Kristin Hersh - Sugar on Blackstone [Light Blue]

Kristin Hersh has written from the edges for forty years, first as the founding voice of Throwing Muses and then across a long solo career and the noise trio 50 Foot Wave. On Sugar on Blackstone, her twelfth solo album, she goes home, back to the Providence, Rhode Island of her childhood, and lets the memories in.

The record is sparse and hushed, built around Hersh's guitar, with its subtle psychedelic shimmer, and a voice that has grown huskier but remains unmistakable. Longtime collaborator Pete Harvey adds cello and Rob Ahlers plays drums on select tracks. Songs like "Dark Eyed Junco," "Silver Beach," and "'72 Stingray" trace small, defining moments of youth, while "Dom in Orange" reckons with the 2025 death of her friend Domonick Knight, whose presence hangs over the whole album.

Recorded at Stable Sound Studios with engineer Steve Rizzo, an old friend who also knew Knight, it is one of the most openly personal records Hersh has made, balancing fragility and force, sadness and hope. Fans of the quieter corners of Throwing Muses will feel right at home.

This limited edition is pressed on light blue vinyl via Fire Records. A beautiful, quietly devastating record from one of alternative rock's most distinctive songwriters.