Track Listing:
1. Down The Line
2. Can't Take The Heat
3. Home At Last
4. Departure
5. Spencer The Rover
6. I'm Still Young
7. Am I A Fool
8. Lost
9. All This Time
10. Demons
11. Demons
12. Can't Take The Heat
13. All This Time
14. Giveaway Your Heart
15. Giveaway Your Heart
16. I Love The Sun
17. Somewhere
May Be Some Time
Jon Redfern
There must be a good vibe around the office at Reveal Records. Kris Drever has picked up the Horizon Award for the brightest young talent at the BBC Folk Awards and Joan as a Police Woman is being showered with plaudits. Now another shrewd signing comes along in the shape of Brighton born Jon Redfern.
After a productive spell in young borders band Tarras Jon relocated to London via North Wales and met multi-instrumentalist Patrick Durkan. Together they have crafted Redfern's first solo LP 'May Be Some Time'.
The key word here is crafted as Jon is a genuine genre sampling kind of guy. It's likely to have taken a fair amount of toil to have knocked this material into a coherent whole. Luckily Ben Findlay, Real World's resident engineer was on hand. This fella knows how to knit together some disparate threads.
'May Be Some Time' hints at many influences but it tends to be John Martyn and Nick Drake that crop up most of the time. But even if Jon's voice and music are some sort of skewed hybrid the comparision is only a starting point. It is probably just as much an adoption of their maverick spirit as anything else.
This wealth of original material opens with 'I'm still Young' and 'Am I a Fool' songwriting with memorable choruses, rousing fiddles and slide guitar. It's overiding sense is of a pensive mood. 'Lost' fits right in built on fragmented and repetative sound motifs capped off with searching lyrics.
It's from here though you really need to buckle in. Several songs need an exploritory two parts in the middle section to tell their tale. Don't be put off though Redfern skillfully avoids any prog-ish pitfalls. He's a fluent wordsmith even if the subtle imagery he evokes is somewhat esoteric. Nevertheless when the atmosphere is taken to the edge of dispair on 'Give Away Your Heart' we're never really given the impression salvation can't be found.
Things reach a bittersweet climax on 'I Love The Sun' where lounge jazz becomes an ode to the winter sunlight and lost friendships. In keeping with the rest of the LP the sound remains mature with a humane heart steadily beating away.
Whilst Reveal Records continue to enlist yet more acts of intrigue Jon Redfern is a significant addition to their roster. 'May Be Some Time' is a soul journey that will reward you again and again.
David Kushar