EARTH TO YOU: Guitar Players Respond to a Story About a Guitar Player
Sara Jaffe with Ilyas Ahmed, Marisa Anderson, Jenny Hoyston, and Tara Jane O’Neil
Access notes: Loud music. Printed copies of the reading will be provided.
Description
Once upon a time in the early aughts, before Sara Jaffe was mostly a fiction writer, she played guitar in the post-punk, dance-damaged band Erase Errata. Her fascination with the sounds a guitar makes and how it feels to make them extends to her new short story collection HURRICANE ENVY (Rescue Press, 2025)—particularly her story “Earth to You.” She invited eight of her favorite guitar players—former comrades and new favorites—to create a track in response to the story, and the EARTH TO YOU compilation was born. This performance features Ilyas Ahmed, Marisa Anderson, Jenny Hoyston, and Tara Jane O’Neil, who each contributed tracks to the compilation, as well as a reading by Sara and possible special guests.
About the Artists
Sara Jaffe is a writer living in Portland, OR. Hurricane Envy, a short story collection, was published in Fall 2025 by Rescue Press. Dryland, a novel, was published by Tin House Books and Cipher Press (UK ). Her short fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in publications including Joyland, Fence, BOMB, NOON, and Maggot Brain. She co-edited The Art of Touring (Yeti, 2009), an anthology of writing and visual art by musicians, drawing on her experience as a guitarist for post-punk band Erase Errata.
Sara has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, RADAR Productions, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. She is also co-founding editor of New Herring Press, a publisher of prose chapbooks. She teaches creative writing as part of the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA.
Ilyas Ahmed has been releasing records as a solo and collaborative artist for almost 20 years. His most recent solo album, A Dream of Another, was released in 2023. He is also a member of the experimental rock band Grails, whose last record Anches En Maat was released in 2023 as well. Records forthcoming on all fronts in the next year. Ilyas lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her deeply original work applies elements of minimalism, electronic music, drone, and 20th-century classical music to guitar-based compositions rooted in blues, jazz, gospel, and country music. Anderson’s music re-imagines the landscape of American music, asking questions about tradition, adaptation and belonging, and exploring how music travels with people geographically and across generations. The New Yorker calls Anderson “one of the most distinctive guitar players of her generation,” while NPR refers to her as among “this era’s most powerful players.” Her work has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, NPR, SPIN, Pitchfork, the BBC, and The Wire. Festival appearances include Big Ears, Pitchfork Midwinter, Le Guess Who and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. In addition to her solo work, Anderson is sought after as a collaborator and composer. Swallowtail, her second record in duo with drummer Jim White, was released May 10 on Thrill Jockey Records. 2024 also saw the release of the feature film score A Perfect Day For Caribou, as well as appearances on records by Charlie Parr, Myriam Gendron, and Big|Brave. Past projects include 2021’s Lost Futures with guitarist William Tyler, and contributions to recordings by Matmos, Tara Jane O’Neil, Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten, and Circuit Des Yeux, among others.
Jenny Hoyston is a performer and composter celebrated for diverse musical genre exploration and community-building. She began her professional touring career in 1994 as bassist for the Michigan punk band Day Twenty-Eight. Later, Jenny co-founded the San Francisco no-wave rock band Erase Errata, providing vocals, trumpet, and later guitar on the band’s studio albums and singles. Jenny has also released three solo albums and three albums with Hallways of Always, her project with blues/folk artist William Elliot Whitmore. Beyond her roles as a composer and performer, Jenny has a long history of music and art event organizing. Most notably, she produced the Fabulosa music festival in Yosemite, CA, from 2007 to 2022. She’s also active in DJing and organizing events in Austin, TX, including her annual SXSW showcase, Brainbutter Party.
Tara Jane O’Neil is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and visual artist. She composes and performs under her own name and in collaboration with other musicians, artists, dancers, and filmmakers. As a solo artist, she has released ten full-length albums. O’Neil was a founding member of Rodan, the Sonora Pine, and several other bands. She has collaborated on recordings and stages with Papa M, Steve Gunn, Hand Habits, Lower Dens, Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Marisa Anderson, Catherine Irwin, Mirah, Mount Eerie, and many others. Since 1992, has performed at clubs, galleries, and DIY spaces around the world and venues such as the Centre de Pompdou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer, and the Broad. She starred in the cult classic film Half-Cocked and scored feature films, including His Lost Name, Great Speeches From a Dying World, and others. Her visual art work has been shown in cities including London, Tokyo, LA, New York, and Portland, and has been published in three monographs.
Supporters
The EARTH TO YOU compilation is funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Office of Arts & Culture.