Welsh acoustic guitarist
Gwenifer Raymond appeared like an apparition in 2018 with her debut,
You Were Never Much of a Dancer. Its music was steeped in an aggressive form of the American Primitive tradition
John Fahey and peers created during the 1960s from the inspirational spell cast by the dusty 78s of
Mississippi John Hurt,
Skip James,
Dock Boggs, and
Roscoe Holcomb. Obsessed with
Fahey's take on the tradition,
Raymond investigated his sources on her own. She developed a dazzling technical facility harmonically, modally, and rhythmically (the latter influenced no doubt by playing drums in punk bands), and won over critics and fans with a labyrinthian exercise in 21st century American Primitive.