Li'l Chuck the One Man Skiffle Machine - Mono (2019)

From the free-spirited Backyard Harmonica Boogie, to the heartfelt Crying, all tracks touch on musical influences from the 1930s to 50s, inspired by the sounds of the Blues, Early Jazz, Western Swing, and Ragtime, uniquely presented in the style of our founding street performers.

Storytelling is at the album’s very core, as Thorpe skilfully plays all his instruments simultaneously. He’s famously passionate about the one-man band craft, something he has held onto ever since he saw iconic busker Rob Gray, of “The Little Big Band”, perform on the UK streets in the late 1980s. He was only 18, but says, from that moment, a mental photograph was captured and everything fell into place. This has influenced everything he’s done musically since.

While he continued performing in the intervening years, it was 2011 when he hit a turning-point, and knew it was time to finally record his one-man band music. Having just turned 40, and welcomed his first child, the devastating Christchurch earthquakes struck, demolishing his home.

Realising time was short, it spurred him to follow his dreams, and he set about writing and recording. The resulting album was Blues in Full Swing (2015), followed by 2017’s Utility Blues.

This time around, as he gears up to release MONO, he’s proud to be bucking the trend by paring back his music to its core essentials – exactly as his idols would have done.