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Marisa Anderson

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Not to be confused with the psychic medium of the same name or the ballet dancer named Marika Anderson.

Marisa Anderson
BornNorthern California
OriginPortland, Oregon
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Guitar
Labels
Formerly of
  • The Dolly Ranchers
  • Evolutionary Jass Band
Websitewww.marisaandersonmusic.com

Marisa Anderson is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Portland, Oregon. She is primarily known for playing the guitar, mixing American primitive guitar with various genres from throughout the United States and the rest of the world, and for her largely improvised compositions. She has released 10 albums under her own name since 2006, as well as several others with the bands the Dolly Ranchers and Evolutionary Jass Band.

Early life

Anderson was born in Northern California and grew up in Sonoma.[1] Her earliest musical memories are of listening to church music and classical in her mother's car, and country in her dad's truck including Doc Watson and the Oak Ridge Boys.[2] She started playing guitar at age ten.[3] In her teen and young adult years, she took lessons from fellow California guitarist Nina Gerber.[4] A self-described "weird teenager", she learned about various styles of folk music from different parts of the world – including Mississippi Delta blues, British, African, and Appalachian music – by reading books from folklorist Cecil Sharp.[5] She attended Humboldt State University before dropping out at age 19.[1][3]

Career

After dropping out of college, Anderson spent about ten years[6] living in her car or in a tent and walking around the US to raise awareness for environmental issues. Some of this time was spent in Mexico where she was a part of Circo de Manos and performed among the indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers during the Chiapas conflict in Southern Mexico. She was a member of the country-folk band the Dolly Ranchers from 1997 through 2003, playing on both of their albums and at their four-sets-a-night gig at a cowboy bar in New Mexico.[7][3] She also worked at Rock Camp for Girls between 2003 and 2011, and contributed to its eponymous book.[3] She settled in Portland, Oregon, after traveling to the Pacific Northwest for the 1999 Seattle WTO protests.[1] In Portland, she joined the improvisational ensemble Evolutionary Jass Band for six years, recording three albums.[7]

Her first solo album, Holiday Motel, was released by 16 Records in 2006, and earned her a nomination for the OUTmusic Award for Best Female Debut Record. That album was followed by 2009's The Golden Hour and 2013's Mercury, both released by Mississippi Records; and another 2013 album, Traditional and Public Domain Songs, which was released by Grapefruit Records. In 2014, she appeared as a guest musician on Sharon Van Etten's Are We There, playing guitar on its first track "Afraid of Nothing".[8] In 2015, she released an eponymous split album with Bhutan-born guitarist Tashi Dorji which was released by Footfalls Records.[9] The year after, she released Into the Light on her own label Chaos Kitchen Music. After this, she signed to Thrill Jockey with whom she has released her four most recent albums, 2018's Cloud Corner; 2020's The Quickening, a collaboration with Australian drummer Jim White; 2021's Lost Futures, a collaboration with American folk guitarist William Tyler; and 2022's Still, Here.[3]

Anderson had a cameo appearance alongside fellow Oregon-based musician Michael Hurley in the 2018 film Leave No Trace where they perform the songs "O My Stars" and "Dark Holler" around a campfire.[10][11] She has also composed for films including 2022's Lake Forest Park[12] and A Perfect Day for Caribou.[13]

Anderson has toured and played live with numerous artists, including her album collaborators Tashi Dorji,[14] William Tyler,[15] and Jim White,[16] as well as Yasmin Williams,[15] Giorgos Xylouris, Ed Kuepper,[16] Circuit des Yeux,[17] Emmylou Harris,[18] Godspeed You! Black Emperor,[19] Charlie Parr, Bill Callahan,[20] and Thurston Moore.[21] She has performed at music festivals including Big Ears Festival,[15] Pitchfork's Midwinter at the Art Institute of Chicago,[22] Le Guess Who?,[23][24] and Moogfest.[25] She also performed on NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series in 2014, mostly playing songs from Traditional and Public Domain Songs and Mercury.[26]

Style

Anderson's music has been described as falling into the American primitive guitar style introduced by John Fahey in the 1960s, as well as being called a "neo-Americana guitar outsider".[27] She mixes in influences from various other genres such as gospel, country, Appalachian folk and blues,[28] jazz, circus music, minimalism, electronic, drone, and 20th century classical,[3] while also including global influences such as Tuareg and Latin music on Cloud Corner[29] and flamenco on Still, Here.[30] Her music is also referred to as experimental on some albums.[31][32]

She is known to improvise music rather than compose it on many of her recordings, including the entirety of her album The Quickening.[33][31] On the subject, she has said she likes "to think about improvisation as a conversation" and that it's "really just an art at being literate and expressive no matter what language you are in... I am trying to be very present with the music and to make my intention realized with every performance."[2] When asked in an interview how she got into improvisation, she said she grew up playing classical music where "there's a boss. What's on the page is the boss. What the composer intended, that's the boss. In classical music, you're not your own boss ever." She said that's fine and that she's not opposed to structure, but that "in the creative process, I like to be free. Once it's the performance, there's room for all of it in my music. Some things I do exactly the same, and that's its own fun thing, is to adhere to that. Some things I do differently. In performance, what changes is the dynamic in the room."[4]

Equipment

Anderson's main instrument is guitar, both acoustic and electric, but she has also employed other instruments across her albums such as lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, and Wurlitzer electronic piano on Into the Light;[28] and charango and requinto guitar on Cloud Corner.[34] Her instrument collection also includes a Dobro from the 1930s, a terz guitar, a nylon-string parlor guitar, a custom Warmoth Telecaster with Lollar P-90 guitar pickups, and a Gibson ES-125 from the early 1940s.[35]

Discography

Solo

Albums

Singles

  • "Into the Light" (2016, Into the Light)
  • "He Is Without His Guns" (2016, Into the Light)
  • "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" (2020, with Tara Jane O'Neil)
  • "The Lucky" (2020, The Quickening)
  • "Gathering" and "Pallet" (2020, The Quickening)
  • "Lost Futures" (2021, Lost Futures)
  • "Hurricane Light" (2021, Lost Futures)
  • "At the Edge of the World" (2021, Lost Futures)
  • "Waking" (2022, Still, Here)
  • "La Llorona" (2022, Still, Here)
  • "The Fire This Time" (2022, Still, Here)

With the Dolly Ranchers

  • Ten O'Clock Bird (2000, Chaos Kitchen)
  • Escape Artist (2002, Chaos Kitchen)

With the Evolutionary Jass Band

  • Change of Scene (2006, Community Library)
  • What's Lost (2007, Mississippi)
  • Pure Light (2009, Jaffe)

References

  1. ^ a b c Singer, Matthew (June 11, 2013). "Marisa Anderson: Sunday, June 16". Willamette Week. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Blackley, Laura (May 1, 2014). "Folk singer Marisa Anderson plays the Mothlight". Citizen Times. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Jurek, Thom. "Marisa Anderson Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Silverstein, Jeffrey (November 21, 2022). "Composer and guitarist Marisa Anderson on the benefits of being a late bloomer". The Creative Independent. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  5. ^ Ham, Robert (July 7, 2016). "Marisa Anderson's Imaginary Sci-Fi Western Soundtrack". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  6. ^ Beta, Andy (July 22, 2016). "10 New Artists You Need to Know: August 2016". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 24, 2022. From age 19 to age 29, I lived with no fixed address, hitchhiking, living in tents, school buses, whatever.
  7. ^ a b Tissenbaum, Marc (May 11, 2016). "Marisa Anderson's New, Weird America". Flagpole. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
  8. ^ Walker, Gary (November 10, 2021). "The Genius of... Are We There by Sharon Van Etten". Guitar.com. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  9. ^ Joyce, Colin (November 10, 2015). "Tashi Dorji and Marisa Anderson Embrace the Openness of Americana on Split LP". Spin. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  10. ^ Kermode, Mark (July 1, 2018). "Leave No Trace review – flawless, deeply affecting". The Guardian. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  11. ^ Boscaljon, Daniel (July 25, 2018). "Refining and redefining home: Leave No Trace strips contemporary notions bare". Little Village. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  12. ^ Raiman, Paola. "Lake Forest Park". Entrevues Belfort Film Festival. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  13. ^ Lodge, Guy (August 12, 2022). "A Perfect Day for Caribou Review: Fathers and Sons Get Lost and Found in a Winning Monochrome Miniature". Variety. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  14. ^ Danielsen, Aarik (October 30, 2022). "Marisa Anderson will carry wordless conversations to Columbia Experimental Music Festival". Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  15. ^ a b c "Watch: Marisa Anderson, William Tyler and Yasmin Williams". The Wire. November 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Young, David James (May 3, 2022). "Dirty Three's Jim White announces new duo shows with Xylouris White and Marisa Anderson". NME. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  17. ^ Hussey, Allison (April 7, 2018). "As Circuit des Yeux, Haley Fohr Builds Mysterious, Mesmerizing Songs". Indy Week. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  18. ^ "Marisa Anderson & William Tyler Share Cinematic New Single "At the Edge of the World"". BroadwayWorld. August 18, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  19. ^ Major, Michael (August 22, 2022). "Marisa Anderson to Tour With Godspeed You! Black Emperor This Fall". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  20. ^ Major, Michael (February 7, 2023). "Marisa Anderson Announces International Tour Dates With Charlie Parr, Godspeed You! Black Emperor & More". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  21. ^ Garmon, Ron (May 15, 2017). "The Thurston Moore Group + Marisa Anderson @ the Teragram Ballroom". L.A. Record. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  22. ^ Galil, Leor (November 14, 2018). "Pitchfork's Midwinter brings Kamasi Washington, Slowdive, Laurie Anderson, and dozens more to the Art Institute". Chicago Reader. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  23. ^ "Le Guess Who? 2012". Consequence. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  24. ^ "Marisa Anderson". Le Guess Who?. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  25. ^ Pareles, Jon (May 22, 2017). "At Moogfest, Untamed Sounds and Futuristic Protests". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  26. ^ Gotrich, Lars (July 19, 2014). "Marisa Anderson: Tiny Desk Concert". NPR Music. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  27. ^ Levinson, Leah B. (June 22, 2016). "Marisa Anderson - Into the Light". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  28. ^ a b Gotrich, Lars (June 16, 2016). "Review: Marisa Anderson, Into the Light". NPR. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  29. ^ Monger, Timothy. "Marisa Anderson - Cloud Corner". AllMusic. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
  30. ^ Cush, Andy (September 26, 2022). "Marisa Anderson: Still Here Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  31. ^ a b Horowitz, Steve (May 19, 2020). "Jim White and Marisa Anderson's The Quickening Takes an Experimental Journey". PopMatters. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  32. ^ Haver Currin, Grayson (December 23, 2015). "The Best Experimental Albums of 2015". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  33. ^ Jarnow, Jesse (May 18, 2020). "Jim White / Marisa Anderson: The Quickening Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  34. ^ "Cloud Corner". Thrill Jockey. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  35. ^ Kimpton, Glenn (December 15, 2022). "Marisa Anderson on the art of improvisation versus composition and the everlasting allure of a sustaining electric guitar". Guitar World. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
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