As a solo artist, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls has blasted off in ten different new directions. Catch her at The Grey Eagle this month.

by Beth Ellen

To listen to her solo stuff, you might not even guess that Amy Ray was the other half of the folky, airy Indigo Girls of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. On her own, Ray’s sound is altogether more punky and hardcore. Left to her own devices, her tunes are sometimes intense and jagged, often melancholy, and overall, incredibly diverse. She has five solo albums out, including last year’s MVP Live, and on the tracks, she can croon like a Motown soul singer or rock out like The Violent Femmes. She plays The Grey Eagle on December 9 with The Shadowboxers, a five-man rock band from Atlanta.

Why such an intimate Asheville venue? Wouldn’t a mega-star be better suited to the Civic Center or The Orange Peel? “I love the Grey Eagle. It’s a really fun rock space,” Ray told VERVE recently by email. The Decatur, Georgia, native has spent a lot of time in North Carolina. She recorded her last solo album in Asheville’s Echo Mountain Recording Studios, and she’s been obsessed lately with a newish Asheville band, Arizona. She just wrapped up recording in Greensboro on a new solo project, Lung of Love, due out in February. You might also spot her around town. “I come up [from my home in North Georgia] sometimes just to hang out,” she writes.

In addition to playing solo and touring as the Indigo Girls with longtime pal and collaborator Emily Saliers, Ray keeps signing new artists to her independent Atlanta label, Daemon Records. She also rocks out on tours with former members of the North Carolina punk band The Butchies. “My solo work is just a totally different collaboration from what I do with Indigo Girls,” she writes. We’ll be anxious to hear.

Amy Ray plays The Grey Eagle at 9pm on December 9. $12/$15. Details: www.thegreyeagle.com.