Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, the Southern guitar duo better known as "The Indigo Girls," have been an international sensation for over a decade. 1200 CURFEWS captures a number of their best songs in a format that enhances the emotional impact.

The original concept for 1200 CURFEWS was to record the songs from the Indigo Girls' last CD, SWAMP OPHELIA, live in concert, but the concept expanded to include live recordings of other pieces by Saliers and Ray as well as their covers of songs by other artists. Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" and James D. Wheatherly's "Midnight Train to Georgia" are my favorite covers on this set. There are also some unusual recording locations: a radio studio, a dressing room, and, most surprisingly, Amy's basement in 1982.

While a few of the songs do not fare as well recorded live as they did recorded in a studio (including their most famous pieces, "Closer to Fine," "Ghost," and "Galileo"), I found myself completely drawn into other pieces I didn't appreciate before. This is due to a number of factors: Saliers and Ray feed off the energy of their fans (as can be heard in "Joking"), they have found deeper meaning to their pieces upon repeated performances (such as in "Power of Two" and "Language or the Kiss"), their easy-going personas shine in their interactions with the audience (exemplified in "Jonas and Ezekiel" and the introduction to "Mystery"), and/or different instrumentation has added new dimensions (most especially the plaintive saxophone in "Love's Recovery").

I'm not a huge fan of contemporary "pop" music, but this 2-CD set is a favorite album of mine. The Indigo Girls always bring an unusual variety to their albums through the combination of Ray's raw emotional outbursts and Salier's introspective observations, but these recordings capture their individual personalities and their combined philosophies (exemplified in the gender change of the Dylan song) in a way that is rare. This is a great (albeit [pricey]) way to introduce newcomers to the Indigo Girls.

...if my house was on fire, this would be the CD I'd grab on my way out the door. It's that good.

"1200 Curfews" is one of the best live albums available, a retrospective examination of the Indigo Girls in the style of the definitive collection produced by Bruce Springsteen. Originally the idea was to record two shows on their "Swamp Ophelia" tour, but instead the duo decided to go with recordings from earlier concerts as well as radio broadcasts and summer shed tours, along with impromptu backstage and home performances. The songs are recorded on everything from 48 track digital machines to cheap 2 track recorders. Consequently, with "1200 Curfews" the most memorable songs are not the ones you are going to find on the Indigo Girls' other albums.

On first listening the songs that stand out are probably the cover songs performed by the Indigo Girls. The one that stands out heads and shoulders above the rest is their cover of Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue," yet another reminder that the man's ear for harmony was always vastly superior to his voice, as Peter, Paul and Mary and many others have already proven. Gerard McHugh's "Thin Line" is the song you will not recognize but instantly love, taped in a dressing room before a concert. Personally, I like their cover of Neil Young's "Down by the River," especially the guitar solo, although I recognize this is an acquired taste. "Midnight Train to Georgia," never did anything for me, but it is a nice turn of pace and one of the key things about this album is that they do include a lot of different things. There are studio and live versions of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," which has an awesome bass line and is certainly one of the more political efforts by the duo. Emily Saliers does a solo performance of Joni Mitchell's "River," which always reminds me of the "I'll Be Home for Christmas" episode of "thirtysomething" (if you have seen that one, you will remember it too).

This is not to say that there are not some fine moments on some of their better-known songs. "Least Complicated" ends with the crowd in Philadelphia continuing the "na na na na na na na" long after the song has ended. A gentle performance of "Power of Two" done for a radio show. I like the live versions of "Pushing the Needle Too Far" and "Chickenman," which convinces me that Amy Ray's singing just goes to another level in live performance. But my favorite is clearly "Strange Fire," because instead of a simple guitar duet the entire band joins in and I love the cello and violin (Jane Scarpantoni and Scarlet Rivera respectively). A very powerful version of one of their oldest songs.

The liner notes include handwritten comments on the songs by Emily and Amy that add a nice personal touch. If you have ever seen the Indigo Girls in concert you already know that they are one of the better shows you can ever hope to see. They are as committed to their music as they are to their causes and so it is no surprise that their live able is so special. For my money, this is the Indigo Girls album to have. It is certainly the one I listen to the most.

There is no question that the Indigo Girls put on an incredible live show. If you take all the best songs from every live performance they have done and make a 2-disc compilation, you would have 1200 Curfews. This album followed the release of Swamp Ophelia and includes tours from that time period, so fans of Swamp Ophelia are in for quite a treat. The beauty of this album is that just when you think you know the songs inside and out, you listen to them live and it's as if you're hearing them for the first time. There are quite a few Swamp songs included, 2 notables being "Least Complicated" and "Mystery." But the two discs cover the entire spectrum of IG songs, from a dive bar, rock out version of "I Don't Wanna Know" to a tender "Ghost," to a crowd-pleasing "Galileo." They also include an unreleased song by Gerard McHugh, called "Thin Line," which is probably one of my favorite songs on the cds.

There are also some amazing covers on this album. When Emily sings the 'Montague Street' verse of Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue," it takes your breath away. She also shows her dynamic range on Joni Mitchell's "River." (I actually prefer her version to Joni's.) But the gem of this album has got to be "Midnight Train to Georgia." It still blows me away and I've heard it a million times.

Although I don't think it was necessary to include "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" not once, but twice, I can overlook it and still give the album 5 stars. It's that good. I think it's safe to say that almost every Indigo Girls fan already owns this double-cd, but if you're just starting to listen to their music and want a great mix of songs from all the albums, this is the one to buy.

There are lots of live cuts and discs from lots of artists, but they're typically not the same as being at a concert. Most discs just let you hear the lesser quality than studio sound... and a few wolf whistles, and that's it... but this 2-disc set shines above the rest.

If you close your eyes, you'll think you're at an outdoor concert. You can hear the members of the audience singing along and the sound of the acoustic guitars and the voices in harmony is fabulous.

Previously unavailable tracks (except through bootleg circles) such as "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" will blow you away with the depth of the meaning of the lyrics and the picture painted with the words. Single classics such as "Closer to Fine," "The Power of Two" and "Galileo" are also presented as live cuts. Whether you've been a fan for the past 10+ years or if you just recently started hearing tracks from the girls, you won't be disappointed in this fun, melodic and rockin' live set.