The Many Incarnations of Kristin Hersh

One of the numerous things I admire about Kristin Hersh is her stance on her creativity incorporated into her life and family. Over the past fifteen-plus years that I’ve followed her career I’ve always been inspired, not only by her music, but by her attempts, her trial and errors, her evolutions, her acceptances, and the way she melds it all together. 

A mother at 22, leader of the band (Throwing Muses), three more children along the way, multiple albums with two different bands (TM and 50 Foot Wave) and solo, a record imprint (Throwing Music), a ticket selling agency that gave partial profit to charity (Virtuous.com), a website catering to collaboration while operating within a new sustainability model (cashmusic.org), and her easeful approachability with her fans. All these things while taking her family and guitar on the road is nothing short of inspirational. Meanwhile, she manages to never lose sight of what’s directly important to her; her music and her family. 

One night in San Francisco I saw a solo performance. In between songs, while tuning her guitar, with a pick in her mouth, she chatted the audience up. “Thank you for coming out tonight,” she said. “I’m amazed. It’s Sunday. You could be home watching The Simpsons.” I remember we all laughed. Yeah, we could be at home watching The Simpsons but there are priorities and supporting one of the most hard working, entertaining, quality writing musicians is high on most of our lists.

Then there’s her humility. She knows that her audience has a life outside of that dark hall, she knows that we’re not permanent fixtures at a club with beers in our hands, she knows that we purchased a ticket, that we’re out on a school/work night. I get the impression that she’s sensitive to a perspective that, on the performance level, we’re welcoming her into our lives not she’s welcoming us into hers. And Hersh celebrates that perspective by being very generous with her fans in her output (almost an album a year), her delivery (Works in Progress series, cashmusic.org, her shows), and her ceaseless struggle to keep her head above water in an industry ever sinking to new lows.

Personally, I’m very exciting about the pending Paradoxical Undressing memoir. Over the past year, every week, I’ve been getting emails from Kristin, snippets from the book she’s been writing about the early beginnings of Throwing Muses and her life as she knew it. I must admit I read the first few eagerly yet slowly, savoring these stories written in her voice that’s both unapologetic, nonchalant and unmistakably New England. But I stopped for a while. I knew I was coming to Japan and would want some way to reconnect to my homeland, those emails would be that conduit. 

Kristin Hersh is on her way to New Zealand and Australia with Throwing Muses and I’m very jealous. TM has been getting together once every 3 or 4 years in select locations and I’m always tempted to fly myself wherever they are for another injection of their powerful, adrenaline, ju-ju conjuring performances.

This article appeared in Australia’s The Age online edition, January 9, 2009. Called Tapping the Muses, written by Anthony Carew.