Me and My Charms: A Retrospective of Kristin Hersh
Click below on the streaming service of your choice to listen to the playlist as your read along.
There are certain artists that embody the spirit of independent music, whose approach to their art required the creation of the descriptor, “alternative.” In this realm there have been very few women, who at best achieve a presence but struggle to survive. So let us look into Kristin Hersh, who has forged a career with two bands and as a solo artist, and who has racked up over thirty albums spanning a career over forty years and counting. Maybe you haven’t heard of her? She may be okay with that (she describes herself as “very very shy”), because she’s been busy churning out a daunting library of tunes of impressive creativity, consistency, and breadth of sound. She goes her own way – she has said, “I didn’t get the ‘cool’ memo” – and it is down to us to follow.
Kristin has woven her way through three different acts, the seminal college rock act, Throwing Muses, her solo career, and the band 50 Foot Wave. And while this playlist is chronological, we’re going to review each act individually.
Throwing Muses
Hersh was born in Georgia and spent her early years in a rural, hippie commune listening to Appalachian folk songs and ‘60s psychedelia. She was moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she grew up with stepsister, Tanya Donnelly (Kristin’s mother married Tanya’s father). At age fifteen, the girls formed an all-girl band in 1981, Kristin Hersh and the Muses. In 1983, after a line-up change they became Throwing Muses, playing music primarily written by Kristin. They were a quartet of the stepsisters on guitars and Kristin on vocals, David Narcizo on drums, and Leslie Langston on bass. Kristin briefly attended a local college (at the young age of fifteen) and then the Rhode Island School of Design before settling full-time in Boston with the band.
The early Throwing Muses line-up: David Narcizo, Tanya Donnelly, Kristin Hersh, and Leslie Langston
Throwing Muses self-released an EP in 1984 (on a label they called, Blowing Fuses) and a cassette of demos in 1985. As a hot band in a hot music scene, Throwing Muses became the first American act to sign to UK label, 4AD. One of their early tours featured fledgling labelmates and fellow Bostonians, The Pixies, as the opening act. Starting in 1986 with a self-titled album, the band released seven albums over the next decade.
Rising in the later half of the 1980s, Throwing Muses were forward looking, foregoing the synths and melodies of the early decade and instead employing a rhythmic, post-punk sound with tight turns, edgy guitars, and Kristin’s distinctive vocals. Though she didn’t attend RISD at the same time as the members of Talking Heads (indeed, it would have been a decade later), it felt like the Heads’ spirit inhabited the band’s early work, but with a contemporary vibe.
After three albums of increasing success and improved writing and musicianship, the band hit their stride with the 1991 album, The Real Ramona, which arrived after Leslie Langston was replaced with Fred Abong on bass. This is when I discovered them and leaned heavily into this fantastic album. To this day, “Not Too Soon” remains one of my favourite songs and one I can’t play at anything less than full volume. In 1991, it seemed like it was on every mixed tape I made and was a regular at the club I frequented every weekend, The Dance Cave. “Counting Backwards” was a minor hit single while the album featured other stalwart, unique tracks such as, “Him Dancing” and “The Red Shoes.”
Following The Real Ramona, Tanya left the band to form her own band, Belly, while also contributing to the early work by Kim Deal’s band, The Breeders. Fred Abong joined Tanya and was replaced in Throwing Muses on bass by Bernard Georges, making Throwing Muses a trio along with Kristin and David.
The Muses in later years: David Narcizo, Kristin Hersh, and Bernard Georges
The following albums and singles saw the band catch their greatest chart and sales successes. “Firepile” from 1992’s Red Heaven, and “Bright Yellow Gun” from 1995’s University, became the band’s best-known tracks during a period in which college rock shone bright in the American music landscape, bolstering the peak era of alt-rock as a mainstream music.
Throwing Muses also gave Hersh exposure to life as an artist on a major label, an experience she did not enjoy. While continuing to release via 4AD in the UK, the band signed with Sire Records in the US and was then upgraded to its parent, Warner. She fought to get off the major and returned to indie labels for the rest of her career, much of it issued through her own, Throwing Music.
As Kristin began her solo career, Throwing Muses went into hiatus, not reforming until 2003 with their eighth album, a second self-titled release that also saw Tanya contribute on vocals. Two more albums in 2013 and 2020 and occasional tours have followed.
Solo Career
Kristin Hersh’s voice has a distinctive tone and lilt, such that it was a primary element of Throwing Muses’ sound. Therefore, as she launched her solo career with the Hips and Makers album in 1994, it was reasonable to expect her solo material to closely resemble her band’s. Not quite. Once past the sound of her voice, the LP was a delight of acoustic guitar and cello in delicately crafted, immensely appealing tunes. The album didn’t have a single weak song, and the interplay of the rawer music with her exposed voice, made for a delightful result that was more sophisticated and intriguing than the Muses’ output. Featuring a guest vocal from R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe on the single, “Your Ghost,” and produced by Lenny Kaye from Patti Smith’s band, there was considerable pedigree behind the project. That single remains Hersh’s best known song. Surprisingly, the album didn’t catch hold in the US, barely cracking the US top 200, but in the UK reached #7, far surpassing the best results of her band. It is, to this day, one of my most frequently played albums. It was also accompanied by an EP, Strings, with string arrangements of songs from the LP, showing increased versatility in her approach to her music.
It would be four years before she released her next LP, following the final Muses’ album, but launched a barrage of output, with three LPs issued in two years. The first two followed the mold of her first, mixing indie-folk, acoustic arrangements around her inflective singing. Her fourth LP, 1999’s Sky Motel saw her return to a full band, rock sound, but separated it from the Muses by offering a slicker, more melodic style. It also reinforced her knack for writing consistently engaging, catchy tracks with wonderful turns, and all perfectly set-up for her voice to ride so beautifully over it all. In recent years she has been performing her solo work under the act, Kristin Hersh Electric Trio, with a line-up that includes 50 Foot Wave drummer, Rob Ahlers, and her recent fiancé, former Muses bassist, Fred Abong.
Hersh has issued eleven solo albums to date, including her most recent released just last month (Sep 2023), Clear Pond Road. She has continued to move between sparse acoustic or moody ballads and driving, fetching rockers. Her solo work has been the vehicle for greater experimentation and variety in her output, yet the consistency and variety of her albums has been fantastic, yet disappointingly has never broken through commercially.
50 Foot Wave
In addition to returning to Throwing Muses over the past twenty years, consistently built around the trio of Hersh, David Narcizo, and Bernard Georges (along with the occasional return of Tanya Donnelly), Kristin also launched a third act to her career with the addition of the band, 50 Foot Wave (also stylized as 50FOOTWAVE or L'~). Formed in 2003 with Georges and drummer Rob Ahlers, the project again distinguished itself from Kristin’s other acts, diving enthusiastically into hard rocking, grungy, punky, guitar-driven rock.
50 Foot Wave: Kristin Hersh, Bernard Georges, and Rob Ahlers
50 Foot Wave has little of the delicacy or crafty elements of her solo work or Throwing Muses. It still builds fun albums around her catchy songwriting, clever turns, and always idiosyncratic voice, though in this band it’s mixed more into the music and less forward. Launching with a self-titled EP in 2004, the band has released just one full-length LP, Golden Ocean in 2007, along with six EPs and mini albums, usually in the range of five to seven tracks across thirty minutes or less. The approach has definitely been towards the punchier, shorter stylings of punk.
Kristin Hersh has built a lengthy and enthralling discography, which at more than thirty albums continues to grow undaunted. Fans from folk to art rock to punk can find something to like in her repertoire. Her versatility, talent, and consistency has revealed an immense talent, unique in the modern music world both through her distinctive sound and uncompromising exploration of her musical interests. Her output has paid little heed to the vicissitudes of changing music styles and trends.
Now in her mid-fifties, she knowns no signs of slowing down, issuing music every year or two through her three different acts. She is also a mother of four and has written several books, including two memoirs, Rat Girl and Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood, a children’s book, Toby Snax, and a memoir on singer, Vic Chestnutt, Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chestnutt. While never enjoying breakthrough commercial success, Kristin has been an exemplary torchbearer for women in rock, and this playlist offers just a glimpse. I marvel and respect such an artist who defines the spirit of indie music, as it’s these artists that tend to drive the broader music world.
The Playlist - song \ album \ artist (year)
“Run Letter” \ House Tornado \ Throwing Muses (1988)
“Dizzy” \ Hunkpapa \ Throwing Muses (1989)
“No Parachutes” \ \ Hunkpapa \ Throwing Muses (1989)
“Red Shoes” \ The Real Ramona \ Throwing Muses (1991)
“Not Too Soon” \ The Real Ramona \ Throwing Muses (1991)
“Firepile” \ Red Heaven \ Throwing Muses (1992)
“The Visit” \ Red Heaven \ Throwing Muses (1992)
“Your Ghost” \ Hips and Makers \ Kristin Hersh (1994)
“Me and My Charms”\ Hips and Makers \ Kristin Hersh (1994)
“Sundrops” \ Strings \ Kristin Hersh (1994)
“Bright Yellow Gun” \ University \ Throwing Muses (1995)
“That’s All You Wanted” \ University \ Throwing Muses (1995)
“A Cleaner Light” \ Sky Motel \ Kristin Hersh (1999)
“Clay Feet” \ Sky Motel \ Kristin Hersh (1999)
“Spain” \ Sunny Border Blue \ Kristin Hersh (2001)
“White Suckers” \ Sunny Border Blue \ Kristin Hersh (2001)
“Portia” \ Throwing Muses \ Throwing Muses (2003)
“Deep Wilson” \ The Grotto \ Kristin Hersh (2003)
“Long Painting” \ 50 Foot Wave EP \ 50 Foot Wave (2004)
“Sally Is A Girl” \ Golden Ocean \ 50 Foot Wave (2005)
“Vena Cava” \ Free Music! EP \ 50 Foot Wave (2006)
“Winter” \ Learn to Sing Like A Star \ Kristin Hersh (2007)
“Wild Vanilla” \ Learn to Sing Like A Star \ Kristin Hersh (2007)
“Medicine Rush” \ Power + Light \ 50 Foot Wave (2009)
“Sun Dog Coma” \ Power + Light \ 50 Foot Wave (2009)
“Glass” \ Crooked \ Kristin Hersh (2010)
“Mississippi Kite” \ Crooked \ Kristin Hersh (2010)
“Opiates” \ Purgatory/Paradise \ Throwing Muses (2013)
“Slippershell” \ Purgatory/Paradise \ Throwing Muses (2013)
“Detox” \ Wyatt at the Coyote Palace \ Kristin Hersh (2016)
“Bath White” \ Bath White \ 50 Foot Wave (2016)
“Breathe In” \ Possible Dust Clouds \ Kristin Hersh (2018)
“Dark Blue” \ Sun Racket \ Throwing Muses (2020)
“Staring Into the Sun” \ Black Pearl \ 50 Foot Wave (2022)
“Constance Street” \ Clear Pond Road \ Kristin Hersh (2023)
