Decades upon decades have passed since the birth of Blind Joe Death at the hands of John Fahey, and its transformation continues to this day, unresolved and haunted by the ghosts of Takoma and those who came before it. From this primordial legacy — fingerpicking steeped in the traditions of the blues, folk, country, ragga and the vast expanses of Fahey’s ‘American Primitive’ — Robbie Basho or Leo Kotke to Jack Rose (R.I.P.), Steffen Basho-Juggens or Norberto Lobo, stands out, as in many more narrow-scope histories of knowledge, a lineage fragmented by male (and white) hegemony. But at a time when historical linearity has repeatedly been called into question, and as Grayson Haver Currin wrote a few years ago in the New York Times, ‘a new generation of players is rapidly changing that’. Following in the footsteps of Marisa Anderson and Kaki King, names such as Sarah Louise, Yasmin Williams and Gwenifer Raymond have been carving out a well-deserved place for themselves in this enclave.

Without hiding the – somewhat inescapable – influence of Fahey, ‘almost, by definition, my mean uncle figure’, Raymond also recognises that traditional roles are disappearing and has, since the release of You Were Never Much Of A Dancer on the ever-reputable Tompkins Square label in 2018, been making a valuable contribution to that shift. Maintaining his connection with Tompkins Square for his second album – Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (2020) – he entered a quiet period in terms of releases, with an unusual 4-inch postcard single and the cassette Live at MOTH Club bridging the gap until the release of his third album on We Are Busy Bodies in 2025 – Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark. A work that cements his ‘Welsh Primitive’ style, a witty and succinct reflection of his origins and experiences in Wales, which permeate the stories and landscapes to create music brimming with lyricism yet featuring a fierce attack on the strings, capable of conjuring up memorable and mesmerising melodic threads through virtuosic technique without any showboating. Inspired by a long-standing fascination with science fiction, Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark draws particularly on the visions of the character Tom O’Bedlam from Grant Morrison’s comic series The Invisibles, using these as a springboard to arrive at his own visions, in a time capsule that projects Welsh folklore beyond time and place, amidst dense interlacing, droning passages, a certain stellar melancholy and that attack – always impetuous and heartfelt.

BS