4th Sept 2008, The Redwood Bar and Grill, Los Angeles
| The story goes that C.W. Stoneking hails from Australia, Melbourne to be exact, and you can sort of pick up an Aussie twang if you listen close enough when he speaks, but when he sings his Hokum style of blues, you'd swear you're listening to an Appalachian native.
Currently in the middle of a residency at the famed Redwood Bar & Grill, a haven for stiff drinks and great grub in downtown LA, Stoneking delighted local hipsters with tales of journeys to Africa, New Orleans and Bangladesh. That is if anyone in the crowd could decipher a word he said. To be honest, the more I drank the clearer he sounded. Raised in the Aboriginal community of Papunya ‘down under' until the age of 9, Stoneking is a fan of ‘20s and ‘30s era music and counts singer Bessie Smith as an influence. And it's evident in his delta soaked sound. Having to start his set without his bass player, a local musician he picked up in town, Stoneking was a one-man band on his steel bodied dobro guitar and tenor banjo. And he demands your attention onstage, partly because you really have to listen closely if you want to understand what the hell he's saying. He ain't talking any cute Crocodile Dundee Aussie speak. C.W. is a charmer but in a bad ass way. Christian Frizzell, owner of the Redwood Bar, says of the tattooed minstrel, C.W.Stoneking just got back from being rescued from the jungles of Central Africa. He showed up on my doorstep with his guitar and banjo and a white linen suite. Apparently on safari he became a castaway and was then rescued by some scientists who where on expedition to find new and unheard of animals. Having no money to get home to Australia and only my business card in his guitar case from his last trip here, he is here to sing for his supper and ticket home. We at the Redwood are honored to exploit this stowaway. He is quite a talent. Opting to stay at Frizzell's home while in town, Stoneking has been seeing the seedy sights of LA and has become a big fan of the city's huevos rancheros. Although without his Primitive Horn Orchestra behind him, the dual horn section he found in LA did the trick last night. In town through the weekend with his final performance at the Redwood scheduled for Monday the 8th, make your way downtown and catch this performer from an era gone by. Even entering the doors of the pirate-themed Redwood Bar, a favorite watering hole of LA Times writers, you get the sense that you've been transported to another time so why not have some pre-war, calypso-tinged blues as your soundtrack? |
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