By Arrangement With CNL
C.W. Stoneking fell in love with the blues when he was in his teens. Born in Katherine in Australia’s remote Northern Territory, CW was the son of an American school teacher with a passion for music. He vividly remembers being eleven years old and stumbling across ‘Living With The Blues’ an early blues compilation in his father’s music collection.
Soon his curiosity led him to Son House Robert Johnson Skip James and Bukka White gospel blues Chicago blues ragtime Hokum blues with each sub-genre revealing more amazing music. It seemed like there was an endless universe of blues to explore one that was much more interesting to Stoneking than the mundane world of late ’80s pop that was all around him at the time.
Flash forward a few years and CW has taught himself the banjo and electric guitar but his prized possession is a 1931 National Duolian dobro. This was same instrument that Blind Boy Fuller and other blues legends choose to play.
The blues is a living art form albeit one that has been neglected by most contemporary musicians and Stoneking has made it his mission to move the music forward whilst maintaining the authenticity that make this music so unique. Like a fruit tree sprouting new branches upon ancient root stock CW writes and performs all his own songs and he has now recorded three complete albums.
The results speak for themselves. He draws influences from old calypso early rock ’n’ roll ’60s girl groups late ’50s R’n’B and gospel among many others. His lyrics as always are colourful and sometimes fanciful but they’re underpinned by personal experience. Stoneking likes to cloak his personal insights in larger-than-life stories.
C.W. Stoneking appeared on Later…with Jools Holland in 2010 as well as appearing on Jack White’s third album release ‘Boarding House Reach’.
“This is uh, C.W. Stoneking, an Australia artist who sounds like he’s 600 years old, he’s much younger actually, but he’s got a style all his own”
– Tom Waits
“If I could ever trade my speaking voice with a person, it would be C.W Stoneking. He just sounds like he’s from a ghost ship in the middle of monster island to me. It’s just beautiful.”
– Jack White
“There are multitudes in Stoneking’s music. It’s probably easiest to describe him as a ‘blues artist,’ but the term disguises what makes his music special. There’s so much in there. 1920s pre-war blues..New Orleans jazz..jug band music..hokum..country..calypso..jump jive..early rock’n’roll..gospel.. His gift is that he brings them all together without anything sounding out of place. He finds the strands that connect all of these different styles and gently braids them together.”
– Jim Hickson , fRoots Magazine
