''Stag '' is the debut

solo album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century ...

Amy Ray Amy Elizabeth Ray (born April 12, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls with Emily Saliers. She also pursues a solo career, releasing ten albums under her own name, and founded the independent ...

Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duet (music), duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in Primary school, elementary school and began performing together as Secondary school, hig ...

, released in 2001 on her

Daemon Records Amy Elizabeth Ray (born April 12, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls with Emily Saliers. She also pursues a solo career, releasing ten albums under her own name, and founded the independent ...

label. Ray is accompanied by the Butchies, the Rockateens,

Joan Jett Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin; September 22, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress. Often referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music#J, Godmother of Punk", she is regarded as a Pop icon, rock icon and ...

Josephine Wiggs Miranda Cordelia Susan Josephine Wiggs (born 26 February 1965), simply known as Josephine Wiggs, is an English multi-instrumentalist rock musician, best known for her work as bassist in the alternative rock bands The Breeders and The Perfect D ...

and Kate Schellenbach on the album. She attributes the Butchies with contributing a

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

influence to some of the songs.

Reception

''Stag'' received positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. It has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 82 out of 100, based on 11 reviews. Editors at

AllMusic Guide AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

scored this album four out of five stars, with critic Kelly McCartney calling this music worth listening to for Ray's ability to express herself purely as a musician "from political outrage to self-doubt, from hardcore guitars to mandolins". A

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

review informs Indigo Girls fans that they will find this album to be a "snarling, beautiful surprise". In ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', David Peisner notes that while Ray's tone and musical genre have changed, her interests as a songwriter and activist have not, writing, "she covers familiar ideological turf here, but her assaults on sexism, prejudice and general hate-mongering take on a distinctly personal spin". ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' highlighted this release, noting that Indigo Girls fans have awaited a chance to hear Ray's rock influences for a decade and summing up the review that this is "an extraordinarily potent recording, one that will likely be among 2001's best".

Track listing

All songs written by Amy Ray, except where noted. #"Johnny Rottentail" – 2:00 #"Laramie" – 5:10 #"Lucystoners" – 3:56 #"Hey Castrator" – 4:05 #"Late Bloom" – 2:24 #"Measure of Me" (Amy Ray and Kaia Wilson) – 5:55 #"Black Heart Today" – 2:10 #"Mtns of Glory" – 2:11 #"Lazyboy" – 3:05 #"On Your Honor" – 4:01

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

*Gerry Hansen –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Kelly Hogan – guitar and vocals *Larry Holt – guitar *

Danielle Howle Danielle Howle (born in Columbia, South Carolina) is an American singer-songwriter and music producer. Biography After releasing an early song on a Columbia, South Carolina music sampler in the late 1980s, Howle joined the Columbia-based band ...

– vocals *

– guitar and vocals *Will Lochamy – drums *Chris Lopez – guitar, drums, and vocals *Hunter Manasco – guitar and vocals *

Alison Martlew The Butchies were an all-female band, all-female punk rock band from Durham, North Carolina, that existed from 1998 to 2005. They reunited from their Sabbatical, hiatus to tour with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls promoting Ray's new album in 2010. T ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

*Katharine McElroy – bass guitar and vocals * Kate Schellenbach – drums and

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

– bass guitar and keyboards * Kaia Wilson – guitar and vocals * Melissa York – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

and vocals

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2001 debut albums Amy Ray albums 2001 collaborative albums Daemon Records albums Folk punk albums