hips and makers

Kristin Hersh went driving circles and did the highs and the lows with the emotional devotional of her haunting acoustic solo debut.  The album was produced by Lenny Kaye and Kristin Hersh with Steve Rizzo on "The Letter" at Stable Sound in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.  The sparse sound features Kristin Hersh on guitar and vocals with the only Jane Scarpantoni on cello and Michael Stipe providing vocals on "Your Ghost".  

Hersh reveals:   “'Hips And Makers' was originally recorded just for Billy [O’Connell].  I wrote a bunch of acoustic songs thinking of him as my husband and not my manager. He sent the songs to Warner Brothers and I ended up with a solo acoustic career, for which I am very grateful...I’ve never really written a song on purpose.  I’ll hear snatches of a new song at four o’clock in the morning and then pick it up over the next few days. It’s nearly always at four o’clock in the morning and it’s the whole thing, even the production. It sounds like a record of mine playing outside of my head...When I hear a song, it makes a sonic impression and that makes me reach for a certain guitar, as I know that to create that sonic impression I’m going to have to play it in a certain way...My rule is that a Muses song is written on my [Fender] Strat[ocaster] or Tele[caster], a 50 Foot Wave song is written on a Les Paul and a solo song is written on a Collings...['Hips And Makers' ] was a very naïve record.  At the time I didn’t know what I was doing. Now I see that it was sweet.”

'Hips And Makers' became the biggest success of Hersh's entire career, peaking at number seven in the UK.  







'Your Ghost'

If I walk down this hallway
Tonight, it's too quiet
So I pad through the dark
And call you on the phone
Push your old numbers
And let your house ring
Till I wake your ghost

Let him walk down your hallway
It's not that quiet
Slide down your receiver
Sprint across the wire
Follow my number
Slide into my hand

Its the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring
I think last night
You were driving circles around me

I can't drink this coffee
Till I put you in my closet
Let him shoot me down
Let him call me off
I take it from his whisper
Your not that tough

It's the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring
I think last night (you were in my dreams)
You were driving circles around me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfW4-nP2G1Q






'Hips And Makers' 
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naa8fvDE2Lc



"Your Ghost" – 3:16
"Beestung" – 3:08
"Teeth" – 4:10
"Sundrops" – 4:02
"Sparky" – 1:29
"Houdini Blues" (Kristin Hersh, William James Hersh) – 4:26
"A Loon" – 4:18
"Velvet Days" – 3:52
"Close Your Eyes" – 5:27
"Me and My Charms" – 4:16
"Tuesday Night" – 3:03
"The Letter" – 2:47
"Lurch" (0:36)
"The Cuckoo" (Traditional; arranged Kristin Hersh) – 2:12
"Hips and Makers" – 3:19