Marisa Anderson

Portland-based guitarist and composer Marisa Anderson has enjoyed a varied and eclectic career melding American traditional musics from blues, gospel, country, folk, jazz, and circus music to minimalism, electronic music, drone, 20th century classical, and improvisation. Along with her critically lauded solo albums, she has been involved with projects like the Evolutionary Jass Band and the Dolly Ranchers, and near the end of the 2010s she collaborated with likeminded sonic explorers William Tyler and Jim White. Anderson returned to solo work in 2022 with the contemplative Still, Here, and in 2023 released her score to filmmaker Jeff Rutherford's A Perfect Day for Caribou, about an estranged father and son who spend the day searching for family and stumbling through disharmony and heartache. 2026's ambitious The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music was based on adaptations of global music from Harry Smith's archive of field recordings.