So get outta the kitchen.
Formerly of Tarras, Redfern's 'Can't Take the Heat' is taken from his debut album 'May Be Some Time' and isn't half bad at all...which is big relief.
For some time now, songs, nay albums by male singer-songwriters that play piano have been decidedly rubbish.
Jamie Callum, James Blunt, David 'Thunderbird Puppet' Gray et al, have stuffed the airwaves with truly hideous tunes that, although perfect for housewives that need banal soundtracks to distract them from the tediousness of washing up last nights curried plates and disinfecting the toilet bowl, proved to be extraordinarily annoying for anyone that actually likes music. (And I'm not having a pop at just housewives before anyone accuses me of chauvinistic behaviour; it's just that in my experience, they seem to be the biggest fans of the soul-crushing, brain-melting dross that those jokers chuck out. And they do it with such speed too. It appears to take them only thirty seconds to pull together shit like 'You're Beautiful' before they head out to the organic chip shop to spend two hundred quid on a battered pollock and purple spud supper.)
Jon Redfern however, has other ideas. Yes he plays the piano. Yes the song is a meandering, desolate trip on relationships, break-ups and misery. But I'd take his take on this subject over the illustrious cast list mentioned above because:
1. I don't reckon he's got his eye on crashing the pop charts to fulfil that burning desire to buy a brand new 4x4 which will be used only for thirty-second trips to Boots when he's run out of razor blades.
2. It's actually a pretty good song - and that wailing violin is actually quite mesmerising.
3. He counts Steely Dan, Steve Reich, Pink Floyd and John Coltrane as key influences.
I'm being fickle on that last one I know, but balls to it.
Redfern will probably remain an appreciated but anti-establishment word-of-mouth artist - and that's no bad thing. Okay, he might not get the 4x4, but at least he won't have to walk through the streets of Britain in disguise when the population finally realises that they actually don't like fuzzy-haired limp-limbed wankers throatily cackling 'Babylon' at them at every opportunity and decide to break out the boom sticks and tear the place apart.
Judgement Day is nigh, my friends...