American singer-songwriter, musician and author, known for her solo work and with her rock bands Throwing Muses and 50FootWave. She has released eleven solo albums. Her guitar work and composition style ranges from jaggedly dissonant to traditional folk. Hersh’s lyrics have a stream-of-consciousness style, reflecting her personal experiences.
Hersh moved with her family to Newport, Rhode Island when she was six years old. Her father was a professor at Salve Regina University in Newport and her mother a special educational needs teacher. She was interested in music at an early age and wanted to learn guitar chords so her father gave her a guitar when she was nine. Her parents separated when Hersh was 11, and her mother married the father of her best friend Tanya Donelly. Hersh talked Donelly into starting a band, then called The Muses when they were 14, which turned into Throwing Muses in 1981.
In 1994, Hersh began a solo career on Sire/Reprise and 4AD as an acoustic performer, beginning with Hips and Makers, an album sparsely arranged around her vocals, guitar, and a cellist, in contrast to the volatile, electric sound of her band work. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. made an appearance on this first solo album.
Candid about her episodes of mental illness and despair, her songs cover a vast spectrum of topics, including childbirth (“Hysterical Bending”), love (“Tar Kissers”, “Lavender”), surreal vignettes (“Delicate Cutters”, “Fish”), death (“Limbo”), emotional anguish (“The Letter”), loss of custody of her first son (“Candyland”), and the shedding of a relationship’s anxiety (“Snake Oil”).
Hersh’s illustrated children’s book Toby Snax was published in 2007 and further developed in 2011 as an interactive app for children. The app allows children to hear her read the story out loud and features her recordings of lullabies that she learned as a girl in Tennessee.
Her 2010 memoir Rat Girl (published in the UK as Paradoxical Undressing) is based on a diary she wrote when she was 18, touring with Throwing Muses, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and pregnant with her first child.
Hersh’s 2015 book Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, is a rumination on her friendship with the late singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt.
Hersh was married to her former manager Billy O’Connell for 25 years until they divorced in 2013. She has four sons.
Link to Wikipedia biography