Marisa Anderson's Global Folk Influences: A Review of Her Latest Album
By
Jayson Greene
Not artisan, but a perfectly fine bagel. Hits the spot.
Summary
A review of guitarist Marisa Anderson's album, framed around her transformative encounter with folklorist Harry Smith's vast, globally diverse record collection. The article explores how Anderson's discovery of folk recordings from around the world—beyond the expected American canon—reshaped her musical perspective and influenced her work.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledWhen guitarist Marisa Anderson asked to see the famed folklorist and anthropologist Harry Smith's record collection—or what was left of it when he died in 1991—she was given 15 minutes.
Sitting in the climate-controlled room in the back of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, she shuffled past the expected southern gospel, country blues, and Native American ceremonial records to discover literally thousands of folk recordings drawn from around the world.
Afghanistan. Pakistan. Central Vietnam. Eritrea. Yemen. Soviet Russia. Her mind reeled.
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