Kristin Hersh - Sugar on Blackstone (Blue Vinyl)

Limited Edition Light Blue Vinyl LP

This is Fire Records' limited edition light blue vinyl pressing of Sugar on Blackstone, catalog number FIRELP836. The eleven songs sit on a single LP, six on side A and five on side B, and a download card is included. The label's photographs of this edition show the light blue disc with a printed inner sleeve. Fire also pressed the album on Candyfloss vinyl, on Sugar Marble vinyl as a Rough Trade exclusive of 750 copies with a signed letter, and on CD.

Sugar on Blackstone is Kristin Hersh's twelfth solo album and her first since Clear Pond Road in 2023. It was recorded at Stable Sound Studios in 2026 with two longtime collaborators, Rob Ahlers (50FOOTWAVE) on drums and cellist Pete Harvey (Throwing Muses). Hersh produced the record and plays guitar, bass, drums, percussion and Mellotron on it; Steve Rizzo and Brian Thoms engineered the sessions, and the album was mastered by Steve Rizzo and Brian Pyle.

Fire Records' notes describe an album about life and death, enrichment and poverty, and the moments of childhood that carry into adult life. The title points to Blackstone Boulevard in Providence, Rhode Island, which the label names alongside Hope Street as places that recur through the songs. Of the opening track, Hersh has said of her brother: "He was a 'Dark Eyed Junco' and I was a light-eyed weirdo. We'd play basketball until after dark then, when we couldn't even see the hoop any more, so that we didn't have to go home." "Sundial" and "Moths" were issued as singles ahead of the album.

Hersh formed Throwing Muses in 1981 with Tanya Donelly while both were in high school, and the band became the first American group signed to 4AD, releasing the Chains Changed EP in 1987. Her first solo album, Hips and Makers, followed in 1994 with an appearance from Michael Stipe, and she later formed the power trio 50FOOTWAVE. She is also the author of the memoir Rat Girl (2010) and of Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt (2015), and has recorded for Fire Records since 2018.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Dark Eyed Junco
2. Moths
3. Ticking
4. Silver Beach
5. Pink Nightgowns
6. 101 Run

Side B

7. Sundial
8. Snow White Lies
9. Dom in Orange
10. '72 Stingray
11. Samson