Marisa Anderson announces new album The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, out May 22nd; shares single "Taqsim for Guitar"

Acclaimed guitarist/instrumentalist Marisa Anderson has announced the new album The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, out May 22nd. The album comes as the first volume of a planned trilogy, and a portion of the record’s proceeds will go to Tamizdat.

The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music is a collection of nearly one thousand songs culled from the private record collection of the late Harry Smith. Assembled by Anderson after a chance encounter led to an opportunity to study and explore this treasure trove of music, the Anthology focuses on music from places that the United States has been in conflict with since 1970: Southeast Asia, the USSR and the Arabic and Islamic regions of the world. In Volume 1 Anderson presents her own deeply personal iterations of nine songs from the Anthology. Composed, transcribed and arranged through a process of trial and error, deep listening and research, Anderson charts a musical course from Afghanistan to Vietnam via Yemen, Cambodia and Turkmenistan. Interpretations of compositions ranging from Pakistani qawwali to Syrian taqsim are played with Anderson’s deft and practiced hands. Each piece on the album stands as a dialogue between Anderson and the original source recording, refracted through the prism of her own unique musical lens. Anderson’s contribution to this dialogue ultimately invites the listener to join her in asking: “Who are the people we’ve been told in our lifetimes are “unamerican?” What have we lost or been denied access to in the fallout from that label?”

Along with the album’s announcement, Anderson has shared the first single “Taqsim for Guitar.” “Taqsim for Guitar” is based on the 1955 recording “Taqsim for Violin” from the album “The Syrian Maqams,” recorded by Deben Bhattacharya and without any performer credited. Bhattacharya’s original notes on the piece state:

“This short Taqsim, played by a teacher of the Conservatoire de Damas, is presented on this band as an example of Syrian handling of a Western violin.”

Integral to the album’s curation and development, Anderson elaborates on the notes and her own process:

“Deben Bhattacharya was a prolific traveler and field recordist. He migrated from Varanasi to Europe when he was a young man in the early 1940s, first living in London and eventually splitting his time between Paris and Calcutta. In 2018, Sublime Frequencies put out a 4 CD compilation of his field recordings along with a book of photos and text that is highly worth digging into.

“I transcribed this one as best I could over the course of many weeks, and then built an arrangement for guitar that follows the original piece as closely as possible given the limitations and conditions of playing a fretted instrument. I try to allude to the microtonal nature of the source material through string bending in a couple of key moments in the piece. A taqsim is an improvised piece of music preceding a more formal piece. My arrangement is not a true taqsim as it closely follows the recorded piece and thus is not improvised.”

Marisa Anderson’s music transcends borders.The topography of her work interrogates the intersections of artistry and expression with form and tradition. A singular guitarist and voracious musical collaborator, Anderson crafts pieces bursting with equal parts reverence and curiosity, contouring familiar shapes into work that is wholly her own. Anderson has spent decades mining the veins of the complicated, interconnected American folk traditions she was steeped in from a young age, stretching beyond those traditions and incorporating the vocabulary and techniques of vernacular and folk musics from across time and beyond boundary into her work. Eschewing replication or revival, Anderson’s music lives in conversation with tradition. “My approach to tradition is with the hands that I have and the history that I have,” notes Anderson. “In that way it’s a collaboration–you don’t go into collaboration trying to play like the other person, you go in trying to find out how to play together.”

Anderson is on tour right now performing collaborative sets with drummer Jim White in New Zealand, which will be followed by a solo tour throughout Australia. She will continue to tour extensively throughout 2026, including a lengthy US tour this Spring throughout May and June and a set at End of the Road Festival in the UK in September.

A portion of the album’s proceeds will go to Tamizdat, supporting international cultural mobility for artists. On their mission, Tamizdat representative Matt Covey says:

“Tamizdat is a nonprofit organization that facilitates, defends. and advocates for global artist mobility and cultural exchange. Started in the 90s by an international group of musicians, Tamizdat’s programs assist the international performing arts community to address barriers to access and fairness within the global live arts ecosystem. Tamizdat was founded on the conviction that cultural diversity is the fuel that drives the engine of positive social change, and it is committed to programs that ensure that international audiences have access to the full breadth of the perspectives that make up the world in which we live.”

Marisa Anderson tour dates

Feb. 18 – Auckland, NZ – Whammy Bar, co-presented with Audio Foundation *

Feb 19 – Wellington, NZ – Meow, co-presented with Pyramid Club *

Feb. 20 – Blenheim, NZ – Brayshaw Park Chapel, co-presented with Matt Hellriegel *

Feb. 21 – Christchurch, NZ – Port Noise Christchurch *

Feb. 24 – Melbourne, AU – Northcote -Merri Creek Tavern

Feb. 25 – Sydney/Earlwood, AU – The Redhouse
Feb. 26 – Thirroul, AU – Franks Wild Year

Feb. 27 – Murwillumbah, AU – The Citadel

Feb. 28 – Brisbane, AU – Junk Bar

May 21 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studio

May 22 – Seattle, WA – Rabbit Box

May 27 – Minneapolis, MN – The Cedar