Indigo Girls Share Advice and the Stage with Berklee Singer-Songwriters After a master songwriting class with the Grammy-winning folk duo, students joined the band to perform its signature hit, Closer to Fine, in front of a sold-out crowd.
By
Nick Balkin
October 20, 2021
Left to right: Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls; Berklee students Cammi McDermott, Leana Nykole, and Oscar Hall; Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls; and Janie Barnett, Berklee associate professor of voice
Image by Mike Spencer
It's not every songwriting class that offers students the chance to workshop an original tune with a Grammy-winning folk duo, leading to an invitation to join the act on stage to sing its definitive hit in front of an adoring, sold-out crowd. But that's what happened when Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls were on campus for a recent master class.
Y'all have a high standard here...everyone's so good, said Ray, to cheers and laughs from the audience, after music therapy major Oscar Hall, one of three students selected to take part in the workshop, performed an aching ballad titled If It All Meant Nothing. Hall followed Cammi McDermott, a double major in songwriting and music therapy, who played the Julian Baker-inspired Bad Habit, praised by Saliers as a beautiful journey of a song. Leana Nykole, a professional music major, rounded out the workshop with a soulful original, Van Gogh, earning props from Saliers for her knockout voice.
Record it a million different ways, let it resonate, and see which way resonates with you.
-Amy Ray, Indigo Girls
Throughout the 90-minute master class, held at the Red Room at Cafe 939, Saliers and Ray provided the students with a range of constructive feedback, from the importance of space (Saliers: It makes a song feel less long if you give it a breath so the listener has a moment to think about what you just said. ) to the value of experimenting with song structures and arrangements (Ray: Record it a million different ways, let it resonate, and see which way resonates with you. ). The Indigo Girls also treated the crowd to a couple of their own songs, performing Muster, a commentary on American gun culture, and Look Long, the title track of their latest full-length.
Leana Nykole (right) and Cammi McDermott sing Closer to Fine with the Indigo Girls.
Image courtesy of the Indigo Girls
After the master class, Saliers and Ray invited the three students to join them the following night on stage to perform Closer to Fine, the Indigo Girls' signature song, at the finale of their concert at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, Massachusetts. Hall wasn't available to attend, but McDermott and Nykole were quick to accept the offer.
The experience was unreal, and so incredible, said Nykole. I think what made it so great is the fact that after a year of being shut down from live music and concerts, I am finally able to perform again.
Though Closer to Fine was released in 1989, years before McDermott and Nykole were born, both students grew up listening to the Indigo Girls-a testament to the band's cross-generational appeal.
I dont think my music would exist or be quite the same without them, both in regards to style, as well as in being able to write songs about openly being an LGBTQ+ human being, said McDermott. To actually go on stage and sing one of my favorite songs with them was such a privilege.
Student Oscar Hall plays If It All Meant Nothing at Cafe 939.
Image by Mike Spencer
In addition to the workshop, the master class included an interview and Q&A session moderated by Janie Barnett, an associate professor in the Voice Department. Here's an edited version of the conversation:
How do you find your authentic voice as a singer, writer, and performer? Saliers: I don't even know if I've found mine yet, to be honest with you. Early on I was a massive Joni Mitchell fan. I wanted to write like her, I got her songbook, and I learned all of her songs by heart. She was the pinnacle of songwriting for me at that time, and it was almost debilitating because I knew that I would never be that. But after a while, especially in my later years, I started to realize that each songwriter is different-and we saw that today, with three equally great songs each completely different from the other-and I started to realize and value the validity of my own voice, even if I couldn't write like Joni Mitchell. But that took a long time [because] I also wanted to write like Earth, Wind & Fire and like Stevie Wonder and that was impossible for me. So I think that what I was trying to stop doing was completely emulating a style, and I just kept fumbling through my own style. But I really feel like I'm coming into my own voice at this part of my life [and] I'm a better songwriter now than I was all that time ago. I also think that...your attitude, your perspective on things can shift...and it's OK to have a voice at this one point in your life and to have it shift to something else in another part of your life. But...the most important thing is to try not to copy or write like someone else-that freed me on my journey to finding my voice.
Want to Find Your Voice as a Songwriter?
Berklees Songwriting Department provides you with a close community of songwriters who will support you while pushing you to take creative risks.
Ray: A voice teacher told me a long time ago that you should sing like you talk. That's your personality [and] when someone hears your voice it should not be a surprise to them . There are some people and you look at them and they're little and this voice comes out of them and it's huge. And there are great singers with very affect-oriented voices, like Joe Cocker, but you can hear the meat of their own personality in that voice. That really helped me because I
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Indigo Girls Share Advice and the Stage with Berklee Singer-Songwriters After a master songwriting class with the Grammy-winning folk duo, students joined the band to perform its signature hit, Closer to Fine, in front of a sold-out crowd.
