29 September 2026 – Kristin Hersh Brings Dark New Single Sundial Into Oxford's Oldest Concert Hall

Kristin Hersh brings her new single "Sundial" to Oxford tonight for an intimate solo performance at the historic Holywell Music Room, adding another quietly compelling chapter to a career that has spent more than three decades refusing to behave predictably. Hersh is best known as the singular voice behind Throwing Muses and the heavier 50 Foot Wave, but her solo work has always provided room for the stranger corners of her songwriting to breathe.

"Sundial" is described as a dark, cello-coloured piece about the unusually durable relationships formed between musicians, a subject Hersh is unusually qualified to examine after decades spent moving between bands, collaborators and solitary work. Presenting it inside Holywell Music Room is almost comically appropriate: a new alternative song entering one of Europe's oldest purpose-built concert halls, because apparently several centuries of architectural history are no defence against indie rock.

The arrangement's gentler cello textures should also suit a room designed around acoustic intimacy rather than arena spectacle. Hersh remains interesting precisely because her music has never depended on fashion cycles. The vocabulary changes, the instrumentation shifts and projects come and go, but that slightly haunted narrative voice remains immediately identifiable. "Sundial" extends that thread without sounding like an artist attempting to recreate her own past.