Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo concerts; she also is lead singer and guitarist for Throwing Muses, as well as the lead singer and guitarist for 50 Foot Wave. Her best-known songs are "Your Ghost" and "Bright Yellow Gun," which received national commercial airplay in the mid-1990s.

With her unique vocals ranging from softly melodic singing to impassioned screaming, her evocative lyrics, and her creative chord chemistry, Hersh's signature contributions to alternative rock include being one of the first artists of that genre to address the complexities of marriage and motherhood in varied themes about every day life.

Biography

Born in Atlanta on August 7, 1966, she was raised in Newport, Rhode Island. Hearing her father, W. J. Hersh, play guitar when she was growing up led her to start writing songs at a young age. As a teenager, she formed Throwing Muses in the early 1980s with her stepsister, Tanya Donelly, and other high school friends.

Hersh began singing and writing most of the group’s powerful, poetic songs in changing tempos, with Donelly also singing and writing some of the songs. The group was eventually signed by the British 4AD Records label after a few years, and also on Sire/Reprise Records by the second album. They began touring around the U.S. and Europe while releasing intense rock albums, as Hersh composed songs she said would "write themselves"¹ without her conscious control, as though channeled from her psyche.² Some of the publicity about Hersh has discussed how her music with the band at that time served as "salvation" from her bipolar disorder,³ but in general she has said that she has made a truce with her inner voices, visions, and ghosts over the years.⁴

After 1991's The Real Ramona, Donelly left the group, and the band became a trio. In 1994, Hersh began an additional career on Sire/Reprise as an acoustic solo performer, beginning with Hips and Makers, an album sparely arranged around her vocals, guitar, and a cellist, in contrast to the volatile, electric sound of her continuing Throwing Muses project. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. made an appearance on this first solo album. Hersh's solo songwriting style is vividly imagistic, with the relationship subject matter at times touching on subjects like her husband and manager, Billy O’Connell, as well as on her life with her four sons. At the same time as her own experience colors her work,⁵ she has stated she writes from a point of view outside of her personality so that her lyrics are not literal, autobiographical diary entries.⁶

After receiving some airplay for songs on the Throwing Muses University album in 1995, Hersh moved to Rykodisc for her next Throwing Muses album, Limbo, and her 1998 solo album, Strange Angels. She then primarily worked on solo material released on 4AD until her 2003 Throwing Muses self-titled album on the same label.

Her parents' Lookout Mountain heritage influenced her to record a solo album of Appalachian gothic folk tunes in 1998 -- Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight. Performing traditional songs was a rare covers excursion for the prolific songwriter, although she was no stranger to these tunes, having heard many of them played by her father when she was a child.⁷ In fact on other solo releases, Hersh has cowritten with her father two songs, "Uncle June and Aunt Kiyoti" and "Houdini Blues," also recording a third that he wrote on his own, "Sinkhole."

Hersh and her family began to move every couple of years to different parts of the United States. Her experiences in each location informed the emotional landscape of her musical paintings. An example is how living for a period near Joshua Tree, California, impacted on the lyrical imagery in 1999's Sky Motel, an album on which she performed most of the instruments.⁸

Hersh's solo touring over the years has included co-billings with similarly minded artists like Vic Chesnutt, Grant Lee Phillips, and her longtime musical influence John Doe. While continuing to release solo albums into the 2000s, she formed a new, hard punk trio called 50 Foot Wave in 2003 when longtime Throwing Muses drummer David Narcizo was unable to continue performing on a full-time basis due to other commitments. Much of her touring and recording plans for 2004 through 2005 center around the new trio.

Solo works discography

Hips and Makers - 1994
Your Ghost - 1994
Strings (EP) - 1994
The Holy Single (EP) - 1995
Strange Angels - 1998
Like You - 1998
Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight - 1998
Sky Motel - 1999
Echo (EP) - 1999
A Cleaner Light (EP) - 2000
Sky Motel - 2001
Live at Noe Valley Ministry - 2001
The Grotto - 2003

Notes

Note 1:. Shirley, David (November/December 1991). The breakups (and breakdowns) of Throwing Muses. Option, pp. 62–65, 137.
Note 2: Strauss, Neil (March 9, 1995). My so-called double life: Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses finds the common ground between motherhood and rock & roll. Rolling Stone, p. 55.
Note 3: Freydkin, Donna (August 19, 1999). Kristin Hersh checks into her "Sky Motel". CNN Interactive, ¶¶ 14–15.
Note 4: Brown, Glyn (January 23, 1998). Strange demons: singer Kristin Hersh. The Independent, p. S15.
Note 5: Tranquilla, Ryan (June 2001). Kristin Hersh: loose timing. Splendid, ¶ 31.
Note 6: Shirley, The breakups (and breakdowns).
Note 7: Brown, Strange Demons.
Note 8: Freydkin, Kristin Hersh checks into, ¶ 20.

References

Aston, Martin (2004). Official Throwingmusic.com biography. Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.
Baehr, Mike (2004). Indie Rock Photo Gallery (Kristin Hersh & 50 Foot Wave photos). Retrieved Dec. 21, 2004.
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2003). Allmusic.com artist discussion. Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.
Hampton, Mark. Markwarehouse.com fan site (archives). Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.
Kirkcaldie, Matthew (1994). Throwing Muses/Kristin Hersh discography, third edition (notes). Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.
Wolmarans, Francois. Kristin Hersh fan site (archives). Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.
Official Throwingmusic.com discography. Retrieved Dec. 2, 2004.

External links