C.W. Stoneking
The Spiegeltent
October 26, 2008
Two years after the release of King Hokum, C.W. Stoneking moves from cheeky duet ballads towards a blend of authentic blues and jungle music. His second album, Jungle Blues, was inspired in part by tales of previous travels – surviving a shipwreck off the west coast of Africa, and losing his tenor banjo and guitar in a New York yellow cab.
For the launch of his new record, C.W. entered the stage smiling, looking spick in a bow-tie, and very sprightly without his once-trademark top-hat. The other notable difference being that bottled water was the only liquid on stage.
Immediately, the crowd was content – listening to the first live version of the title track, Jungle Blues. With his band, the Primitive Horn Orchestra, his sexy steel Dobro guitar and his (new) banjo, The Spiegeltent came alive with authentic pre-war blues, jungle jazz and 1920s calypso.
The past 18 months have indeed been very successful for the Melbourne-based musician. The eventual success of King Hokum has transformed the old-muttering, beer drinking C.W., who for years played tunes in the corner of Collingwood pubs, into an old-muttering, (probably still) beer-drinking C.W. that stands centre stage under the bright lights of the hot and stuffy Speigeltent, to rapturous applause.
His anecdotes between songs are still met with almost constant giggling – the novelty of how a white man from 2008 can sound so much like a black man from the 1920s never wore off. However, his natural ability to delicately weave words in a delightfully unusual way provides the audience not only with fantastic music, but a complete performance that is truly superb.
The new and beautiful Jungle Lullaby, a song recorded after leaving his guitar and banjo in a New York taxi, relates the pain a musician feels after losing his strings. Even the amusing background stories to Darktown Shutters Blues and Homebound Blues, largely unknown even to some of the more hardened King Hokum fans, provide valuable context to what is being played.
The makeover of C.W. into a more accomplished performer has not diminished his authenticity at all. Almost halfway though one song he stopped playing, turned to drummer Jim White and then back to face the crowd, saying, “I’m going to do something unprofessional and start again, it’s just a little too fast for me.” It was unprofessional, but the crowd loved it.
More importantly though, C.W. provides an invaluable link to a forgotten time, to the Son House and Robert Johnson of the 1920s and 30′s. If you haven’t had the pleasure, please, sit back, grab a beer, relax, and give C.W. a spin.
C.W. Stoneking recently began a national tour. Locally, he will be playing:
- Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave (27 November);
- The Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc (28 November)
- The Corner Hotel, Richmond (29 November)
- The Corner Hotel, Richmond – matinee show (30 November)
- The Palais, Hepburn Springs (12 December)
