Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh is an iconic figure of the 80s formulation of iconic label 4AD and the shape of indie music as we know it. Her upbringing had a huge part in moulding her as the artist she is today. Raised by Southern Baptists and Buddhist hippies, she had a very musical household and a heap of lullabies that included numerous murder ballads.
'Wayfaring Stranger' was one of those ballads, a morbid folk classic originating from the early 19th Century. Various musicians have adopted the song, from Burl Ive in the 1940s, to Johnny Cash, Jamie Woon and Burial. It's lyrics call to mind returning home with an air of melancholia and implied death, inflicting the bitterest of sweetness.
Watch Throwing Muses' Kristin Hersh perform 'Wayfaring Stranger' for Gigwise in the video above
Purgatory/Paradise by Throwing Muses is out now
