I ran into Andrew Scott Young and Ryan Jewell in the street outside the Hare and Hounds in the King's Heath suburb of Birmingham, England on the last day of August, 2022. They were coming back from eating before the Ryley Walker show where they would provide the brilliant rhythm section. I greeted them cheerfully, and I think they may have been surprised at my American accent.
"Hey!" Ryan exclaimed and pointed at my Chris Forsyth t-shirt. "I played on that album!" I nodded and told him I wore it especially because he would be performing. With them, very quiet, was a young woman I would later find out was Gwenifer Raymond -- a Welsh acoustic guitarist who was opening for Ryley on that segment of his UK tour. I don't think I said hello to her, probably because half my brain was thinking about all the challenges I would have recording later that night.
When she did appear on stage that evening, barefoot, looking defiant yet confidently amused, I wasn't prepared for her powerful performance. There were elements of fingerstyle and blues, British folk and something else mixed in as well. Someone I met after the show said she had been a force of nature. I still feel that is an excellent description of what it is like to see her perform.
I'll be sharing my recording from that night soon, but first I wanted to share this performance from a few days later, in the very lovely town of Exeter at the Phoenix arts and performance center. For this performance I was able to obtain a mono soundboard feed to mix in with my trusty and compact Line Audio CM3 microphones. I knew what I was in for, and was happy to see that she had a 45-minute opening slot compared to the half-hour slot she was given in Birmingham.
Buy her most recent album here.
Recording information:GWENIFER RAYMOND2022-09-02
Exeter, England at the Phoenix
Gwenifer Raymond: guitar
Setlist:
01 The Three Deaths of Red Spectre (8:36)
02 Deep Sea Diver - Sometimes There's Blood (7:45)
03 Worn Out Blues (5:58)
04 Marseilles Bunkhouse, 3am (7:34)
05 Gwaed am Gwaed (5:23)
06 Ruben's Song (4:52)
07 Hell For Certain (6:54)
Microphones: Line Audio CM3 in ORTF configuration
Additional source: mono SBD feed
Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6ii at 32/96
Software: Audacity, Fission, xAct
https://gweniferraymond.com/
https://exeterphoenix.org.uk/
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