154: Jungle Blues, by C.W. Stoneking

C.W. Stoneking (Australia)
Jungle Blues (2008)
10 tracks, 40 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ Spotify ∙ iTunes

I’ve talked a lot about C.W. Stoneking in the past – most recently in a big article for fRoots not too long ago, which you can read over on my other blog – and I’m sure I will continue to for a long time to come. I’m an unabashed fanboy of Stoneking’s. I’ve seen him more times than I can count and I’ve listened to his albums enough to know each song by heart. But as with many of his fans in the UK, my first exposure to him was his second ‘official’ release, Jungle Blues.

In his first album (which we’ll come to on here sooner or later), Stoneking’s sound is very much based on blues, but on Jungle Blues he branches out. Blues is still at the core of his work, but he also brings in many closely related genres from the time when all that stuff was less closely defined: there’s vaudeville, calypso, early jazz, country and gospel and it’s all jumbled up together, giving it all a 1910s-early 1950s vibe, depending on the track, which is all enhanced by his fantastic, 80-years-old-and-no-teeth voice (which contrasts with his youthful figure) and sparkling wit.

Every track here is perfect, to be honest. While there are big hitting tracks such as ‘Jungle Blues’ and ‘The Love Me or Die’, having seen Stoneking so many times, what strikes me the most when I listen to this album now is what you don’t get on stage. There are two performances in particular that I would absolutely love to see. Firstly is Chris Tanner on clarinet; he contributes to the horn section all through the album, and the shrill woodwind of the clarinet contrasts and complements the lower brass of the sousaphones, trombones and even trumpets and adds a light giddiness as it flutters around, klezmerish on occasion, above the rest of the sound. I never saw Stoneking with a clarinet in his set-up, and now he seems to have ditched the horns in his touring band for good, maybe I never will. Secondly is the voice of actor Kirsty Fraser, who also happens to be Stoneking’s wife. She leads the housewife’s lament ‘Housebound Blues’ with a smouldering fury, and her voice fits the music’s vintage sound just as well as her partner’s.

Really, I could do a deep dive into every song in C.W. Stoneking’s repertoire, and I’m sure I will probably do that at some point (365 C.W. Stoneking Songs for 2020, anyone?). But until then, I will have to suffice with saying, just get your hands on anything you can by the man and lose yourself in his world. Definitely see him live – he’s a great showman and comes around to the UK, Europe and the US fairly often – but it’s also interesting to hear how his shows differ from his live performances.