Kristin Hersh Releases Highly Anticipated New Album 'Clear Pond Road'

celebrated indie guitarist and singer/songwriter Kristin Hersh releases her highly anticipated new album Clear Pond Road via Fire Records. Listen here. Her latest single “Bewitched Reruns” off the album is out now here.

“Bewitched Reruns” marks Hersh’s latest single off the album following the three tracks released to critical acclaim “Dandelion”, “Ms Haha” and “Constance Street”. “‘Bewitched Reruns’ is a kind of cool haunting, like a spell” Hersh explains. “Memories playing out over my reality—like smearing Vaseline on a life lens—reruns of the past obscuring the present. When you’re driving down the road but your windshield is a beautiful old movie that actually happened. I love that.”

Hersh wrote, performed, and produced Clear Pond Road at Stable Sound Studio. She incorporates strings and ambient field recordings on the record to lushly cinematic effect, with the close-up intimacy and sensory nature of each track culminating in a record that resembles a sonic memoir, or a home movie caught in time.

Clear Pond Road is sensuous: a life-affirming statement, a new piece of this mysterious jigsaw, a very personal memoir. From street signs to snapshots, it’s a blossoming of a true icon of independence. The record is both intimate yet expansive. Hersh’s affinity for the album is exhibited in the album’s title and album cover.

Of the album’s lineage she explains “The street sign on the cover is one my youngest son and I found at a junk shop when we were wandering the world the only ones left in our family. We took it with us everywhere we went to remind ourselves not to get too damaged, too fuzzy. It’d be easy to slip away under the spell of damage, so he and I decided not to let that happen. Back then, Clear Pond Road was a goal. And when I got there? It was time to make this record.”

Hersh continues “Some records demand to be made, and you know this is the case when the songs function as systems in a body. I octavized an acoustic baritone as the skeleton, cellos are the lungs, a Nashville-strung Collings and glockenspiel were the fingertips feeling around in this weird-ass dark space, and drums are always your heart, of course…but the vocals are a strange narrator here. A narrator lost in the story, of all things, more like eyes.”

Hersh cofounded Throwing Muses in high school, and after earning a devoted following the group was the first American group to be signed to British label 4AD. Amidst international touring, releasing ten solo albums (multiple independently) and founding her own label, Hersh went on to form the power rock trio 50 Foot Wave and publish 3 books, including her acclaimed memoir Rat Girl.

Hersh was one of the first artists to break outside of the traditional label system, using a fan-supported structure to fund her work. She teamed up with British label Fire Records in 2018 around her tenth studio album Possible Dust Clouds where she continues her partnership.

CLEAR POND ROAD INTERNATIONAL TOUR

September 2 /// Mallorca, Spain /// Sa Congregació
September 27 /// Exeter, UK /// The Phoenix Arts Centre
September 29 /// Ramsgate, UK /// St George’s Church
September 30 /// Oxford, UK /// Florence Park Community Centre
September 30 /// Oxford, UK /// Florence Park Community
Centre Matinee Performance
October 1 /// Liverpool, UK /// Philharmonic
October 3 /// Bristol, UK /// Strange Brew
October 4 /// Cardiff, UK /// Acapella Club
October 5 /// Reading, UK /// South Street Arts Centre
October 6 /// Cambridge, UK /// Storey’s Field
October 8 /// Norwich, UK /// Arts Centre
October 9 /// Nottingham, UK /// Metronome
October 10 /// Leeds, UK /// Mill Hill Chapel
October 11 /// Leeds, UK /// Mill Hill Chapel
October 12 /// Manchester, UK /// St Michael’s Ancoats
October 14 /// Glasgow, UK /// Mono
October 15 /// Edinburgh, UK /// Summerhall (Dissection Room)
October 16 /// Newcastle, UK /// Cluny
October 17 /// Newcastle, UK /// Cluny
October 18 /// Hebden Bridge, UK /// Trades Club
October 19 /// Kilkenny, Ireland /// Cleere’s
October 20 /// Galway, Ireland /// Roisin Dubh
October 21 /// Dublin, Ireland /// Pavilion Theatre
October 22 /// Bangor, UK /// The Court House
October 23 /// Dundalk, Ireland /// The Spirit Store
October 24 /// Kendal, UK /// The Old Brewery
October 25 /// Leek, UK /// Foxlowe Arts Centre
October 26 /// Birmingham, UK /// Hare And Hounds
October 28 /// London, UK /// St John at Bethnal Green (Matinee)
October 28 /// London, UK /// St John at Bethnal Green
October 29 /// Brighton, UK /// Komedia
November 2 /// Brisbane, Australia /// Black Bear Lodge
November 3 /// Canberra, Australia /// Smith’s Alternative
(Matinee) SOLD OUT
November 3 /// Canberra, Australia /// Smith’s Alternative
November 5 /// St Kilda, Australia /// Memo Music Hall
November 8 /// Melbourne, Australia /// Northcote Social Club
November 9 /// Newton, Australia /// Vanguard
November 10 /// Newton, Australia /// Vanguard
November 11 /// Katoomba, Australia /// Baroque Room
November 15 /// Wellington, New Zealand /// Meow
November 16 /// Wellington, New Zealand /// Meow
November 17 /// Christchurch, New Zealand /// The Piano
November 18 /// Auckland, New Zealand /// Tuning Fork
November 19 /// Waiheke Island, New Zealand /// Artworks

Photo credit: Pete Mellekas

To post a comment, you must register and login.