Marisa Anderson at Rozz-Tox -- June 20.
Saturday, June 20, 8p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
With her 2022 recording Still, Here praised by Pitchfork as "an alternately deliberate and exploratory” work in which "the guitarist and composer finds flashes of beauty at the heart of each instrumental tale," singer/songwriter Marisa Anderson headlines a June 20 concert at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox in support of her May release The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music: Volume 1.
A guitarist and composer based in Portland, Oregon, Anderson is best known for mixing American primitive guitar with various genres from throughout the United States and the rest of the world, and for her largely improvised compositions. Though primarily regarded for playing acoustic and electric guitars, she has also played keyboards and other instruments on her albums. Anderson grew up in Sonoma, California, and after dropping out of college, travelled around the United States and Mexico for several years before settling in Portland.
She has released 11 albums under her own name since 2006, including two collaborative albums with Jim White and one each with Tashi Dorji and William Tyler. She was also previously a member of the bands the Dolly Ranchers and Evolutionary Jass Band, releasing multiple albums with each act. Anderson has toured with all three collaborators, as well as with acts such as Emmylou Harris, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Thurston Moore.
The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music: Volume 1 is being distributed by Thrill Jockey as part of a larger multi-year release project connected to Anderson's ongoing work curation of what she calls UnAmerican Folk Music. This curated collection draws from nearly 1,000 songs sourced from the private record collection of Harry Smith, where she is focusing on music from regions where the United States has engaged in conflict since 1970, including Southeast Asia, the former USSR, and the Arabic and Islamic world.
Anderson was awarded a residency through the Tulsa Artist Fellowship granting her access to an archive (of more than 1,200 records) from Smith’s personal collection, now owned by the University of Oklahoma and housed at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa. During the nine-day residency, the artist focused on collecting recordings from countries connected to U.S. conflicts during her lifetime starting in 1970, the year she was born. The record features deeply personal interpretations – composed, transcribed, and arranged – of music spanning from Afghanistan to Vietnam, via Yemen, Cambodia, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan. She will be performing this material live for the first time at Rozz-Tox, alongside selections from her earlier catalog and new, unreleased work.
Supporting Anderson in her Rozz-Tox appearance, Liv Carrow is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist based in the Quad Cities, and one dedicated to delivering folk songs for a strange present and low-tech future. Influenced heavily by traditional Appalachian music, British folk ballads, and early popular music, she weaves evocative lyrics in a voice “from an old radio” with her unique fingerstyle guitar playing. Formerly of New York’s Hudson Valley and Philadelphia, Carrow has been a mainstay of the Quad Cities music scene since 2016, has released four full-length albums, and has enjoyed performing all over North America.
Marisa Anderson and Liv Carrow perform their Rock Island concert on June 20, admission to the all-ages 8 p.m. show is $10-20, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
