I Love This Record - "Traditional and Public Domain Songs" by Marisa Anderson

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I Love This Record is a Bandcamp Notes column where we ask a fan to pick one record and tell us why they love it. It runs whenever we feel like it.

Today, Steven Johnson on Traditional and Public Domain Songs by Marisa Anderson.

RIYL: Willie Dunn, Dirty Three, Califone

It’s hard to know where to begin when describing Marisa Anderson’s music. She is a master of her craft, equally adept on the acoustic, electric, and lap steel guitar. Her playing style follows the tradition of fingerstyle guitar music developed by the late great John Fahey, a genre he termed as “American primitive guitar.” You might think lumping Anderson in with the likes of Fahey to be a stretch, but it’s one I’m happy to do. She’s that good. I’ve been listening closely to her work for the past 20 years ever since I was smitten by her first effort, Holiday Motel.

Anderson has released 11 solo albums, two collaborative recordings with Australian drummer Jim White, one with Ashville guitarist Tashi Dorji, and another with instrumental guitar wizard William Tyler. Buried within Anderson’s prolific output is one recording that never stops giving, namely her fourth LP, Traditional and Public Domain Songs. The record boasts 14 tunes, each a blessing unto itself. The songs are performed as only Anderson can—broody, distorted, noisy and gentle; plenty of reverb, delay and fuzz, all the while maintaining a loose resemblance to the originals. What makes it even more intriguing is the way she seamlessly fuses traditional folk and blues forms with various other genres such as gospel, country, minimalism/drone, and classical.

Anderson’s guitar sings the blues—dark, angry, and gloriously steeped in a deep sadness, indicative of hard times played on a loop. But the record ain’t a downer. No, listening to the songs is a joy as the guitarist grabs you by your innards and polishes the darkness into the sweetest reprise. From the opening stirring take on the seminal American folk song “Bread and Roses” to the album’s closer “When The Roll is Called Up Yonder,” Anderson’s guitar conjures rural spaces, vast, dusty frontiers, and the worn wood of a Baptist church pew. The result is a record that is as satisfying as a well-worn coat. It’s an aural garment that I’m happy to wear again and again.

–Steven Johnson

Buy Traditional and Public Domain Songs by Marisa Anderson here.