The guitar will never die. And I, for one, take great comfort in that fact, which I can neither confirm nor prove, but know in my heart.
On the last episode of All Songs Considered for 2025, I take host Robin Hilton through an exceptional year in guitar music. From Gwenifer Raymond's beautiful and brash fingerstyle to Rafael Toral's stretched-out jazz standards, not to mention William Tyler's glitched hymns and Vernon Reid's ecstatic shred, there's so much diversity to be found in six strings.
Above, listen to our conversation. Below, read an expanded list of the year's best guitar music, loosely categorized by fingerstylists, power trios, experimentalists and shredders. Want a playlist? I got you. —Lars Gotrich, vikingschoice.org
The fingerstyle tradition… continued
Fingerstyle, solo guitar, American Primitive — whatever you call this folk- and blues-based music, it bloomed beautifully in 2025.
Gwenifer Raymond, Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
Quiet as it's kept, fingerstyle guitar had a brilliant year that dug deep into and expanded upon the tradition. And yet, nothing quite like this record reaches into the dark crevasse to uncover something so brash and beautiful. Gwenifer Raymond, the Cardiff-born guitarist now based in Brighton, calls her music "Welsh Primitive," a clever play on what John Fahey wrought. For years, Raymond's music lingered in that shadow, but on Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark, she calls upon the mythology and folk horror tales of her homeland to imbue her music with a haunting hypnosis. You feel the thrash and burn of her fingers as she rushes up and down the fretboard, yet never lose sight of her intricate melodies. There, too, are moments to catch your breath as she slings a slow, mud-driven blues, but with a sense of creeping dread that ghosts follow not far behind. To this headbanger, Raymond's ferocious fingerstyle and percussive physicality create a one-woman speed metal band. (This review originally appeared on NPR Music's Best Albums of 2025.)
Hayden Pedigo, I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Hayden Pedigo has such a delicate, yet demonstrative touch — an immediately recognizable fingerstyle honed over the past decade. String arrangements and synths grow his preternatural storytelling with cinematic character.
Liam Grant, Prodigal Son
Blown-out blues ragas spun from backroads and burnt barns. Liam Grant tears at his instrument with bear claws, reminiscent of Jack Rose, but leans into a dirt transcendentalism.
Nathan Salsburg, Ipsa Corpora
Sparse, resonant figures that act like musical cues for Terence Malick's Days of Heaven slowly build into windswept melodies that whip across tall grass. The main theme in Nathan Salsburg's single, 40-minute track is homey and inviting, but burdened by a hardscrabble life. And yet, the music — and life — perseveres.
Further listening: Ofir Ganon, Same Air; Dylan Aycock, No New Summers; Buck Curran, Far Driven Sun; Cameron Knowler, CRK; James Blackshaw, Unraveling in Your Hands
Behold, the might of the power trio
Guitar, bass (sometimes violin), drums. Think: Rush or Red-era King Crimson, but these virtuosos expand the format's possibilities.
TAKAAT, Is Noise, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2
Raw, revved-up desert rock from Mdou Moctar's backing band, with some dubbed-out punk 'tude. Ahmoudou Madassane's riffs and solos bleed fuzz even as they flow like water, with a tone that sounds like a blown-out amp on its last legs.
Orcutt Shelley Miller, Orcutt Shelley Miller
On the now-shuttered WTF podcast, Marc Maron would ask his guest, "Who are your guys?" These are my guys — avant shredder Bill Orcutt on guitar, Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley on drums, Comet on Fire's Ethan Miller on bass — plugged directly into a gonzoid rock wavelength. Spangly, yet somehow groovy improv from three of the best to do it.
Bezoar, Bezoar
If you miss the pedal board pyrotechnics of The Psychic Paramount, but wish there was a little atmospheric heft, be prepared to make this record your entire personality.
Further listening: Editrix, The Big E; Toru, Velours Dévorant; Ava Mendoza / Gabby Fluke-Mogul / Carolina Pérez, Mama Killa
Restrung repertoire
Whether steeped in jazz, classical or folk traditions, these albums play with notions of their upbringing and/or source material.
Rafael Toral, Traveling Light
The Great American Songbook, stretched beyond recognition. In these slow-paced drones, the Portuguese guitarist and electronic musician makes each chord change a triumph, reshaping our relationship to songs made popular by Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Chet Baker.
Laura Snowden, This Changing Sky
Quiet and understated, yet intricate and daring. This doesn't sound like a debut album, but the work of someone deeply invested in the melodic possibilities of classic guitar. No wonder that Laura Snowden studied under the late, great Julian Bream, yet there's something new and wondrous in these compositions.
Mamer, Awlaⱪta / Afar 离
In the midst of a long residency at Old Heaven Books in Shenzen, the shapeshifting Chinese musician took out a nylon string guitar for a night of songs that shaped his youth. For someone who often experiments with folk forms at earsplitting volume, this is a rare chance to hear Mamer's tender touch.
Further listening: Walter Zanetti, Cantos Yoruba de Cuba; João Luiz, Os guardiões da magia; Chuck Roth, watergh0st songs
Clear some space out, so we can space out
Shabazz Palaces' koan rings true more than ever, and sets the tone for a group of albums that encourage meditation and relaxation.
William Tyler, Time Indefinite
Sometimes you need to get lost in the fog to find the light. William Tyler drapes his hypnotic and hopeful hymns in an ambient landscape — a prairie horizon of glitch, stutter and wonder.
Madala Kunene & Sibusile Xaba, kwaNTU
Earthy, genteel music from a Zulu guitar master and his student. However, there's no ego here, only musical conversation that flows freely. Perfect music for a Sunday morning.
Golden Brown, Whisker Fatigue
If there's life on other planets, then surely there must be something this dank to accompany smoke sessions. Like Earth's Dylan Carlson jamming with MV & EE's Matt Valentine, this sounds like bullfrogs burping guitar licks over layers of psychedelic ooze.
Further listening: Fabiano do Nascimento, Cavejaz; Steve Gunn, Music for Writers; Tashi Dorji, Improvisations for nylon string guitar Part IV
Gotta shred, gotta groove, gotta choogle
Whether you need to air guitar or shake your butt, these got you covered.
Vernon Reid, Hoodoo Telemetry
One of the year's great pleasures was getting to see Vernon Reid work his magic, just a few feet away, at the Tiny Desk with Living Colour. This album's got that DNA, of course, but also allows Reid to indulge jazz fusion, hip-hop and other exploratory whims. But, yeah, he also just shreds with a mind toward melody and ecstasy.
Eli Winter, A Trick of the Light
Eli Winter's second turn as bandleader unfolds like a sky bleeding exhaust fumes, alternating pedal steel waltzes and jazz-burnt fuzz bombs. The record starts with an ecstatic riff on a Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell tune and doesn't really let off the gas.
Willie Lane, Bobcat Turnaround
Y'all, this record's just a good hang. Cosmic choogle from the front porch, cooler on the steps, smiles for miles.
Cyrus Pireh, Thank You, Guitar
The shreddy freneticism and invention here feels like that sweet friend you swear comes from outer space.
Further listening: Ahmed Ag Kaedy & Will Guthrie, Tidawt; Emily Robb, Live at Jerry's
Is that even a guitar?
Albums that blur the line between what we see and what we know.
Jorge Espinal, Bombos y Cencerros
The Buenos Aires-based, Peruvian improviser plays the guitar like a cartoon character with an oversized mallet. Jorge Espinal plucks, bonks, slaps and hits the body and strings of his instrument to make a seriously silly racket. A noisy reminder that "experimental" means play.
Jules Reidy, Ghost Spirit
A voice and guitar album unlike anything you'll hear this year. Jules Reidy fingerpicks their microtonal electric guitar with an ear toward the unknown, crafting experimental pop songs wrapped in alien textures that suggest another world worth making.
Daniel Bachman, Moving Through Light
Every drone, gurgle, glitch, scrape and shriek on this record was made from a guitar, yet very little here resembles the instrument that Daniel Bachman's extremely capable of playing. Shimmers as much as it shatters what we know about the acoustic guitar.
Further listening: Mat Ball, Four Amplifiers
Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org
Copyright 2025 NPR
