"The incomparable, inexplainable blues savant, C.W. Stoneking"
Mohair Slim - PBS F.M.
He wears a ragged black suit and a preachin' hat, makes tunes about singing dodo birds, hollers like a 1920's tent show blues shouter, plays guitar like a demon, and mutters to himself onstage. The legendary king of hokum blues, C.W. Stoneking, is a true entertainer who relies on musicianship, stagecraft, and performance to invoke the spirit of 1920's Southern blues in his original hokum style.
C.W. Stoneking has just released a brand new album 'King Hokum'. Recorded and produced in 2005 with J. Walker (Machine Translations), 'King Hokum' contains 11 of C.W.'s original songs and highlights his skill as a composer as well as showcasing his tremendous vocal and instrumental style.
'King Hokum' features C.W. Stoneking on his trusty steel bodied dobro and tenor banjo, drawing inspiration from influences that include; pre-war blues, hillbilly, old jazz, prison work songs and 1920's calypso. With the addition of his new band, the Primitive Horn Orchestra on several tracks and the use of found sounds and samples, C.W. Stoneking has made an album that is as original and diverse as it is authentic sounding.
'King Hokum' features C.W. Stoneking on his trusty steel bodied dobro and tenor banjo, drawing inspiration from influences that include; pre-war blues, hillbilly, old jazz, prison work songs and 1920's calypso. With the addition of his new band, the Primitive Horn Orchestra on several tracks and the use of found sounds and samples, C.W. Stoneking has made an album that is as original and diverse as it is authentic sounding.
'King Hokum' is out now on Low Transit Industries Recordings/ Distributed through Inertia.
"This sounds as if someone set up a microphone in a back room around 1927 and recorded direct to wax the songs of an itinerant blues man who does amusing party pieces with friends as well as mournful turns, who does New Orleans swing and plantation work songs, who plays his guitar and banjo as if they are as natural a part of him as his hooch-roughened vocal cords...a darn fine album." Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald, Album Review
"Like a hellfire old-timer from down Mississippi way." Katrina Lobley, Sydney Morning Herald.
"Every song on this album would have been top 10 seventy year ago. ...the most incomparably original album of 2006. There will not be a similar album in the record store this Christmas. King Hokum is the first 10/10 rating I've ever given." thedwarf.com.au, Album Review.
"He's a national treasure, this guy's straight out of the dust bowl of the 1930s. I'm just amazed that he exists because I never thought I'd see anything like it." J. Walker (Machine Traslations), recording engineer/co-producer of 'King Hokum'
"This sounds as if someone set up a microphone in a back room around 1927 and recorded direct to wax the songs of an itinerant blues man who does amusing party pieces with friends as well as mournful turns, who does New Orleans swing and plantation work songs, who plays his guitar and banjo as if they are as natural a part of him as his hooch-roughened vocal cords...a darn fine album." Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald, Album Review
"Like a hellfire old-timer from down Mississippi way." Katrina Lobley, Sydney Morning Herald.
"Every song on this album would have been top 10 seventy year ago. ...the most incomparably original album of 2006. There will not be a similar album in the record store this Christmas. King Hokum is the first 10/10 rating I've ever given." thedwarf.com.au, Album Review.
"He's a national treasure, this guy's straight out of the dust bowl of the 1930s. I'm just amazed that he exists because I never thought I'd see anything like it." J. Walker (Machine Traslations), recording engineer/co-producer of 'King Hokum'
THE 'KING HOKUM' ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR 2006
'KING HOKUM' OUT THROUGH LOW TRANSIT INDUSTRIES RECORDINGS/DISTRIBUTED THROUGH INERTIA
'KING HOKUM' OUT THROUGH LOW TRANSIT INDUSTRIES RECORDINGS/DISTRIBUTED THROUGH INERTIA
