“My identify’s Gwenifer Raymond. I principally simply play guitar.” There’s an understated allure in regards to the Welsh guitarist’s restricted banter behind the Desk, however little prepares you for what howls from her instrument. Raymond’s fingerstyle guitar drones with a haunted high quality, however her flurry of bends, slides and chord clusters rip open the firmament.
Steeped in pre-war blues, however selecting up on the acoustic improvements of John Fahey and Jack Rose, Raymond began releasing data rather less than a decade in the past. However it’s on Final Evening I Heard the Canine Star Bark, one in every of NPR Music’s finest albums of 2025, the place the Cardiff-born and now Brighton-based guitarist cast an unmistakably distinct sound: a managed recklessness that conjures spells with six strings. Exhilarating, but additionally terrifying.
After the dizzying shred of “Jack Parsons Blues” and the scenic storytelling of “Bliws Afon Tâf,” Raymond comes up for air, immediately conscious of the viewers in awe. It is simply her again there, in any case, with an acoustic guitar — we’re misplaced within the trance, too. After which, as if on cue, she takes us to hell.
SET LIST
- “Jack Parsons Blues”
- “Bliws Afon Tâf”
- “Hell for Sure”
MUSICIANS
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Lars Gotrich
- Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
- Audio Engineer/Combine: Neil Tevault
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Body
- Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
- Manufacturing Assistants: Alina Edwards, Dhanika Pineda
- Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
- Tiny Desk Group: Maia Stern, Josh Newell, Ashley Pointer
- Copy Editor: Daoud Tyler-Ameen
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Government Director: Sonali Mehta
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
