In search of kindness of strangers

Amy Ray

Didn't It Feel Kinder (Daemon)

ESSENTIAL "Who Sold the Gun"

It's doubtful that protest rockers like Amy Ray will run out of subject matter anytime soon. "Didn't It Feel Kinder," the new and third solo album from the Indigo Girls singer and guitarist, is filled with the pain and frustration brought on by pandemic injustice and brutality.

Never mind railing against the Man, though. This isn't the '60s, and Ray doesn't play the usual blame game. On the midtempo rocker "Who Sold the Gun," she links the Virginia Tech shooter and the Iraq war, but the metaphorical title doesn't point a finger at arms manufacturers alone: "We're just as [expletive] up, yeah," she surmises with a note of despairing resignation. On the stripped-down folk-rocker "Out on the Farm," the Georgia native tackles factory farming and asks, "Do we hang our hats and just let it be?"

Producer Greg Griffith's clean, uncluttered sound makes Ray's arching, aching voice sound like a lone cry in the wilderness. But this ruminative set is far from a solo effort. Ray employs a variety of guests, including singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, who adds angelic harmonies to the funky blues ballad "She's Got to Be," which, like "Who Sold the Gun," reveals Ray struggling with helplessness. On the rootsy "Birds of a Feather," she pleads, "If we are birds of a feather/ Why can't we fly in formation or just be friends along the way?"

That might sound like a fluffy feel-good mantra, but delivered with a stern tone and thick guitar lines, it's anything but.