''Still, Here'' is the tenth studio album by

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

guitarist

Marisa Anderson Marisa Anderson is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Portland, Oregon. She is primarily known for playing the guitar, mixing American primitive guitar with various genres from throughout the United States and the rest of t ...

, released September 23, 2022, by

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

. The eight-track album consists of six original compositions and two arrangements of traditional songs. Anderson recorded every instrument, including multiple keyboards and numerous guitars, herself.

Background

The album was announced June 16 along with the release of lead single "Waking". Second single "

La Llorona ''La Llorona'' (; "The Weeping Woman" or "The Wailer") is a Hispanic-American mythical vengeful ghost who is said to roam near bodies of water mourning her children whom she drowned. Origins Early colonial times provided evidence that the lore ...

", an arrangement of a traditional Mexican song named after the legendary spirit of Hispanic-American folklore, was released August 8. Third single "The Fire This Time", named after

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...

's 1963 essay collection ''

The Fire Next Time ''The Fire Next Time'' is a 1963 non-fiction book by James Baldwin, containing two essays: "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind". The ...

'', was released September 8. Anderson first released "The Fire This Time" for two weeks on her

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

page, donating over $2,500 of proceeds to the

Minnesota Freedom Fund The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a non-profit organization that operates a bail fund. It was founded in 2016 and is based in the U.S. city of Minneapolis. The organization pays bail for people who have been arrested and are awaiting trial. Initially ...

. Anderson called the making of the album "probably a four-year process", saying that after her previous solo album ''

Cloud Corner ''Cloud Corner'' is the sixth solo studio album by Portland-based guitarist Marisa Anderson, released June 15, 2018, by Thrill Jockey. It is her first release with the label. Background and recording In an interview with ''Bomb'', Anderson tol ...

'', she wasn't sure she had anything new to say. She "needed a little time and distance", leading to her intervening collaborative albums – '' The Quickening'' with Jim White and ''

Lost Futures ''Lost Futures'' is a studio album by American guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler, released August 27, 2021, via Thrill Jockey. ''Lost Futures'' was recorded by producer Tucker Martine at his Portland, Oregon recording studio Flora R ...

'' with William Tyler – to give her a change of pace. She said she thinks that move worked, that it "shook some other things loose and now I feel inspired again – and I'm writing new stuff all the time, which is fun." Per Anderson, "The Fire This Time" is about the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

and was written while

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

were ongoing, with police sirens audible in the recording and the music representing her "visceral, horrified response to those events".

Style

Per ''Dusted''s Jennifer Kelly, the album is, "as always, lovely, serene and rooted in blues and folk traditions." ''Pitchfork''s Andy Cush calls her

fingerpicking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

technique reminiscent of both

Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melod ...

and

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura an ...

, and notes some tracks which take influence from early

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive ...

Mississippi Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were ...

, and

sunshine pop Sunshine pop (originally known as soft pop) is a subgenre of pop music that originated in Southern California in the mid-1960s. Rooted in easy listening and advertising jingles, sunshine pop acts combined nostalgic or anxious moods with "an appre ...

. Cush says every song has its own identity.

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

– composer,

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestra ...

, producer,

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

, nylon-string guitar, steel-string guitar, electric guitar,

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

requinto guitar A requinto guitar is a smaller version of a classical guitar, with a scale length between 52-54cm. It is tuned a fourth higher than a standard classical guitar, to A2-D3-G3-C4-E4-A4. They often, but not always, have a cutout to reach the higher f ...

, electric piano, synthesizer * Jesse Munro Johnson –

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

* Amy Dragon –

mastering engineer A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in dist ...

* Dante Korinto – photography * Daniel Castrejon – design

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums Marisa Anderson albums Thrill Jockey albums Blues albums by American artists Folk albums by American artists