Gwenifer Raymond

We are delighted to welcome Gwenifer Raymond, one of the finest guitar players in these islands to The Bear Club for the first time.

Gwenifer describes herself as “a guitar convincer, banjo thumper. Welsh primitive musician.”

She began playing guitar at the age of eight shortly after having been first exposed to punk and grunge. After years of playing around the Welsh valleys in various punk outfits she began listening more to pre-war blues as well as Appalachian folk players, eventually leading her to the guitar players of the American Primitive genre.

In 2018 she signed to the American label 'Tompkins Square' and released her first album 'You Never Were Much of a Dancer' to widespread acclaim. In 2020 her second album 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain' shifted somewhat from straight Americana and started to take more of a spiritual influence from the landscape of her homeland of Wales. Recalling from her childhood memories of spooky trees, black against the grey sky and breath misting in cold air there is present a style of guitar playing that could be referred to as 'Welsh Primitive'.

Gwenifer has toured extensively throughout the UK and Europe and has established herself as one of the leading lights of the scene. She doesn’t read music and memorises or “feels” the tunes rather than writing them down (quite something considering their huge complexity).

Gwenifer plays solo and is not to be missed under any circumstances.