Portland experimental guitarist and Thrill Jockey recording artist Marisa Anderson performs Oct. 22 at Art House. Anderson arrives in town with the release of this year’s album The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, a collection of traditional music from parts of the world in modern-era conflict with the U.S., including Southeast Asia, the former USSR and various Islamic and Arab regions. Often improvisational, Anderson plays fingerstyle on both electric and acoustic guitars. She is known for using John Fahey’s American primitive approach, blending country blues with folk and minimal classical music. In Eugene, Anderson says she’ll play selections from UnAmerican Folk Music, songs from throughout her catalogue and new material. Anderson discovered the songs on UnAmerican Folk Music through music anthologist Harry Smith’s archive at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Smith is perhaps best known for his 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, an influential survey of early North American folk and traditional music. Nonetheless, Smith had records from all over the world. Focusing on that part of his archive, Anderson says the process led her to less familiar forms of music, including, among many other examples, musical quarter tones not often used in the Western tradition. “With this record, I asked the question: Who is American? And who are the people in my life that I’ve been told are un-American? Who decides, and why?” Anderson says.

Marisa Anderson performs 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 22 at Art House, 492 East 13th Avenue. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and available at EugeneArtHouse.com. The concert is all ages.