Stoneking C.w.

When CW Stoneking took to the stage at BBC 4 s Folk America festival in London last year very little was known of him other than he was a favourite of Charlie Gillett's and was, according to the show's host, a man "lost in the 1920s and 30s".What followed was a prime lesson in how to steal a show as CW, along with his band The Primitive Horn Orchestra, proceeded to swing their way through a set of what he calls blues, hokum and jungle music that led the Observer to proclaim "hearing Stoneking perform live is, somehow, like listening to an old 78 recovered from a dusty attic in New Orleans". Born in the secluded town of Katherine, Australia to American parents (his father, the author - and occasional screenwriter for TV shows such as Mission Impossible - Billy Marshall Stoneking, emigrated in the 70s - "the bumper stickers said, 'America, love it or leave it'. So I left.") and then brought up in the Aboriginal community of Papunya (pop. 299) his love of the blues was nurtured in his teens and his skill as a writer and performer honed in some of the most God-forsaken bars of Australia's outback before travelling the country solo and then with the band The Blue Tits. His Australian debut album from 2006 King Hokum never received a full UK release but this is all about to change thanks to the recent acclaim for his most recent album Jungle Blues. It led to an appearance on Later with Jools Holland, a full-page Mojo Rising, an extensive interview in Word, radio sessions for Mark Lamarr and Radio 4's Loose Ends plus a sold-out tour of the UK. Recorded in Melbourne and produced by J. Walker and featuring The Primitive Horn Orchestra and occasional duets with Mrs Stoneking (aka Kirsty Fraser) King Hokum is an abject lesson in how to combine calypso-tinged swing with 20s jazzy blues and a throaty Outback holler with a midnight Delta-howl. It's also the album that kick-started the whole "CW Stoneking - man or myth?" debate. Rumours were rife - he had been a boxer, that he lived in a stolen car on the outskirts of town, that his body is covered in tattoos and he doesn't cook. And then there's the one about him being once seen in a very different incarnation - playing lead guitar with a heavy-rock band called The Berko Boys in a Sydney. Some said he looked more like a hillbilly David Lee Roth than a Delta bluesman, with long blond hair, a black skivvy, balaclava and a stuffed fox perched on his shoulder. His bandmates were dressed as a game-show host and rodeo clown. Or so they said. Maybe CW Stoneking himself could shed some light on the whole affair. He's bound to give a straight answer. Isn't he?