If I live for a long, long time,
Where my guitar played itself, leanin by the wall,
It give me a worried mind"
The first song by C.W. Stoneking I remember hearing was The Marching of the Drum, a song that was popular in Ann Arbor for ballroomin' (also elsewhere, but I'll keep to immediate experiences). I always assumed, based on the 'faded' quality of the recording that C.W. Stoneking was some obscure artist who recording in the 40s. As usual, my initial assumptions were incorrect. The ragged, weary voice and mournful plucking of the guitar that comes through on 'Early in the Morning' is actually that of a contemporary Australian. He varies how he records his music to get that almost stereo-typically vintage sound of his album Jungle Blue, of which 'Early in the Morning' belongs.
I enjoy 'Early in the Morning' for two reasons. The first, it is simply a unique song to dance to, and secondly, it falls under a 'crossover' category in my DJ brain. As a dancer, I appreciate this song for its overall simplicity with rhythmic subtlety. Instruments come in almost in a round and the song ends the same way, with first the vocals, percussion, bass, and finally the guitar fading into silence. In my own movement this inspires light traveling, moments of suspension, and if my partner is feeling it with me isolation exploration with the banjo line.
As a DJ, I appreciated the versatility this sound brings to the floor. The picking in the banjo keeps a delta/country feel to my ear pervasive throughout the song. However, the bass line is a tuba-possibly sousaphone-chugging underneath the voice and guitar. These elements combine to make a song that allows me to shift gears to go deeper in a delta/country blues feel, or Jazzier as the case may be. It's a song that is hard not to DJ too much, lest it become stale.
C.W. Stoneking himself, as said before, is Australian. He was first introduced to blues by rummaging through his father's music collection and listening to Living With The Blues, an early blues compilation album. In the biography section of his website, Stoneking writes:
“When I first heard it I thought it was kinda funny music”, he told a Dutch interviewer a few years ago, “because it was so deconstructed and not really adhering to any rules that I’d been told music [should] fit into. And the more I listened to it, I just liked it more and more.”
C.W. Stoneking received many ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Award nominations for Jungle Blues', eventually winning 'Best Blues and Roots Album' for Jungle Blues.
I was reminded of the Blues Dance World Podcast episode on the history of BluesSHOUT with Sara Cherny. She was musing on how blues dancing and the music has spread from the United States and been embraced the world over. Larger portions of the attendance of BluesSHOUT are made up of international dancers from European countries, Australia, and South Korea to name a few. Blues music and dance is appreciated the world over, and a young Australian really digging into that sound fits into the larger pattern.
I couldn't find any covers of this song, as it is an original composition.
Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/song/early-in-the-mornin-mt0018683736
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._Stoneking
http://www.cwstoneking.com/
http://bluesdanceworld.com/2016/12/31/january-1st-2017-blues-dance-world-podcast-season-2-ep-09-a-decade-of-shout/
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