C.W. Stoneking - guitar & tenor banjo player, singer/songwriter and raconteur - returns with a new collection of original tunes, Jungle Blues. Inspired in part by his amazing experiences as a survivor of a shipwreck off Africa's West Coast in 1998, it draws on the blues of the Southern U.S.A., calypso music of Trinidad, jungle jazz of the 1920s, and hillbilly music of the 1930s for a musical journey into a heart of darkness.
It features C.W.'s live band the Primitive Horn Orchestra (featuring trumpet, trombone, clarinet, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, sousaphone, piano, harmonium, and double bass) and adds to the mix the unmistakable drumming of Jim White (Dirty Three, Cat Power), as well as traditional African percussion and touches of orchestral timpani drums.
Jungle Blues sheds light on C.W.'s skills not only as musician, but as a lyricist / composer / arranger of the highest order. Ranging from full-blown jungle epics to desolate guitar and singing-country-blues, the album tells the Jungle Blues story from all sides. Opening with the title track, 'Jungle Blues' invokes the tale of a poor shipwrecked soul stranded in the jungles of darkest Africa. What follows are hair-raising stories that will haunt your dreams, and voodoo tunes evoking memorable scenes from the world of the jungle.