CW Stoneking – Gon’ Boogaloo at the Milton Theatre

 

C.W. Stoneking – Gon’ Boogaloo

After a six year wait, the one and only C.W. Stoneking returns with his brand new album Gon’ Boogaloo which is out on the 17th of October through Caroline/King Hokum.

Gone are the sepia-toned tales of marooned adventures in the tropics of his last release, the ARIA Award winning Jungle Blues, this time replaced with the latest invention in the world of C.W. Stoneking, electricity! C.W. has stashed his afore-favoured vintage National guitar and banjo combo for a shiny gold Fender and an extra large helping of rock ‘n’ gospel dancehall blues to deliver 12 tracks recorded directly to tape with his full band, his very own hokum wall of sound.

Since winning converts to his unique style in the UK and Europe over the past half a decade, C.W. Stoneking and his brood have once again laid down Australian roots, settling in regional Victoria. It was from this point that things for Gon’ Boogaloo came together, “This record took me 6 long years to come by,” explained Stoneking. “It was finally recorded live in 2 days, without any overdubs, or edits using only 2 microphones, into a 2-track Ampex 351 1/4″ tape machine out of Capitol Records.

Each song was ‘mixed’ live in the room by way of positioning the band, (drums, electric & double bass, backing singers, and my guitar amp), at varying distances/degrees/volumes around an old RCA-77DX ribbon microphone to achieve the optimum mix for each tune as it hit the tape, how it arrived at the tape is how it stayed.”

Expanding further on the bare-bones recording process, Stoneking explains, “if more ‘bass’ was needed from the double bass, the instrument had to change position so the belly aimed at the mic, for more ‘slap’, the top of the body or neck aimed at the mic. I sang into a no-name, Soviet made, radio announcer’s valve condenser microphone sitting off axis to RCA microphone picking up the rest of the band. The drums received no close mics or overheads etc, just the RCA mic out front of the whole band. The backing singers had to ‘lean in, lean out’ on various parts to get volumes correct, hand clapping was done very quietly so as not to overtake the band, solutions were improvised as we went along in the recording process.”

The cast of musicians featured on Gon’ Boogaloo included C.W. Stoneking – Electric guitar/lead vocals, Vika Bull – Backing vocals, Linda Bull – Backing vocals, Maddy Kelly – Backing vocals, Memphis Kelly – Backing vocals, Andrew Scott – Electric and double bass, Jacob Kinniburgh – Drums/percussion, Kanchana Karunaratna – Percussion and
Lucky Pereira – Percussion/drums (on Mama Got The Blues).

Stoneking continues, “Due to a tight schedule there weren’t a lot of takes done and in some instances the take selected for inclusion on the record was recorded before the ‘mix’ was perfected for that particular tune, so the choice is made for best overall conveyance of the story vs optimum mix of instrument/vocal levels.

On this record I laid aside my 1931 National guitar in favour of my Fender Jazzmaster guitar, after hearing a recording of Charlie Christian playing ‘Swing To Bop’ at Minton’s nightclub in New York. I decided to get back on the electric guitar which has taken some getting used to after about 22 years hardly touching one – A fellow named Don Mare wound me some pickups for my guitar which sound great, the best thing on it though is the whammy bar, it adds drama everywhere it goes and is useful for impersonating a Hawaiian guitar which I tried to do on ‘On A Desert Isle’.

I used my old Harmony 306A amplifier (a $40. West Virginia junk store find) on ‘Goin Back South’ and ‘On A Desert Isle’, after which my amp began acting like a $40 junk store find, so the remainder of the songs on this record are recorded with my guitar running into an old 16mm film projector amplifier.”

To celebrate the release of Gon’ Boogaloo C.W. Stoneking hits the road for a national tour with his band.