"You gotta check this fella out named C.W. Stoneking, this boy's lost in the 1920s and 30s, he not kinda, he really lost." Seasick Steve
"Eerily phenomenal. Like stumbling across a New Orleans funeral band being led by a ghost. In a music world dominated by cynical mediocrity, it's beyond delightful to hear someone doing the never-be-fashionable so well." Mark Lamarr
"There's a thin line between pastiche and honestly trying to recapture the original rough-shod, rough-voiced blues. CW Stoneking falls on the right side of divide, serving up an album of down-home blues which moved between the world-weary, the saucy and the satirical. On King Hokum, Stoneking channels the old blue-singers without sounding like pastiche, and modern without sounding lifeless. He's got the blues, and we should all revel in them." Rough Trade shops UK
Stoneking was born(1974) in Katherine to Californian hippie parents who had met at a music festival. His parents separated, and he was brought up by his father, a teacher in the Aboriginal community of Papunya. His interest in the blues was sparked while a student at Sydney’s Balmain High School. He stumbled across some of his father’s blues tapes. At this time one of his classmates was Alex Lloyd, also a blues fan, and they sometimes jammed together.
His influences include the blues legends Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, Leroy Carr, and Memphis Minnie. He now describes his style as “Hokum Blues”, a musical brew influenced by prewar blues, ragtime, vaudevillian novelty tunes, old hillbilly songs, jazz, and calypso.
