This page contains Kristin Hersh songs, albums and video links. Music profile for Kristin Hersh with events, tracks, videos, pictures, lyrics and band information.
Kristin Hersh (born August 7, 1966) is an United States|American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she also has performed as lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock group Throwing Muses and currently leads the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave.
Early life
Born in Atlanta as Martha Kristin Hersh, she was raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She learned guitar at age nine from her father, and started writing songs soon after. As a teenager, she formed Throwing Muses in the early 1980s with stepsister Tanya Donelly and other high school friends.
Hersh began singing and writing most of Throwing Muses' songs in changing tempos, with Donelly also singing and writing some of the songs. The group was signed by the British 4AD Records label after a few years, and also were signed to Sire Records|Sire/Reprise Records by the second album. They began touring around the U.S. and Europe while recording critically-acclaimed rock albums, with Hersh writing most of the songs.
Hersh has listed among her early musical influences The Raincoats, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü, Velvet Underground, R.E.M. (band)|R.E.M., and X (U.S. band)|X. She has said her parents' albums by Patti Smith, the Carter Family, Stevie Wonder, Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson, Talking Heads, The Clash, Steve Mill... read all