Review: Troy Redfern – The Fire Cosmic

RED7 Records (August 6th 2021)

Reviewer: Dan Mann

Troy Redfern, dubbed as Britain’s “King Of Slide Guitar“, is someone who I’ve enjoyed seing play a few times over the years, delivering blues rock with of course ‘that slide’.

After posting music news items on this here site over the last few months on the run up to the release of ‘The Fire Cosmic‘ I’ve begun to understand Troy’s mindset of go big or go home on this album.

Well, Troy’s most certainly gone big! And on his way home after, he’ll be sporting one hell of a big smile to boot.

Everything about ‘The Fire Cosmic‘ shouts quality as well as a lot of I guess we can call attitude. This isn’t just some run of the mill blues album with a bit of slide guitar thrown in for good measure. This album is so much more, be it the overall grittyness, the production values, the musicianship.

Troy recorded ‘The Fire Cosmic‘ at the legendary Rockfield Studios, which has oused music greatness from it’s very walls into the album, which along with input from producer Frank Arkwright and the fact the album was then mastered at another legandary studio, Abbey Road, it delivers the sort of production that doesn’t just give the music a bit of a boost, it lifts it from a damn good album to a superb one!

Also we mustn’t forget a steller line up of musicians helping Troy deliver, from Darby Todd on drums, Dave Marks on bass and guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (yes that Bumblefoot).

Of course what we mustn’t forget is regardless of the studio, the producer and supporting musicians, if the songs don’t work or Troy was just a middle of the road plodder, the album wouldn’t work the same.

From the searing ‘Love And War‘ or the album opener ‘Scorpio‘, both of which are more the rock end of the spectrum, to the wonderful ‘Lay That Love Down‘ or the slidetastic’ final track ‘Stone‘, this album covers such a wide range of influences and styles, and does so remarkably well, without having a single track stick out like the proverbial sore thumb.

I’m guessing what Troy has done to create ‘The Fire Cosmic‘ was certainly, finanically at least, a huge gamble, but boy has that gamble paid off, and I’m thinking that this album will open doors to a much wider audience, especially those who may be initially put off by the whole slide guitar thing.

What next? Well we’ve got the chance to see Troy perfom some of this new material in Spetember when he heads out on tour with Robert Jon & The Wreck (tickets), as well as next March/April with Willie & The Bandits (tickets), and I for one can’t wait.