Ben Harney

While Ben Harney unfortunately was neglected by commercial recording studios during his lifetime, in 1925 a folklorist recorded Harney singing an example of an early ragtime song on a dictaphone phonograph cylinder, and this recording has survived. Their latest release, and last album for the Sony Epic label, is All That We Let In, released in 2004 with an accompanying tour. Ben Harney died of a heart attack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2000 saw the release of Retrospective, a compilation album with two new tracks, and in 2002 the Indigo Girls released Become You, a full album of new songs which gained much critical acclaim and became a fan favorite. Harney quit touring after suffering from a heart attack in 1928. Shaming of the Sun debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's high profile contribution to Lilith Fair. He sometimes performed in blackface. In 1995, they released a live, double-CD, 1200 Curfews, followed by Shaming of the Sun in 1997 and Come on Now Social in 1999.

Harney's act included him playing piano, singing (including scat singing), and dancing. 1992's comeback album Rites of Passage was an enormous success, as was Swamp Ophelia in 1994. Once ragtime became popular he started billing himself as The Originator of Ragtime or The Father of Ragtime, which most (but not all) of his contemporaries thought was an overstatement for the sake of advertising. They followed it with the live Back on the Bus, Y'all. Harney toured widely on the Vaudeville circuts in the USA, as well as tours of theaters in Europe and Asia. The second album, Nomads*Indians*Saints, went gold, but was not as successful as their first. In 1897 Harney published his book The Ragtime Instructor, the first comprehensive description of ragtime, with instructions of how to rag (add syncopated rhythms to) tunes, including giving written examples of ragged versions of light classics and opera songs. In 1990, Amy founded Daemon Records (http://www.daemonrecords.com), which has signed Ellen James Society, Kristen Hall and James Hall, among others.

That same year Harney was referred to in print as "the rag time pianist". Their first major-label release, also self-titled, included a new version of Land of Canaan, which was also on their 1985 EP and on Strange Fire. In January of 1896 Ben Harney moved to New York City, where he appeared regularly at Tony Pastor's Music Hall. The success of 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman, and Suzanne Vega encouraged Epic Records to look for other women singer-songwriters; Epic signed the duo in 1988. Harney's tunes "You've Been a Good Old Wagon, But You've Done Broke Down", "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose", and "Cake Walk In The Sky" were big hits in the mid 1890s. That same year, they put out a six-track self-titled EP, and in 1987, released their first full-length album, Strange Fire, recorded at John Keane Studio in Athens, Georgia, and including Crazy Game. Some historians still debate Harney's ethnic background. Their first release in 1985 was a seven-inch single called Crazy Game; the b-side was Everybody's Waiting (for Someone to Come Home).

Handy referred to him as "white". While they have both been in relationships with women, Amy and Emily have never dated each other. Johnson referred to him as a "Negro", while W.C. By 1985, they started performing together again, this time as the Indigo Girls. James P. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University. Harney was light skinned with red hair; early in his career he played with African American theater troops, but later in his career he represented himself as white. A year later, Amy graduated and started at Vanderbilt University.

Ben Harney is generally said to have been born in Louisville, Kentucky, although some sources put his birthplaces as Nashville, Tennessee. Emily graduated and started attending Tulane University. Benjamin Robertson "Ben" Harney (6 March 1871 - 2 March 1938) was a United States of America songwriter, entertainer, and pioneer of ragtime music. In high school, they started performing together. Download recording - "The Wagon" ragtime from the Library of Congress' Gordon Collection (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/sideBbandB4.html); performed by Ben Harney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on about September 9, 1925. The two women met as students at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in De Kalb County, Georgia just outside of Decatur, Georgia. They got their start as part of the Athens, Georgia alternative rock scene that included the The B-52's, Pylon, R.E.M., the Georgia Satellites, and Love Tractor.

The Indigo Girls are an American lesbian folk-rock duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. of a live cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". All That We Let In (2004). Become You (2002).

Retrospective (2000, compilation). Come On Now Social (1999). Shaming of the Sun (1997). 1200 Curfews (1995, live).

4.5 (1995, compilation, UK only). Swamp Ophelia (1994). Rites of Passage (1992). Back on the Bus, Y'all (1991, live).

Nomads*Indians*Saints (1990). Strange Fire (1989, major-label 10-song version). Indigo Girls (1989). Strange Fire (1987, independent 11-song version).