The first thing you notice about CW Stoneking, is how much like the Harry Powell character from the film Night of the Hunter he resembles. Dressed in trademark black fedora hat, crisp white shirt and sta-pressed trousers, (the uniform of a southern gentleman) he carries himself like the famed Robert Mitchum preacher-man and speaks with a part-Louisianan part-Australian twang. His conversation is peppered with old-time words such as ‘mighty’ and ‘M’am’ and refers to places as ‘joints’ so that one may be deceived, ever so slightly, that he were of another era, circa 1920, but then he’ll make a joke about a current Australian celebrity and brings you back into the modern world. (The only thing missing is the LOVE and HATE tattoo’s on his knuckles a’la Mitchum but Stoneking’s tattoo features a girl holding wooden leg from an old advert.)

A guy in his early 30’s really shouldn’t be recanting tales of listening to Blind Willie McTell and Memphis Minnie in his bedroom as a teenager. But Stoneking isn’t an average singer-songwriter. His music embraces Robert Johnson-esque delta and Mississippi blues delivered with a voice that sounds like it’s been dipped in buttermilk and biscuit gravy. His first full-length player, King Hokum  (released in Australia late last year) is set in a fictional 1920’s Southern US town where dodo birds sing, hobo’s holler and handymen swing their axes in lone backyards. Unsurprisingly it garnered critical acclaim and was deemed Australian album of 2006 by one national broadcaster, but that hasn’t seemed to dent Stoneking’s humble nature nor bolstered his ego.

“More people come to my shows now since the record came out,” he tells me earnestly,  “Before, if I went to do a gig in another town there wouldn't be so many people there, but now they sell out the joint so that's good. But when I'm sitting at home it feels about the same as before.”

Home is currently south (deep south in Australian terms) in the city of Melbourne. But Stoneking’s life has seen him residing in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and various suburbs in and around Sydney

“That was good living in the desert,” he says of his childhood in Papunya, (about 240 km northwest of Alice Springs)  “We lived on top of the land in an white and brown aluminium clad house.”  Stoneking’s Californian parents separated early on. His musical father raised him whilst teaching in the settlements.  “I used to hear a lot of records from my dad with a lot of the 60's vocal groups from the States and things like that. He used to sing tunes with the guitar for me at bedtime when I was very small, like Candyman, and Froggie Went a'Courtin.”

Later Stoneking went to school in Sydney and tried like most teens to play rock music. But it was the New Orleans style jazz bands, which used to play in the dives of Sydney’s inner western suburbs and the music of Georgia’s Blind Willie McTell, which struck the blue notes in Stoneking.

“I got in with the old-time blues kind of music when I was about 18 and have been doing that ever since. It seems to suit my voice and I’m basically a solo person so it works for me.

All of the tracks on King Hokum are penned from Stoneking’s own hand. The opener Way Out in The World is a powerful field holler based on the story of Adam when he is thrown out of the garden of Eden. “I read about how the work songs from Africa went from being tunes asking the Gods for a good harvest and things like that to be tunes like 'I gotta work out here all day long' blues songs when they were put into slavery, and that gave me the idea,” he says politely. Other highlight songs like Handyman Blues are based on Stoneking’s own experiences as a fix-it man in country Victoria. “The world I live in is the same as the one in my tunes, but the tunes are made with all the interesting bits minus the drudgery.” 

Later this month Stoneking makes his first trip to Europe and the UK thanks to Nordic record label Voodoo Rhythm releasing King Hokum locally. He admits he’s never been out of Australia before and is curious as to what audiences in the Northern Hemisphere are like. (Jane Gazzo)

I was born in the Northern Territory of Australia in the outback, when I was born there was 2 feet of water in the hospital cause the river flooded the town, my parents came from the U.S.A., my father from West Virginia, and my mother from Pennsylvania, both from hillbilly people, my father's family were steam train people and I'm not sure bout my mother's family. From the age of 3 I grew up with my father, I spent my childhood in the desert in Central Australia in an Aboriginal community, I started playing guitar when I was 11 (learned off my father and step father) and began performing in bands when I was 13 or 14, When I was 18 I started playing blues (Robert Johnson, Son House, etc) and played guitar in some bands who did that style in Sydney Australia, I got sick of living in a pub and being drunk all the time so I moved to the country when I was 21 and lived by myself in a isolated farmhouse for 2 years, I worked some of my time as a handyman in the town 10 miles down the road, that's what I made the Handyman Blues about. In the country I spent a lot of time playing the guitar, towards the end of my time there I got a lot of inspiration and  things started to come to me very easy, I started playing things all of a sudden how I had always wanted to hear it and found my singing voice in the blues too. Without that time in the country I wouldn't have found this sound. I decided to move to Melbourne and be a professional musician. When I got there I couldn't get many gigs so I spent a couple years playing in the street, that's the way I met most of the Melbourne musicians that I know, I made a band called the Blue Tits in '97 or '98 and played with them about 2 years. After one of my band mates died,(Charley Bostocks, who I made the song about) I started playing solo again and started to get a reputation and more work playing in Melbourne and around Australia.  I have opened shows for some big acts on thier Australian tours and played at some big rock festivals too, although my music sounds very old time I get a good response from rock audiences over here and play gigs with all types of bands. In 2005 I made my new record which you've heard and also had a baby son (and another one in 2006). The record seems to be doing well here, Low Transit don't have much money to promote it but sent out lots of copies and the radio stations have picked it up well and it's been a feature album on some big stations over here, also the newspapers and magazines have been very positive about the record, hopefully the same thing will happen over there, since my record doesn't fit into a main style of pop music it has to be that way with people finding it and wanting to talk about it. Now I'm making bigger shows here in Australia and want to travel around the world doing shows as well, Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. and get this thing going all the way and keep making good original records. I have made 2 other records but not real ones, the first was a solo record singing old blues and is a piece of shit, and the second is a recording of the Blue Tits on the radio in 1998 (old blues covers) which is ok but sloppy and the clarinet player couldn't play very good. I'm making songs for my next record which I hope to start recording at the end of 2007, it's gonna be a lot of outdoor recording, solo and with a band and some recorded in the desert too. Hopefully when I come over there to promote the Voodoo Rhythm release of King Hokum I can make a very solid tour and get the word around a bit.  (c.w.stoneking)

BAND CONTACT

Bernadette Ryan

b.m.r@bigpond.com 

GIGS WORLDWIDE

Bernadette Ryan

b.m.r@bigpond.com 

LABEL

Voodoo Rhythm Records

Wankdorffeldstrasse 92

3014 Bern

Switzerand

 info@voodoorhythm.com

www.voodoorhythm.com

All hail CW Stoneking - King Hokum

When most folk think about the blues, they generally wouldn't think of a thirtysomething Melbournite. CW Stoneking has been playing blues music both in bands and as a solo artist for a number of years. His latest album King Hokum is a concept album of sorts, taking place in an imaginary Southern US town in the 1920s. Whether because his songs reflect on the modern world or just because of the sheer quality and uniqueness of the music, CW Stoneking has captured people's attention with his recent album tour selling out venues across the country. yourGigs took a stroll back in time with him to find out about the recording of the album, his fascination with 1920s and '30s blues music and a bit about the man himself.

yourGigs: Do you remember the first time you wrote or played music and how you got into it?

CW Stoneking: I started playing when I was about 11, got into it pretty good on the guitar and just kind of stuck with it. I got in with the old-time blues kind of music when I was about 18 and have been doing that ever since.

yG: Have there been any other kinds of music that have taken your fancy along the way?

CW: No, [old time blues] is what I've concentrated on. There's other music I like, but I don't do it. The only other one I try to mix in a bit is the 1920s calypso music.

yG: Where did your fascination with 1920s Southern blues come about, and what about it fascinates you?

CW: I liked the songs; I liked the practical thing, with just the guitar playing, the rich full guitar playing they had in those days; and just the good sound you can get singing and playing one person was quite appealing to me.

yG: Have you ever travelled to southern USA yourself?

CW: I've never been down to the old blues places, but I have been to West Virginia and places like that. I would like to go there just to go and look at the old places, that would be good fun.

yG: Would you enjoy the challenge of playing your music over there?

CW: I don't know how good it would go there, because it's not the popular type of music any more. Black fellas down there don't play that way anymore. It's really a lost form. From that sort of area and the culture around there, people like RL Burnside and that sound are what people are much more interested in listening to.

yG: Is 1920s blues almost a cause that you have taken on because you would like it to keep going?

CW: I don't feel like I have to keep it going so much, it's just what I like to play. I think my voice suits it quite well, I think the tone of the music suits the way I make lyrics, it just works for me.

yG: What are the major areas that you draw inspiration for your lyrics?

CW: I either make tunes about things that have happened to me, or I make them about things that I am interested in in the world or otherwise I make novelty songs. They are the three types of songs I tend to make.

yG: You have labelled yourself and named your latest album King Hokum. Did you intend the songs to all be 'hokum' or do you also use the songs to get something out and express yourself?

The 'hokum' definitely comes from the 1920s and '30s blues, and the novelty aspect of that is one aspect of what I do. There's lots of tunes that I make that are much more heavy which I would never call novelty songs. One song is about an old mate who dropped dead from a heroin overdose, and Handyman Blues was about something that happened to me. There's a few on there that I wouldn't put in novelty. I mix it up, it's entertainment - some are sad songs, some are funny songs, some are just happy stuff and I try to get that balance in my songwriting too, not just stick to one form or style.

yG: Have you found a more supportive music scene since you moved to Melbourne?

CW: In terms of finding musicians to play with, I find it hard to find people who are into the same stuff as me and are into doing things the same way as me. I used some people to do the record with, but on the record it was the first time they have played on those songs. It's tricky as I'm basically a solo person, I've been playing on my own for the last 14 years or so. Sometimes I hear old recordings of full bands and think "damn, where can I find someone who plays drums like that, where can I find someone that sounds like that?" There are lots of young fellas who are getting about using types of blues in what they do as well, in their own little way, and maybe I take my influence of the blues from a bit further back than some of the other guys that do that kind of thing.

In terms of people that come see the gigs, Melbourne is a good town for that. I have never had any problems with crowds I've played before. I have played with so many types of bands, and done many gigs, including the Meredith rock festival, and have never had any opposition from any sort of people. Young, old, children, they all get into it in their own sort of way. Melbourne people are good in that they hear older styles and just go with it, and people just get into it in their own type of way. Some places believe Top 40 songs are only meant for them so don't get into it.

yG: J Walker produced your album. What was it like collaborating and working with him?

CW: It was good. I had liked his early Machine Translations records a long time ago, and met him through a friend who was playing with me years ago. I was keen on him recording, because he went after atmosphere and gave it its own atmosphere, and it wasn't hard edge like most other modern recording is. I had planned to record a record with him for a long time so it was good to finally record with him. He was incredibly busy last year... and finally when we got down and did bits it always went really good. We have similar taste in mixes in things, we weren't battling each other at any time, so it kind of flowed along nicely.

yG: Do your musical ideas clash with modern thinking in terms of recording?

CW: I think there are some studios where they would record it and I wouldn't like the sound of it. Lots of people, when they try to get the crackling and old [sound], sort of take it away with the distorted vocals and all that. I think unless you have a really terrible voice it's not necessary to go that far to get that feeling. J Walker was very good like that, subtle.

yG: What's next for you?

CW: I'm doing the tour in October, starting to get big shows rolling in, get this band and get paid good so I can hang onto them and continue my training. Next year I hopefully get to work on the next record and see where it goes from there.

Andy Ryan
30 Oct 2006