Number 6 of 2003 — Kristin Hersh: The Grotto

Kristin Hersh’s solo life (her ‘day job’ as she calls it) started when Throwing Muses were still together as a band. She released Hips and Makers on 24 January 1994. The same day that Underworld released Dubnobasswithmyheadman. I know this because I remember buying them together, or rather getting a friend to buy them for me, who then delivered them to me at the White Hart pub in Chessington. It was my birthday that week. Hips and Makers was just Kristin, with her guitars, and the occasional cello. It was stunning. Until last year, she had released four other solo albums, including the mail-order only Murder, Misery and then Goodnight which is an album of traditional but scary Appalachian folk songs, arranged by Kristin. The Grotto is her fifth solo album.

The Grotto is an area in Providence, Rhode Island. Kristin and her family moved there for six months to be with her mother after Kristin’s step-father died. Kristin says "I was worried that my mother wouldn’t make it through, so we moved into The Grotto, to bring her the babies and sort of bring her back to life. It felt like sleep walking at the time. And then when I got pregnant… death and life at the same time." Whilst this isn’t essential to understand The Grotto, it helps. The Grotto is a deeply personal piece of work, full of small insights into Kristin’s life and how she cannot bear to be without her family. She once remarked to her husband Billy "these songs seem to be about how I can’t leave you".

For this album, Kristin was joined by Howe Gelb (from Giant Sand) on piano, and Andrew Bird (Bowl of Fire, ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers) on violin. All the guitars were played by Kristin. It’s probably her most ambient, spacious album. Howe seems to caress his pianos more than play them. Splashes of notes here and there. Hammered notes, strummed strings. Andrew’s violin tends to sweep around songs rather than playing with them or against them. It sounds very spontaneous. Both Howe and Andrew have toured with Kristin as part of her solo live line-up. It shows. The album was itself recorded over three consecutive days, then mixed over another set of three days. I’ll just pick out a few notable tracks from this album, otherwise I’d go on for pages.

So, The Grotto starts off with Sno Cat. It’s about the aftermath of an argument between Billy and Kristin. Kristin couldn’t sleep so she went out and started driving around, and she sees a man on a Sno Cat. The opening lines are "A man made of butterfat / Careening around on a Sno-Cat". You wonder what it’s about. It’s only on the last verse that it all becomes clear. She "decided to forgive and forget". All is well chez-Hersh. Kristin is accompanied on this song by Howe although only with a few throwaway piano notes as a coda. It works well though.

Deep Wilson is a song that will puzzle me and enchant me for years. As far as I can deduce, it documents a night time tryst probably when Kristin was a teenager. The chorus is majestic: a chord change, the strings take off and then a piano comes in. "Knees pressed against the leather couch / I couldn’t find my bra and / You were so familiar". Kristin has never written her lyrics down, nor her music. She rarely explains what her songs are about — her excuse is that she doesn’t know anyway. We can make them whatever we want them to be.

The Grotto has been criticised for not having much in the way of Songs. Much of the songs appear to be all verse, no choruses and in some cases they appear to end arbitrarily. Casual listeners won’t realise that this album is as much about the words as it is the music. When Kristin’s finished what she has to say, the song ends. It’s as simple as that. True, choruses are rare, but the musical themes repeat as choruses would do. So you’ll find that there is harmony. Another issue is that of rhyme and delivery of the lyrics. Kristin’s never been one to slavishly rhyme. She merely puts what she has to say to music. There are recurring themes (snakes in particular) and playful lyrical twists which have always been in her music. The delivery of the lyrics is used as the method of keeping them in touch and in time with the music. This means that you have to listen to the songs, otherwise they just appear skewed and peculiar.

I’ll skip over Snake Oil. It’s a fine song which seems to continue the themes picked up on Deep Wilson. I could be wrong. The Grotto is an extremely ambiguous album.

Vanishing Twin begins with a gorgeous piano intro which then drops to Kristin’s familiar round and round guitar plucking: walking chords picked out note by note, with a separate sequence of notes for a bassline. The chord change is the evidence of the end of a verse, then reverts to the next verse. Howe does some piano bashing towards the end, but in the nicest possible way.

Vitamins V uses the same chord change trick as an intro to a chorus, but this time there is a chorus "This lukewarm catastrophe / Is a recipe for rebirth / Or so I overheard". Gentle music, hard lyrics. The juxtaposition works perfectly: "I’m still staring through the fish tank / And a fist full Valium". After the second chorus, the music picks up, and Kristin voice is raised. Strummed piano strings accompany the last couple of verses. Once Kristin used to scream her anger and whilst she still raises her voice, it’s now creamy and warm – all the sharp edges have been worn away.

Arnica Montana was probably a pop-song in a previous life. It’s a blast of off-kilter improvised bluesy piano guitar and violin. It builds and builds from a fairly sparse arrangement to an all out stomp. My only disappointment is that it’s not Kristin playing the piano. She can play piano, as shown on Walking in the Dark from Throwing Muses’ second album House Tornado. It’s my favourite track on the album at the moment. Kristin says it’s about being on tour. Billy does the driving and Kristin looks after the pets, teaches the kids and does the cooking. They really do bring their whole family on tour.

If you want further evidence of a master (mistress?) of her art, look no further than Milk Street. This track starts out with an entire instrumental verse and chorus. You think it’s going to be an instrumental. Then half way into the second verse, Kristin starts singing: "You are good / You are kind / You are drunk all the time / But never drunk enough". She’s a funny woman. But later: "As you’re trying to shield / Your glass newborn from the dodgeballs / And aching for children / That you have never seen". She can be terribly serious too.

The album closes with Ether. A song that’s typical of the album. It’s very mournful and it’s this feeling that I’m left with after listening to it. An album full of little pieces of life, small anecdotes and minor tragedies. An album that you won’t want to listen to continuously – it’s too personal for that, too emotionally involving. I just dig it out every couple of months so it can cut me into little pieces and put me back together again all shiny and new.