SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GWENIFER RAYMOND – LAST NIGHT I HEARD THE DOG STAR BARK

GWENIFER RAYMOND
LAST NIGHT I HEARD THE DOG STAR BARK
WE ARE BUSY BODIES

Making an instrumental album is a tough prospect to start with, when it is a solo instrument affair even harder, and you can triple that if that instrument is an acoustic guitar that will immediately ask for the comparisons with the likes of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and other well-known masters of the instrument. It all requires an extremely high level of mastery of the instrument, but also a hefty dose of an individual, and often innovative approach from the artist in question. And this time around the artist in question is Welsh multi-instrumentalist Gwenifer Raymond and her latest album Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark. And right off the bat you can add a familiar subtitle to this album: back to the future. Simply put, Raymond not only has the chops that are equal to the best masters of the instrument, but has the ability and inventiveness to connect the dots of what you were able to do with acoustic guitar when John Fahey was in his prime, and how it should be handled today, making that old folk brand new and vice versa at the same time.

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