Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • D7

Austin American-Statesman LIFE ARTS Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Page By Melissa Ruggieri The A A TA Journ A l-Cons i ion really about time the Indigo Girls tackled a holiday record. Given that their 25-year career has spawned a dozen studio albums, plus live offerings and the requisite collections of their best-known songs, actually a bit surprising that it took the duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray this long to move into Holy territory. But fans should nd Happy released in October, worth the wait. and I) were simpatico about the direction we wanted (the album) to Saliers said. made my list of songs and she made hers and we cross-referenced.

We have such a good way of working things out Hanging out in her Atlanta office, the low-key Saliers, clad in beige cargo pants and a green sweatshirt, thoughtfully discussed the making of the album. Unlike many pop-star seasonal releases, concentrates on unconventional choices, such as the Bleak the favorite hymn of both mothers Woody Joyous (featuring Janis Ian and Mary Gautier) and Chely Really Is (a Wonderful knew we wanted to do some originals and a Hanukkah song, and my dad brought us and played piano on the Saliers said. Many of the songs sport a bluegrass feel, in keeping with the rootsy ambitions. Feel the Christmas dashes along with a sprightly banjo backdrop (provided by Alison Brown), while Wonder is a happy hootenanny (she also penned and Saliers contributed the melli uous Holiday The process of choosing tunes and recording them this summer with producer Peter Collins and top-drawer musicians, including Lloyd Maines on dobro and pedal steel guitar and Victor Krauss on bass, was exceptionally rewarding, Saliers said. was such a sweet little studio in Nashville, a real home-feeling studio, and it was so inspiring to work with those Post-holidays, the Indigo Girls already are booked.

Ray is wrapping her fourth solo album, while Saliers, who owns the Southern-dining restaurant Watershed near Atlanta, is collaborating on songs for an upcoming independent film. Though the duo will head to Australia in April for a short tour and plan to return to the studio likely again in Nashville in May for a new Indigo Girls record, their time apart that helps keep their partnership sturdy. Amy has her solo stuff and I have various other projects, not like all the eggs are in one Saliers said. only thing that would slow us down is that Amy is planning a family, so there would be more time to carve out for home life. But being in the Indigo Girls is still fun, still gratifying.

old friends and have a great mended to Lickona by mutual acquaintances in the lm community. Although she came up in advertising, Lampl says lm work found after she was hired to work designing sets for 2003 movie Life of David which was directed in Austin by Alan Parker subsequent credits as graphic designer include School of Night (movie and TV series), and the and the upcoming and of The mother of two was also a member of the team that was nominated for the Art Director Guild Award for in the starring George Clooney But the work on the set is especially dear to her, she says, because show is such a big part of the Austin Indeed, the backdrop of is perhaps the most iconic image of the city to worldwide audiences. So blow it, Team Lampl. (They Meanwhile, Capital Area Statues the nonpro that gave the city Rock at Barton Springs Pool, has commissioned Philadelphia sculptor Clete Shields to create an 8-foot statue of Willie Nelson that will greet fans at the new entrance at Second and Lavaca streets. In unconfirmed ACL Live news, a good source lets on that Lost Highway will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a SXSW showcase at the theater starring Hayes Carll, Black Joe Lewis and a special guest, likely Ryan Bingham.

The Johnny Depp look-alike with the Waitsian pipes will be in Central Texas this spring filming a movie directed by his wife, German filmmaker Anna Axster. Coco has the blues: Jimmie month of awesome his Blues, Ballads and also picked up a Grammy nomination for best traditional blues album will continue on Wednesday, when the beloved blues guitarist and icon of Austin cool will play on (10 p.m., TBS), according to a news release from label Shout! Factory. It be the first time Vaughan has teamed up with Conan he was the surprise musical guest at the Dallas stop on Prohibited From Being Funny on comedy tour in the spring. Patrick Caldwell Welcome to the Terri tome: Singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix signed copies of her ter ri new book Till You Laugh The Part That at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar on Saturday after a set. Equal parts spiritual and practical.

book of essays, lyrics and tips for indie musicians is honest, funny, useful and revelatory, Upcoming musical highlights at the bazaar at Palmer Events Center, where tickets are $7 (or $4 before 7 p.m.), include: Today: Suzanna Choffel (3:30 to 6 p.m.); Marcia Ball and Ruthie Foster (8 to 11 p.m.) Wednesday: Deadman (noon to 2:30 p.m.) Thursday: The Trishas (3:30 to 6 p.m.) As always, the bazaar ends with a Christmas Eve performance by the Texana Dames from 8 to 11 p.m. M.C. SXSW bound? The pre-SXSW fest, 35 Conferette in Denton on March 10-13, has added Local Natives, Gayngs and How to Dress Well to acts such as Mavis Staples, Japanther, Reggie Watts, Jessica Lea May eld, White Denim and Dr. Dog. The Gayngs collective might not all show up, but they should have at least 10 people onstage (including, quite possibly, their tour bus driver, chained to the bass amp).

M.C. Continued from MUSIC: Jimmie Vaughan plays on Wednesday Kelly West AM eri CA TAT es MA Viewers often thought bands such as the Shins performed outside for City but the old Austin skyline on the show is actually a set in a theater at the University of Texas. Ellen Lampl will design the backdrop for the new downtown venue. Ellen Lampl Designer has worked on in the Indigo holiday CD suits indie spirit Emily Saliers, left, and Amy Ray surprising that it took the duo of Emily and I) were simpatico about By Patricia Cohen he ew York Ti es With little fanfare, Google has made a mammoth database culled from nearly 5.2 million digitized books available to the public for free downloads and online searches, opening a landscape of possibilities for research and education in the humanities. The digital storehouse, which comprises words and short phrases as well as a year-by-year count of how often they appear, represents the rst time a data set of this magnitude and searching tools are at the disposal of Ph.D.s, middle school students and anyone else who likes to spend time in front of a small screen.

It consists of the 500 billion words that are contained in books published between 1800 and 2000 in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew. The intended audience is scholarly, but a simple online tool also allows anyone with a computer to plug in a string of up to ve words and see a graph that charts the use over time a diversion that can quickly become as addictive as the habit-forming video game With a click on the web site, www.culturomics.org, you can learn that Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe get nearly as much attention in print as Jimmy Carter; compare the many more references in English than in Chinese to men after 1989; or follow how began a climb in the late 1990s until it outpaced and in 2004. goal is to give an 8-year-old the ability to browse cultural trends throughout history, as recorded in said Erez Lieberman Aiden, a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard. Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, assembled the data set with Google and spearheaded a research project to demonstrate how vast digital databases can transform our understanding of language, culture and the flow of ideas. Their study, published in the journal Science last week, offers a tantalizing taste of the rich buffet of research opportunities now open to literature, history and other liberal arts professors who may have previously avoided quantitative analysis.

wanted to show what becomes possible when you apply very high-turbo data analysis to questions in the said Lieberman Aiden, whose expertise is in applied mathematics and ge nomics. He called the method The data set can be downloaded, and users can build their own search tools. Google, Harvard project ers way to analyze cultural trends Ray this long to move into Holy territory. But fans should nd Happy released in October, worth the wait. and I) were simpatico about the direction we wanted (the album) to Saliers said.

made my list of songs and she made hers and we Hanging out in her Atlanta office, the low-key Saliers, clad in beige cargo pants and a green sweatshirt, thoughtfully discussed the making of the album. Unlike many pop-star seasonal releases, concentrates on unconventional choices, such as the Bleak the favorite hymn of both mothers Woody Joyous (featuring Janis Ian and Mary Gautier) and Chely Really Is (a Won and it was so inspiring to work with those Post-holidays, the Indigo Girls already are booked. Ray is wrapping her fourth solo album, while Saliers, who owns the South ern-dining restaurant Watershed near Atlanta, is collaborating on songs for an upcoming in dependent film. Though the duo will head to Australia in April for a short tour and plan to return to the studio likely again in Nashville a new Indigo Girls record, their time apart that helps keep their part nership sturdy. her solo stuff and I have various other projects, not like all the eggs are in one Saliers said.

only thing that would slow us down is to carve out for home life. But being in the Indigo Girls is still fun, still gratifying. old friends and have a great Emily Saliers, left, and Amy Ray ith a click, track a word or phrase through history 360 gift to you? The names of 00 more bands coming to the March fest. Details.