Gwenifer Live at WFMU was recorded on December 8th, at the tail end of Gwenifer Raymond’s December North American tour dates. This session captures Gwenifer Raymond performing a stark, spellbinding selection of songs drawn from her critically acclaimed albums Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark and Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain.
Widely regarded as one of the great folk artists of the 21st century, Raymond has earned international praise for her raw, hypnotic instrumentals rooted in Mississippi and Appalachian traditions.
Live at WFMU is a one-time, 300-copy pressing of her set recorded on the show Everybody’s Songs.
Originally broadcast September 9, 2025, on WRIU 90.3 FM.
By Michael Stevenson, host The Kingston Coffeehouse
PLAYLIST “Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Karen Dalton “Bashed Out” (K. Stables) – This Is the Kit , 2015 Bashed Out “God Loves a Drunk” (R Thompson) – Norma Waterson, 1996 “I’m Waiting For You to Smile” – Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castles “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Ian Curtis) June Tabor & Oysterband, 2011 Ragged Kingdom “People’s Faces” – Kae Tempest, 2019 The Book of Traps and Lessons “Train Song” – Vashti Bunyan, r. 1966, Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind “Anachie Gordon” (traditional) The Unthanks, 2010 Here’s the Tender Coming “Henry Lee” (traditional) Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 Murder Ballads “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Ewan MacColl) – Offa Rex, 2017 The Queen of Hearts “She Moved through the Fair” (traditional) – Anne Briggs, 1963 Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 1 “Banjo Player of Aleph One” – Gwenifer Raymond 2025 Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark “Wheely Down” (R. Thompson) – Ivor Cutler, 1993 The World is a Wonderful Place “Roundabout” – Ryley Walker, 2017 Golden Sings That Have Been Sung “Brighter than the Blues” – Joan Shelly, 2016 Over and Even “Three Ravens” (traditional) – Jake Xerxes Fussell, 2019 Out of Sight “Lullaby” (from the film Wicker Man) – Magnet (Paul Giovanni) 1972 “Rivers Run Red” (Ella Oona Russell) – The New Eves, 2025 The New Eve is Rising “Witches Reel” (traditional) – Starheid Gossip, 2015 Step Sisters “Entertaining of a Shy Girl” – Donovan 1968 Hurdy Gurdy Man “The Hedgehog Song”(Heron/Williamson) – Incredible String Band, 1966 The 5000 Spirits or Layers of an Onion “Lay it Down” (G. Thomas) – Bonny Prince Billy with The Trembling Bells, 2014 New Trip On Old Wine “Conch Shell” Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castle “Into My Arms” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, 1997 Boatman’s Call “Place to Be” – Nick Drake, Pink Moon “How Wild the Wind Blows” – Molly Lee, 2018 The Tides Magnificence “The Sweetest Decline” – Beth Orton Central Reservation “The Wagoner’s Lad” (Traditional) – Bert Jansch, 1966 Jack Orion “Nottamun Town” (traditional)- Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays “Masters of War” – Bob Dylan, 1963 The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan “Needle of Death” – Bert Jansch, 1965 Bert Jansch “Golden Brown” – The Stranglers 1982 “Meet On the Ledge” (R.Thompson) – Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays “Anji” – Davy Graham “Green Are Your Eyes” (b.Jansch) – Marianne Faithul, 1966 North Country Maid “The Water” – Johnny Flynn & Laura Marling, 2010 Been Listening “The Parting Glass” (traditional) – James Elkington 2017 Wintres Woma “Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Agnes Obel “Blues Run the Game” – Jackson C. Frank, 1965 Jackson C. Frank “Home Sweet Home” (Bishop /Payne)- The King’s Singers 1993 Folk Songs of the British Isles “A Heart Needs a Home” – Linda & Richard Thompson, 1975 Hokey Pokey “Goodnight World” – Lisa O’Neil, 2023 All This Is Chance
Welsh-born guitarist Gwenifer Raymond has laid out plans for new album ‘Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark’.
An inventive solo musician, Gwenifer Raymond grapples with the primitive guitar lineage established by John Fahey, while locating her own striking multi-faceted instrumental voice. Two excellent studio albums on Tompkins Square have established her reputation, and a new LP will land later this year.
Out on September 5th via We Are Busy Bodies, ‘Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark’ was constructed at her home studio, informed by the need to decompress after a frenetic period of touring, and her enduring interest in both science fiction and the esoteric.
“A bunch of the stuff I was reading had these themes about the nature of infinity, and tying this into concepts about the afterlife,” she says. “Those thoughts were running in my mind a lot, especially when I was creating some of the droney sounds that book-end the album. The album enters from the cosmic void and exits through the galactic plane. Maybe you’re exiting out of hyperdrive into some strange planet where the album lives, then you zip out to find whatever is next.”
The album is available to pre-order, and it’s led by ‘Jack Parsons Blues’ – intricate and striking, the slight flamenco flair lends itself to Gwenifer’s driving intensity.
The song is named in honour of a 1940s Californian rocket scientist who helped found NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – curiously, also a friend of L Ron Hubbard and acolyte of Aleister Crowley.
“I’ve long been obsessed with Jack Parsons,” Raymond says, recalling reading Fortean Times articles about him as a teenager. “He lived in this vast old mansion which he shared with a whole cast of oddballs and shysters. He also came to an abrupt end, blowing himself up in his home lab. For all his faults, I find him to be a sort of romantic character – full of boundless zeal and ideas. He was both a scientist and an embracer of the weird and esoteric. He’s oddly inspirational.”
Creative Commons musician Simon Ounsworth and proper guitarist Gwenifer Raymond take a deep dive into music’s stranger waters and… splash around a bit. This week’s themes: the Occult, and non-musical instruments. Devilish Moog and Thelemic Hammond! Actual drill music! Rescue lions! Typewriters! Croaky Enochian chanting!
