Gwenifer Raymond

Gwenifer Raymond grew up near Cardiff and came to acoustic guitar by way of punk and grunge before finding the old blues and American Primitive records that shaped her playing. She plays solo and mostly without words: rapid, percussive fingerpicking on six-string guitar, with occasional pieces on banjo and slide.

Her albums You Never Were Much of a Dancer and Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain came out on Tompkins Square. The second takes its title from a hill north of Cardiff and draws on Welsh folklore and eerie local stories. Outside music she has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked as a video game developer.