RITES OF PASSAGE - Indigo Girls

YEAR: 1992

LABEL: Epic

TRACK LISTING: Three Hits, Galileo, Ghost, Joking, Jonas and Ezekial, Love Will Come To You, Romeo and Juliet, Virginia Woolf, Chickenman, Airplane, Nashville, Let It Be Me, Cedar Tree

IMPRESSIONS: A co-worker named Maureen got Cheeks and I into the Indigo Girls around 1991. This was the first "newly released" Indigo Girls album I ever bought and I remember being apprehensive that it would be a letdown after the superb songs found on their earlier albums. The Indigo Girls have never managed to release a "perfect" album; their previous cds feature absolute masterpieces alongside songs which I usually never listen to and RITES is no exception. It certainly stands up right alongside their debut INDIGO GIRLS and NOMADS INDIANS SAINTS and actually features a perfect first 6 tracks but then starts to wear thin with a needless Dire Straits cover and some forgettable songs suddenly appearing. Nonetheless, RITES is a great album with judicious application of the skip button.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Three Hits, Galileo, Ghost, Joking, Jonas and Ezekial, Love Will Come To You, Airplane, Nashville, Let It Be Me

GUEST ARTISTS: Lisa Germano (fiddle), Ronan Browne (uilleann pipes on "Three Hits" and "Cedar Tree"), Donal Lunny (bouzouki, bodhran on "Three Hits" and "Cedar Tree"), Budgie (drums and percussion on "Three Hits" and "Chickenman", marimba and claves on "Virginia Woolf"), Jerry Marotta (drums, percussion), Jackson Browne (backing vocals on "Galileo" and "Let It Be Me"), David Crosby (backing vocals on "Galileo" and "Let It Be Me"), Jai Winding (piano on "Ghost"), Michael Kamen (string arrangements and conductor on "Ghost"), The Roches (backing vocals on "Virginia Woolf" and "Airplane")
FACT SHEET: RITES OF PASSAGE is the Indigo Girls' fourth album. "Romeo and Juliet" is a cover version of a Dire Straits song.