Kristin Hersh (solo) - C/D, S/D, OPO, RFD, &c.

I hope Kristin and Billy's 'The Shady Circle' idea takes off.

I saw Kristin perform her 'Paradoxical Undressing'* show in Edinburgh last month, and fascinating it was too. Can't wait for the book.

*http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/view_item.aspx?item_id=50407

Speedbath. Enough said. Dear God, Speedbath.

I also think I need that textbook.

I've just been listening to my tape of Hips & Makers again. What features or tracks does anyone now think is good about it?

...and now continuing the thread a bit, if you've not heard the Strings EP, which consists of a Martin McCarrick-arranged string section working with Hersh on rerecordings of four Hips and Makers songs, you have no idea how you're missing out. It's absolutely wonderful.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 28 February 2005

I haven't heard this for years, if ever, but I think Raggett is right. There was this STUNNING song called 'The Key' way back when (1994?) - did it appear on that ep? don't know - but if she did more work like that then I would like to have it.

Kristin Hersh is a working mother, with an unusual job.

Lots of lines (and the delivery thereof) worth treasuring on H&M.

I've been on the other side of the Blue Ridge, seen the Shenandoah rolling there

Start with your eyes when they eye me in twilight

I fell to the bottom of Thales' well, caught like a thief with a lamb

Love Kristin, P.S.: Keep them coming

"The Key" is on the American release of the Strings EP, but not the UK one. In the UK, it was on the Your Ghost single. Also "Uncle June and Aunt Kiyoti" which is equally amazing.

i guess the comparison to Johnny Cash musta been made before now, but i'm only putting the words together in my mind now. it makes a lot of sense.

I've unexpectedly found myself back into Hips & Makers after all these years. I revisited with it around 2001 but couldn't really bring it into a present context at that time, it was more about memories for me. This time it's resonating with me in the present moment. It's funny that I always tend to think of it as an good album with a few really standout tracks, but in reality it all hangs together very well and feels very complete, like taking a journey through different parts of a forest or something.

I was so disappointed in Strange Angels that I quit paying attention to her work at all after that. The way I remember it, the songs that appear on Hips & Makers are ones she'd been saving up for years.

Haven't heard this Strings EP mentioned upthread...will have to track it down.

Also this line especially gets me - "I've been on the other side of the Blue Ridge, seen the Shenandoah rolling there" because I grew up in Virginia and it makes me remember the mountains there.

Strange Angels isn't all that bad, although it is a let down after Hips & Makers, which she's never really come close to in her solo work since then IMO

see i thought h+m was patchy - stuff like beestung and velvet days i find a bit trite. prefer the grotto, sunny border blue and learn to sing like a star. her current track-a-month-to-download output is pretty great too.

Going to restate that Strange Angels is (to me) far superior to Hips and Makers. It's her best album, in fact.

ooooh the strings version of Sundrops! WOAH! WOAH!

Have you listened to Uncle June and Aunt Kiyoti yet? Or the Key?

sky motel still my favorite, hugely underrated

Listening to the Key now. Poor Mike Kozelek, he's just not QUITE as good as her. Not QUITE. Almost, though. He just edges it.

Whoops! MARK Kozelek, of course.

Anyone read Rat Girl yet?

not published yet, is it?

Oops — perhaps. A close friend of hers told me she was half way through it. Probably an advance copy.

Yep, you're right. Amazon has it coming out Aug. 31.

I've got it on reserve at my library. I may be the only one, and it looks like the county library system is getting three copies.

Ha, I did the same thing. Only one library in Rhode Island has reserved it so far.

So this interview with Hersh is beyond kickass.

100 pages into Rat Girl and I can't recommend it enough. So endearing.

I really need to buy that book.

UK title: Paradoxical Undressing. The book version of her latest album is really good as well!

I've only written one book and I didn't know how to write that

Good interview in the Guardian:
"Yeah, I hate music. Everyone knows that about me. Even my kids hate music. When they're watching a kids' show on TV, as soon as a song comes on, the TV is muted." She reconsiders. "Maybe hate is the wrong word. We can't bear it. The intensity of good music is too much to bear. And bad music is so offensive that that's also too much to bear. I'm in heaven when it's good, but that doesn't happen very often. And anyway, you don't want to be crying over the breakfast table. I don't want that life."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/aug/22/kristin-hersh-memoir-interview-edinburgh

i interviewed kristin in 2007 and she told me the same thing. sadly i can't seem to find the article i wrote about her online at the moment. love her, of course -- i might even like the solo stuff more than the muses.

For anyone interested, there are still a few copies of Kristin's 2015 Record Store Day single 'Sundrops'/'The Cuckoo' available via the label's website (heliospheric.co.uk).

It was only released in the UK, so this is the best chance for US and European fans to get hold of a copy before they all go. The two songs are acoustic versions recorded for a never-broadcast local radio session in 1994 while Kristin was in the UK touring 'Hips and Makers', and have never been released until now. They are fab and all KH fans should hear them!

Wyatt At The Coyote Palace streaming now at NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/27/499145143/first-listen-kristin-hersh-wyatt-at-the-coyote-palace

Saw her in Cambridge MA tonight. I haven't followed her work in a decade but it was a great voice and guitar performance with lots of anecdotes and poetry between songs.

oh shit new throwing muses AND new solo kristin hersh next year (I really need to renew my lapsed subscription)

aforementioned new solo tracks are arriving; this has a bit of a "Rubidoux" feel https://pitchfork.com/news/kristin-hersh-announces-new-album-shares-new-song-listen/

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/172053-kristin-hersh-possible-dust-clouds

(Shocked to see it isn't on 4ad ... but perhaps she hasn't been with them for years??)

think her last 4AD release was Learn to Sing Like a Star in 2007 (or the Throwing Muses Anthology in 2011)

Haven't really been paying attention (obviously).

and a UK tour next March: https://www.kristinhersh.com/appearances/

including a few places off the usual tour circuit, such as my home town - hooray! I confess I have also not been paying attention but perhaps this is a good motivator to do so

Oh wow, KH at the Phil (ok, not the pub) in L'pool in March sounds like it's worth a trip. Almost the 30th anniversary of seeing the Muses for the first time in L'pool. Jeez.

I doubt I can get to Rough Trade East after work in three weeks' time for that appearance.

x-post. Thanks for the tip-off re the shows, Spacecadet. The Holywell Music Room in Oxford seems a tiny venue for her but having checked Wegottickets sales seem fairly stagnant. That said, I hadn't noticed anything about the show.

Ooh, I'm ready for new stuff. Strange Angels and Sky Motel have been sounding so good to me recently. Don't know why I never spent much time with the latter.

sky motel is so damn good

this is a good album. is she even capable of making a bad album? I've never heard one.

like, all muses albums, all her solo albums, the 50 ft Wave stuff...all of it's great. some greater than the rest obviously but I will always listen to one of her records all the way through.

btw did she play everything on this? I can't find any decent credits or liners online. Who sings backup on Halfway Home (my favorite on the album; I listened to that on repeat 4x yesterday)

if you ask her on twitter she'll probably tell you!

My song of the day was "Gin". I heard it on a radio podcast walking home after work without knowing who it was and I thought I know that voice from when it was not as broken (which is by no means bad). Great song which catapulted me back into the early nineties. The Throwing Muses was one of the first indie bands I got to know. In the podcast the radio dj said something about her being bipolar. I hope the music helps her to get through the day.

she did a recent interview where she said it turns out she was not bipolar, she has some kind of deep PTSD from childhood that manifests in different ways, mainly through music; and that she often has no recollection of writing songs, performing them live, or even knows what they mean.

"Gin" is great yeah; my favourite from the new LP.

btw did she play everything on this? I can't find any decent credits or liners online. Who sings backup on Halfway Home?
Mostly all done by Kristin but there are five other credited performers, three drummers and two bass players - one of which, Chris Brady, is also credited with backing vocals.

I should go buy this rather than listening off apple music.