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Review By: Rob Harbers

Artist/Band: C.W. Stoneking

Venue/City: Meeanee Memorial Hall, Napier, New Zealand

Date of Event: Thursday 23rd January 2025

Last night, CW Stoneking brought the spirit of the old-timey blues to the Meeanee Hall, in the first of two Small Hall Sessions appearances.

But first, allow me to introduce the Small Hall Sessions to the faithful Libel Music audience. These are an initiative of the intrepid Jamie Macphail, truly a taonga of Te-Matau-a-Maui. On a semi-regular basis, Jamie and his team of enthusiastic fellow travellers bring a cavalcade of entertainers to the small rural centres of the province (Hawkes Bay), keeping alive the tradition of the itinerant troubadour, while bringing joy to these otherwise neglected areas. To get an idea of the esteem in which these events are held, one needs only to look at the schedule for the upcoming tour by M Ward, where the Antipodes get 5 dates all up-one in Oz, one in Wellington, and THREE Small Hall Sessions! Hard to find a much more emphatic vote of confidence in the mission than that; But in any case, you’re going to hear more about the sessions, particularly over the next few weeks, given the spectacular line-up of artists already announced-so keep watching this space.

To bring the focus back to the immediate, you’d be hard pressed to think of a better way to open another year of Sessions than with the truly unique force of nature that is CW Stoneking. This man combines a huge range of influences into an amalgam that sits, for want of a better place, broadly within the definition of blues, although a more accurate descriptor could equally be folk music, in its broadest sense of being the music of the people, the folk, as it were. Coming on to the stage dressed all in white like the ice-cream man, with all the flavours guaranteed to satisfy, he proceeded to provide a set that brought joy to offset the prevailing gloom and fear, engendered by, among other things, the fall of Amerikkka before our very eyes. (For the record, if it quacks like a Nazi, endorses Neo-Nazis, and salutes like a Nazi, it’s a fuckin’ Nazi!). Definitely the man you want to stop when he’s passing by!

There was a notably younger demographic at this session than is often the case-a mark of the wide appeal of CW. A little ironic really, given that, to quote Tom Waits, “He sounds like he’s 600 years old”. This ancient spirit brings this music to life with a notable lack of artificial enhancement, no pedals to be seen, just voice and guitar. In fact, from time to time, we’re carried along by a solo simulation of the elements of the full band sound, just CW and his vocal cords fleshing out the tapestry! (You have to see it to truly understand). Together he took us on a musical journey encompassing the sounds of the Caribbean (the “manslaughter calypso” of ‘Love Me or Die’, and the reggae-infused ‘The Thing I Done’), the African fertility god Jimmie Rodgers, the technicalities of the boogaloo genre, and much more besides. All while carrying the feeling , induced by the bright white light and it’s effect on his ability to see the audience, that he was “auditioning for God”! An audition he would surely have passed, if the reaction he received is anything to go by. With long anecdotes explaining the origins of some of the material receiving loud and enthusiastic laughter, he had the assembled throng eating out of his hand, enraptured as they were.
From such highs the comedown must be gentle, and this need was comfortably met by the closing ‘Jungle Lullaby’, a song that was requested by an audience member but fortuitously enough happened to be on the setlist anyway! The performance of this last song was accompanied by reminiscence of having played it on the Jools Holland show, and with some speculation as to Jools’ orthopaedic structures, all of which only served to add to the overall entertainment value.
And thusly ended the night-the most tantalising teaser for what is promised by the Sessions for 2025! By the time you read this, it could well be too late to get along to tonight’s appearance at the intimate Pukehou Hall, but never mind, there’s a whole lot more in the pipeline! Kia Kaha Jamie and crew, and thanks to CW for a most engaging evening