DAVE'S DIARY - 25 OCTOBER 2004 - CW STONEKING
C W - STONEKING OF MARIBYRNONG DELTA
 CW Stoneking |
Delta
blues guitarist C W Stoneking has swapped the outback and Shipwreck
Coast for a new delta - the mouth of the Maribyrnong River in historic
western Melbourne suburb Footscray. Stoneking wrote Handyman Blues about being a fix-it man at Cobden Primary School in the heart of the Shipwreck Coast roots music scene. |
"I was
living in a farmhouse at Naroghid with a cat and a dog and rode my bike
about ten kilometres to work at the school," the son of expatriate
Californian musician Billy Stoneking told Nu Country on the eve of performances
at Queenscliff and Meredith Music festivals.
"I was pretty much a hermit. I used to work at the Cobden school
as a handyman. The bike riding kept me fit, pretty hardcore. It's a mix
of my life as handyman and bunch of handymen tunes from the twenties.
I mixed it up."
Stoneking struts his stuff at the popular Queenscliff Music Festival at
the mouth of Port Phillip Bay from November 26-28.
Among country artists with whom Stoneking shares the bill are multi award
winning Sunraysia born and formed outback teacher Sara Storer, Shipwreck
Coast singer-songwriter Marcia Howard, Hepburn Springs band The Sparnetts
and city bands Git, Gatorbait and bluegrass group Hardrive.
Stoneking also performs the Meredith Music Festival from December 10-12
with one country artist - Jolie Holland who was born in Houston, Texas,
and now lives in San Francisco.
Holland is touring to promote second album Esconida on Shock Records
after writing for and singing on Canadian band Be Good Tanyas debut disc
Blue Horse in 2001.
FROM KATHERINE TO BALMAIN
Stoneking
was born at Katherine and raised at Papunyah - 350 kilometres north west
of Alice Springs where his parents taught at the local settlement school.
His parents met at a Californian music festival and his musician sire
Billy moved to Australia after graduating as a teacher.
At Papunyah Stoneking was exposed to Warumpi Band who featured Neil Murray
- one of his dad's former students the western Victorian wheat belt.
"My dad's first teaching job was at Lake Bolac," Stoneking revealed.
"He taught Neil Murray, mainly English. Neil came to Papunyah with
the Warumpi Band when we were there."
It was in inner Sydney suburb Balmain that C W learned guitar at 11, began
in bands at 13 and soaked up the twenties blues of Blind Willie McTell
and peers.
Although Stoneking played the blues from 18 he didn't discover Robert
Johnson until he saw the Crossroads movie.
HOT TAMALE IN COBDEN
But in his
Cobden era he played a different roots music genre with Woodford Cajun-Zydeco
Hot Tamale Band fronted by the late Peter Lucas and accordion playing
wife Su Mellersh Lucas.
That band featured Rob Beavan - latter day drummer for rockabilly band
Slap N The Cats who featured heavily on the Nu Country FM and appeared
on the TV show in a gig at the Port Fairy folk festival.
"I didn't know exactly what I would do down there, I made a few discoveries
on the guitar and got all my repertoire together. I don't think I had
a radio but I did gigs with Hot Tamale Baby in Warrnambool on electric
guitar. I was also learning old stuff from the twenties."
Hot Tamale Baby, formed from the ashes of Emu Creek, Eureka, Rock Wallaby
and Kaleidico, released its debut CD shortly after the death of co-founder
and bassist Peter Lucas.
Lucas, 48 and suffering a genetic heart defect, died early on Sunday March
14, 1999, after a coronary at the Hawthorn flat of his two daughters -
then university students.
The bassist, a benefactor of the Warrnambool music scene for three decades,
died on the eve of a scheduled performance on country show High In The
Saddle on PBS-FM. Peter and singing spouse Su Mellersh-Lucas wrote seven
of the 10 songs for the indie CD recorded at Tony Peel's Warrnambool studio
in 1998.
Lucas's widow Su won best female vocalist for her cut of their tune Blues
For Tibet at the second annual Australian Roots Music Awards in Warrnambool.
Ironically, the win was the 21st wedding anniversary of the duo who renovated
the old Woodford post office on the banks of the Merri River.
Peter, who was given six months to live by doctors in 1992, defied medical
opinion and lived for another seven years by adopting eastern medicine
and religion.
I was honoured to deliver one of the eulogies for media studies lecturer
Lucas - a life long friend at his Buddhist funeral at the Warrnambool
Surf Club.
CHARLIE BOSTOCK'S BLUES
But that was then and this is now.
CW, known as Chris to friends, left Naroghid for Melbourne where he recorded
his
award winning debut disc of covers in 1998.
He also recorded a live to air concert at Carringbush AM radio station
3CR with his 1999-2000 band Blue Tits that has since won acclaim as a
live bootleg.
But tragedy returned for Stoneking when Blue Tits mandolin player Charlie
Bostock died suddenly at 27.
CW honoured his former band mate with Charlie Bostock's Blues for
his new album to be recorded in November.
Other tunes penned for a disc produced by Greg Walker include Dodo
Blues, inspired by a TV dodos docco and Way Out In The Wild - saga
of Adam after he was banished from the Garden Of Eden.
Stoneking also recorded You Took My Thing and Put It In Your Place
for PBS-FM compilation 25 Years To Life.
"It was a funny little tune that we wrote on the same day we recorded
it," CW said, "We don't do it live often."
LOSING
SLEEP OVER GIRL WITH WOODEN LEG
Stonehill's hectic work schedule suffers from a girl with a wooden leg
who keeps him up late at night.
"I've got this tattoo on the inside of my forearm that gets itchy
and swollen and keeps me awake," C W confided.
"It's a little girl holding onto a wooden leg from an old ad."
The painful condition, aggravated by his dynamic guitar playing, necessitates
wearing a support on occasions.
But unlike the female character in Texan singing sculptor Terry Allen's
famous tune, Peggy Leg, the injury may heal in the fullness of time.
Stoneking, living in the Maribyrnong delta in Footscray, performs Queenscliff
Music Festival from November 26-28 and Meredith festival from December
10-12.