{"id":15322,"date":"2018-10-23T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15322"},"modified":"2018-10-02T10:21:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T14:21:00","slug":"album-review-gwenifer-raymond-you-never-were-much-of-a-dancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/23\/album-review-gwenifer-raymond-you-never-were-much-of-a-dancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Gwenifer Raymond — You Never Were Much of a Dancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There\u2019s a dark undercurrent to much of the folk music coming out of the tradition of the British Isles; maybe that has to do with the region\u2019s history. But that brooding vibe pervades the style, adding weight and mystery to the already intriguing music. Welsh-born Gwenifer Raymond\u2019s debut release, You Never Were Much of a Dancer<\/i> showcases the style, though Raymond describes herself as (among other things) an \u201cAmerican Primitive\u201d musician. Ultimately, her music draws from the folk traditions of both England-Ireland-Scotland-Wales and the American variant.<\/p>\n

The album opens with an eerie, foreboding solo fiddle piece called \u201cOff to See the Hangman, Part I.\u201d That title succinctly evokes the sense of doom and dread that Raymond\u2019s fiddle conveys. That brief melody quickly gives way to \u201cSometimes There\u2019s Blood,\u201d the album\u2019s highlighted single. American Primitive label or not, the song conjures thoughts of both Nick Drake and Led Zeppelin III<\/i>-era Jimmy Page; Raymond\u2019s flawlessly concise picking communicates emotion while it dazzles in its technical brilliance; as the minor-key tune unfolds, it seems that Raymond is playing multiple guitars at once.<\/p>\n

The multi-instrumentalist switches to banjo for \u201cIdumea,\u201d and here the American character of her work becomes much more apparent. Raymond is skilled at creating a mesmerizing feel with a single instrument.<\/p>\n

As the album progresses, Raymond continues to switch up both the featured instrument and the approach used to play it. \u201cFace Down Strut\u201d is all speedy, shimmering picking on an acoustic guitar, while \u201cLaika\u2019s Song\u201d evokes a more pastoral feel. \u201cOh, Command Me Lord!\u201d is a jaunty, uptempo romp on banjo; Raymond\u2019s fingers fly across the instrument\u2019s fretboard, and her unaccompanied performance has a strong percussive character as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSweep it Up\u201d adds bluesy slide guitar to the mix; in places on \u201cRequiem for John Fahey\u201d the guitarist sounds as if she\u2019s playing a 12-string. One of the most understated cuts on this all-instrumental set, \u201cDance of the Everlasting Faint\u201d suggests Fairport Convention-era Richard Thompson. And Raymond displays a flash of humor on \u201cBleeding Finger Blues,\u201d a dizzyingly fast, solo banjo workout that will leave the listener out of breath after its two-minute run time.<\/p>\n

The two sections of \u201cSack \u2018em Up, Parts I & II\u201d aren\u2019t remarkably different from one another; the opening section is a meditation, while the second part traffics in more conventional melody. The album wraps up with \u201cIt Was All Sackcloth and Ashes,\u201d a tune with a spooky, gothic feel; in contrast to the blaze of notes found on tines like \u201cBleeding Finger Blues,\u201d it\u2019s an effective study in acoustic guitar minimalism.<\/p>\n

If Gwenifer Raymond had set out to craft a collection of songs simply to showcase her staggering instrumental facility, You Never Were Much of a Dancer<\/i> would be the perfect vehicle. But the album is much more than that; it\u2019s a highly appealing set of performances, one that deserves close\u2014and repeated\u2014listening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a dark undercurrent to much of the folk music coming out of the tradition of the British Isles; maybe that has to do with the region\u2019s history. But that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,49,65],"tags":[3572],"class_list":["post-15322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-new-release","category-review","tag-gwenifer-raymond","cat-30-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15324,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15322\/revisions\/15324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}