Troy Redfern

He was raised on a farm; he finds the blues "super-limiting"; he's a big Frank Zappa fan; you can dance to his new album..

- Polly Glass

Troy Redfern is a blues rocker with a few twists. Recent success has planted him squarely in the blues world (he was nominated for Contemporary Artist Of The Year at the latest UK Blues Awards), but at heart he’s an eclectic soul, with roots that span Van Halen, W.A.S.P, Frank Zappa and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Not that he’s interested in mimicking anyone. “Since I was a kid I didn’t really learn other people’s music,” 50-year-old Redfern says. “I was always interested in writing stuff. I get that people are trying to keep the [blues] tradition alive, but to me it feels super-limiting.”

Accordingly, his new record, Invocation, is a swaggering, sexy, non-purist marriage of early blues, stompy glam-rock and slide-guitar screams, all in tracks you can dance to.

Hill country blues (and unusual tunings) set him on a path.

Redfern found the blues through hill country pioneers and slide players like Fred McDowell, Hound Dog Taylor and Son House. From there he discovered the works of Chris Whitley, in particular his use of the Celtic-derived Orkney tuning. “It’s just one of those that resonated with me,” he says. “So most of my guitars are set up in that tuning, and I write in it pretty much exclusively. It just works for me, it feels natural, it’s very organic.”