Indigo Girls partner with TSO on Saturday

She and longtime Indigo Girls partner Amy Ray were set to play a show at the Rialto Theatre, but Saliers' mind was wandering to their just-launched symphony orchestra tour.

Sometimes when you say something out loud, it can come true. On Saturday, Saliers and Ray will play their first-ever show with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

"I don't know how to describe it. It's really, really musical," Ray said of playing with symphonies. "There's just so many notes going on at the same time. It's got a lot of dimension. It brings out melody ideas in the songs and melodic ideas that wouldn't be noticed as much except that now an arranger has brought those out."

The Tucson date is among a handful of symphony concerts sprinkled into the Indio Girls' tour. Since last summer, they have played with the Oregon and Dallas symphonies and the Buffalo Philharmonic; upcoming dates include the Kentucky and Virginia symphonies.

"It's like a different perspective on all of the songs and breathes a different life into them," said Ray, who also has been a regular to Tucson stages the past several years with her side solo rock project. "You get together the day of the show and you go over the songs one time. That's it. It's kind of like this group experience where everybody's kind of in it for the spontaneity and we'll see what happens."

The Indigo Girls were introduced to performing with an orchestra 10 years ago when they did a show with the Atlanta Ballet.

"The whole program was choreographed to our songs. It was very cool, and part of it was that we played with the ballet symphony," Ray recalled. "We got to experience somewhat the symphonic perspective of our music. But it was not that many songs, so compared to what we're doing now it feels kind of like night and day. And it was a very small orchestra."

The folk-rock duo, who have been together going on nearly 30 years, tapped arrangers Sean O'Loughlin (Chris Isaak, Feist, the Decemberists, Josh Ritter) and Stephen Barber (Rosanne Cash, Alejandro Escovedo, John Legend) to rework songs from their 14 career albums, including their most recent, 2011's "Beauty Queen Sister." Among the songs on the setlist for past concerts have been "World Falls," "Sugar Tongue," "Able to Sing," "Come on Home," Galileo" and "Power of Two."

"If there are songs that have countermelodies happening and third-part harmonies or fourth parts and different things that Emily and I wouldn't cover if it's just me and her, we have other instruments covering that now," Ray said of the symphony arrangements. "So it brings out these voices that are going on in the song in our heads when we sing them alone. … It's a deeper experience."

"It's just a challenge and really, really fun and exciting," Ray added. "And there's a feeling in the room that anything can happen for good or bad, I guess."

The Indigo Girls join a growing list of pop singers teaming up with orchestras, including fellow alternative folk rocker Brandi Carlile, who also is a near-yearly Tucson visitor. Carlile scored a Top 5 folk album with her 2011 release "Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony," which also landed at No. 14 on the rock album charts.

"Some people do it because it opens the doors to new audiences and it's a new angle on their music," Ray said. "I think Emily and I mostly wanted the musical challenge of it and felt like it would bring us a different perspective on writing. It's also a way for us to hear our old songs, even songs that have been arranged with a string section like 'Ghosts' … to hear that live as we envisioned it originally."

Pop stars in the symphony hall also pay dividends to orchestras, opening them up to newer, often younger audiences. But Ray admitted she and Saliers feel like the biggest winners.

"What we get out of it is probably more than anybody else gets out of it, which is we get to play with 75 to 125 (musicians)," she said. "It's the kind of experience you don't turn down if you have the opportunity. It enriches your life and makes you a better musician."

If you go

• What: Indigo Girls with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in concert.

• When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

• Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.

• Tickets: $34 to $65 through www.tucsonsymphony.org or by calling 882-8585.