BIOGRAPHY
“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, BBC 6 Radio 2023
C.W. Stoneking is an Australian/American singer, musician, recording artist. Born in Katherine in the Northern Territory of Australia in the mid 1970s. He has lived and toured across Australia, the UK, Europe, and the U.S.A. He has independently released 3 critically acclaimed original full length albums, King Hokum, Jungle Blues, and Gon’ Boogaloo. He’s performed extensively internationally with various backing band lineups and as a solo performer, the instrumentation of his musical groups and recordings mirror the stylistic inspirations of his songwriting, New Orleans style brass and drums, Traditional African, Caribbean style percussion, early 20th century blues, jazz, and American folk styled guitar and banjo, gospel inspired electric guitar and background singing… C.W. Stoneking’s music and lyrics draw inspiration from a wide spectrum of musical styles and traditions which he combines to create his own unique sound.
“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 2018
“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, Double J 2018