Credit: Found On Internet

The first thing you notice about CW Stoneking, is how much like the Harry Powell character from the film Night of the Hunter he resembles. Dressed in trademark black fedora hat, crisp white shirt and sta-pressed trousers, (the uniform of a southern gentleman) he carries himself like the famed Robert Mitchum preacher-man and speaks with a part-Louisianan part-Australian twang. His conversation is peppered with old-time words such as ‘mighty’ and ‘M’am’ and refers to places as ‘joints’ so that one may be deceived, ever so slightly, that he were of another era, circa 1920, but then he’ll make a joke about a current Australian celebrity and brings you back into the modern world. (The only thing missing is the LOVE and HATE tattoo’s on his knuckles a’la Mitchum but Stoneking’s tattoo features a girl holding wooden leg from an old advert.)

A guy in his early 30’s really shouldn’t be recanting tales of listening to Blind Willie McTell and Memphis Minnie in his bedroom as a teenager. But Stoneking isn’t an average singer-songwriter. His music embraces Robert Johnson-esque delta and Mississippi blues delivered with a voice that sounds like it’s been dipped in buttermilk and biscuit gravy. His first full-length player, King Hokum  (released in Australia late last year) is set in a fictional 1920’s Southern US town where dodo birds sing, hobo’s holler and handymen swing their axes in lone backyards. Unsurprisingly it garnered critical acclaim and was deemed Australian album of 2006 by one national broadcaster, but that hasn’t seemed to dent Stoneking’s humble nature nor bolstered his ego.

“More people come to my shows now since the record came out,” he tells me earnestly,  “Before, if I went to do a gig in another town there wouldn't be so many people there, but now they sell out the joint so that's good. But when I'm sitting at home it feels about the same as before.”

Home is currently south (deep south in Australian terms) in the city of Melbourne. But Stoneking’s life has seen him residing in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and various suburbs in and around Sydney.