My Professor - Kristin Hersh
Just about every morning, I walk to work, coffee in hand,
partly through an area called Freeway Park, usually with my MP3 player on
shuffle. Today while walking down some
steps, I saw a gentleman navigating the steps backwards. As I kept walking and watching him, he looked
up at me and started talking and gesturing. My shuffle at the time was playing “Spain” by Kristin Hersh, and I was
hesitant to pull off the headphones, but relented because I did realize I could
restart the song anytime I wanted.
“Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I am re-tracing my steps”, he said with a big warm smile.
Now sometimes my brain is just a bit too logical, and I had to pause for a second while I thought about this. The smiling face down the steps paused also, waiting for my response.
“I don’t think that phrase was meant to be taken so literally.”
With that the clouds rolled in across his face – there was definite confusion, like his world might crumble because of my statement, so his brain was refusing to process the remark. Not wanting to be responsible for ruining someone’s world view on my way to work, I quickly added, “But maybe that’s the best possible way to get where you need to go.”
That seemed to fix things. He went merrily on his backwards way, and I went back to “Spain.”
What does this have to do with anything? Kristin Hersh, that’s what. It was the perfect soundtrack for this small but wondrous event in my life, and no particularly great surprise that it was on at the time.
If you have never listened to her music, or especially if you have never seen her perform live (she loves to tell stories between songs), this is exactly the type of world she writes about, and exactly the type of incident that would probably happen to her as well. Her songs are stories, many of which are told by characters that see the world in unique and eye-opening ways, characters that say things like “It’s not my fault you don’t love me/When I’m drunk”, “Next time I’ll be a lousy liar/Next time I’ll say when”, or “I’ll do the math for you/I’ll keep it back for you”. Things that may take a second to fathom, but when they ring true, they resonate deeply. This has always been the case--through Throwing Muses, solo work, and her latest band, 50 Foot Wave. Everything is fair game: Random events, dreams, and fan conversations have all been reference points for songs and stories. She does what I think all great writers do in their work: She shows common experiences from an uncommon perspective.
Some shining examples of this work are the Throwing Muses albums Hunkpapa and Limbo, solo albums Hips and Makers and Sunny Border Blue, and the eponymous EP from 50 Foot Wave. But this is just a small fraction of the amazing work from this woman who is a singer/songwriter, guitarist extraordinaire, mom, author, and veteran of the road.
And she’s a great teacher, as she gave me the tools to communicate with the backward-stepping people…
Check out the Kristin Hersh site for all things Kristin Hersh.
Bri Nguyen on May 20, 2009 at 08:49 AM
It's cool how Kristin Hersh's music impacted your perspective on the gentleman you encountered. Your story reminds me anew of how music characterizes different experiences in our lives...thanks for sharing!