CW Stoneking: Jumpin Hot Club @ The Cluny Newcastle

IT was a true Australian evening, when the charismatic story-telling singer-songwriter bandleader CW Stoneking and his ensemble took to the stage.

For not only did three pretty young girls assist the headliner, and they really can play too, but our resident man from down under bluesman Gypsy Dave was the support.

Stoneking is a big draw, and with his showman persona, dressed in a white suit and bow tie and hair dampened down with grease and a big smile charmed the audience during his tall tales. A likeable entertainer, CW combines ragtime, swing, blues and hokum blues with assured aplomb. His electric lead guitar surrounded by stellar upright bass (a little electric later in the evening), drums and percussion, plus wonderful saxophone, had the audience eating out of his hand to the degree he could do no wrong.

Stoneking’s innovative art of combining fact and fiction plus utilising snatches of older tunes to go with his own work saw him draw on Jimmie Rodgers and the rich strains of the classic western ballad Strawberry Roan.

He took the audience through the jungle of deepest Africa to the Mississippi Delta and the swamplands of Louisiana to evoke great intrigue in such songs as On A Desert Isle, Jungle Swing, Handy Man and a "calypso" murder ballad, little wonder few took their eyes off him and his band during a more than generous performance.

Maurice Hope