US based guitarist and composer Marisa Anderson will return to Australia in February for her first solo tour, bringing a body of work that has steadily positioned her as one of the most distinctive guitar voices of her generation. The tour runs from February 24 to February 28 and follows Anderson’s acclaimed 2022 visit for Melbourne’s Rising Festival, where she performed alongside Dirty Three drummer Jim White.
For Australian audiences, Anderson’s name has become closely associated with White through their collaborative releases on Thrill Jockey Records, including The Quickening and the more recent Swallowtail. This upcoming run of shows, however, places the focus squarely on her solo practice, a space where improvisation, historical research and personal expression converge in ways that are rarely predictable and consistently compelling.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Anderson has built a career around a deep engagement with the guitar’s past while pushing its vocabulary into new territory. Her playing draws from the American primitive tradition associated with figures like John Fahey, but it also absorbs gospel, country, Appalachian folk, blues, jazz and minimalist approaches, alongside global influences that extend well beyond the United States. Rather than treating these elements as stylistic references, Anderson integrates them into performances that evolve in real time, shaped by the room, the audience and her own instinctive responses.
Anderson’s musical grounding is unusually broad. Classically trained from a young age, she later honed her skills playing in country bands, jazz ensembles and even circus groups. After leaving college as a teenager, she spent close to a decade living a nomadic life across the United States and Mexico, often combining music with political activism. Those years included time spent walking cross country to raise awareness for environmental and social causes, as well as a stint performing with a circus during the Chiapas conflict in southern Mexico. The experience of movement, uncertainty and direct engagement with people and place continues to inform her approach to music.
Her first solo album, Holiday Motel, was released in 2006, setting the tone for a discography that now spans more than a decade and eleven releases under her own name. Subsequent albums such as The Golden Hour, Mercury and Traditional And Public Domain Songs established her reputation as a guitarist unafraid to rework inherited material while maintaining a strong sense of authorship. In 2017, Anderson signed with Thrill Jockey Records, a move that coincided with a broader international profile and a series of releases that expanded both her sonic palette and collaborative reach.
Among those collaborations, her work with Jim White has been particularly significant. The Quickening, released in 2020, was built entirely on improvisation, capturing the immediacy of two musicians listening closely and responding without predetermined structures. Their second duo album, Swallowtail, released in May 2024, was recorded in Point Lonsdale, Australia, further strengthening Anderson’s creative ties to this country. The record arrived alongside a prolific period that also included the score for the feature film A Perfect Day For Caribou and appearances on albums by Charlie Parr, Myriam Gendron and Big|Brave.
Beyond her recorded output, Anderson is a highly sought after collaborator, having worked with artists including William Tyler, Tashi Dorji, Sharon Van Etten, Beth Ditto, Circuit Des Yeux and Thurston Moore. She has toured with acts as varied as Emmylou Harris and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and has appeared at major international festivals including Big Ears, Pitchfork Midwinter, Le Guess Who and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. In 2025, she was recognised with the Spark Award for Oregon Artists, acknowledging both her artistic achievement and cultural contribution.
In recent years, Anderson’s research driven interests have led her towards a mid 20th century archive of recorded music from the Islamic world, Southeast Asia and the Soviet Union. This material has become an important influence on her current work, informing melodic choices, rhythmic concepts and tuning approaches that subtly reshape her performances. For audiences, this means no two shows are the same, with each performance offering a unique configuration of ideas drawn from a vast and carefully considered musical landscape.
The February tour will take Anderson through Melbourne, Sydney, Thirroul, Murwillumbah and Brisbane, with selected shows featuring guest collaborators. For Australian listeners familiar with her duo work, these dates offer a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of her solo practice, intimate, exploratory and deeply connected to the long history of the guitar.
Tour Dates and Ticketing Details
February 24
Melbourne – The Merri Creek Tavern with Chris Smith
Early show on sale now, late show sold out
February 25
Sydney – The Red House
February 26
Thirroul – Frank’s Wild Years with D.C Cross
February 27
Murwillumbah – The Citadel with Andrew Tuttle
February 28
Brisbane – Junk Bar, afternoon show, with Andrew Tuttle
All tickets via feelpresents.com
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YouTube. See things first—Subscribe to Noise11 on YouTube
Follow Noise11.com on social media:
Bluesky
Facebook – Comment on the news of the day
