lucy Wainwright Roche (the daughter of Loudon and Suzzy). They perform stripped-down versions of songs from Murmuration Nation, and Saliers accepts my cell phone ringtone challenge. You'll never guess what hers is (hint: it's not "Closer to Fine").

Hear the complete session in the player above, or watch Saliers perform "Fly" in our studios.

Copyright 2021 XPN. To see more, visit XPN.

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.