Thursday, January 19, 2012

Marisa Anderson - The Golden Hour






















(Self Released / Mississippi Records, 2011)

Bloody gorgeous, muddy, bluesy solo guitar improvisations from this Pacific Northwest guitar-neck strangler.  And occupying a well-fitting place with Mississippi Records (even as one the very few contemporary artists they've put out).  Anderson's certainly in touch with old-age blues.  On The Golden Hour, the blues/delta/ragtime lineage is immediately apparent, but with a new-style corrosiveness and grit, grandeur, and most importantly, soul.  Did I mention how gorgeous this record is?  Nowadays, if you are releasing a solo guitar record, there's some obligatory sense in the critic of name dropping Fahey and everyone else.  Marisa Anderson (and I apologize for having mentioned the name already) stands outside that obligation as a guitarist whose work holds up singularly and boldly on its own merits.  Strong, timeless music here with the strength to rebuild a wobbling nation by harnessing what grace that helped build that nation in the first place.  The Golden Hour is one of those kinds of albums.

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