Mississippi Rising

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is sitting on top of the blues world

BY JOHN WIRT

He’s sitting on top of the blues world. Christened “the next explosion of the blues” by Buddy Guy, 24-year-old Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has already won his first Grammy Award. He’s also topped Billboard’s blues chart; won nine Blues Music Awards; and, moving beyond the usual blues outlets, has been profiled by NPR’s Morning Edition, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and The Washington Post.

Ingram makes his New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival debut Saturday, April 29. His when he met Guy prior to a show they played together in Virginia. After a second meeting, when Ingram was 16, Guy became a mentor. “From there on is when we developed a relationship,” Ingram said. The elder, Louisianaborn bluesman shared stories about his life and experiences with the rising young musician from Clarksdale, Mississippi. He gave some advice, too, including about who to trust and who not to trust in the music business, and to simply play the music he loves the most.

“Life lessons,” Ingram said. “Mr. Guy puts the crowd in the palm of his hand with one note, with how he phrases his words, what he sings. I learn something new about that every time I see him play.” appearance this year follows two coronavirus pandemic-prompted Jazz Fest postponements and a cancelation at another New Orleans event, Hogs for the Cause. In 2023, Ingram is also joining Guy for several dates on the 86-year-old blues patriarch’s farewell tour. “This is most I’ve ever been on the road with him,” Ingram said. “I’m excited, for sure, and grateful that he [Buddy Guy] saw fit for me to hang with him.”

Guy’s belief in Ingram extended to financing the singer-guitarist-songwriter’s album debut, 2019s Kingfish. Tom Hambridge, Guy’s drummer, producer and co-writer, spearheaded the project.

Ingram was a precociously talented 13-year-old

“We got a call one day from Tony Coleman, my godfather, who played drums with B.B. King,” Ingram recalled. “He said, ‘Mr. Guy wants to help you out with a record.’ So, we all met in California. I told him (Hambridge) what I wanted to do. A month later I was writing songs at his house in Nashville. A couple of months after that, we were in Nashville recording. Mr. Guy started all of that.”

Straight from the gate, Kingfish earned Ingram his first Grammy Award nomination. His follow-up, 662, won a Grammy last year for best contemporary blues album. “The first year, when I didn’t win, it was kind of a relief,” Ingram

CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM

remembered. “Like, ‘Okay. That’s over. Let’s party.’ The second year it was like, wow, this really did happen. It’s an experience. Sometimes I pinch myself, because I can’t fathom that happened. I didn’t think I was going to win. I was just grateful to be in that number.”

Ingram’s third album is in the works. “That’s why I’m out here in California,” he said recently from Los Angeles. “Trying to find some more producers to work with, create some different sounds. I want to go a new way, showcasing my voice in the soul and R&B range. I’m doing sessions out here with people I know already, but I’m still trying to find people outside of the blues world.”

In February, Ingram released a remix of “Another Life Goes By,” a song from his second album. Featuring seamlessly integrated rap by guest artist Big K.R.I.T., it’s a protest song. “We all know the blues was originally protest music,” Ingram said. “Everything that we see going on right now, with unarmed people getting killed by police, unnecessary wars—all of that is the blues of today. That’s what we have to talk about. Big K.R.I.T. was gracious enough to do it and it came out to be a beautiful piece.”

Ingram comes from a musical Mississippi family that includes many gospel musicians and one country star, Charley Pride, first cousin to his late mother, Princess Pride. A Muddy Waters documentary, Can’t Be Satisfied, drew him to play music and study at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale with Richard “Daddy Rich” Crisman and Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry. Crisman nicknamed Ingram “Kingfish,” after a character in the TV sitcom The Amos ’n Andy Show.

“Pretty much what I did was go to school, come home and play,” Ingram said of early passion for music. “I’d get on YouTube and look up different blues guys and guys outside of the blues genre. That was my main thing. All of that molded me for this right now.”

At 10 years old, Ingram was performing in his hometown at Red’s Lounge and the Ground Zero Blues Club. Hardworking and dedicated though he was, he credits Clarksdale with helping him be the artist he is today. “Clarksdale has a rich blues history. I was exposed to all of that at an early age. I lived right next to a blues band that was a local legend. Being young and hanging in juke joints, if I hadn’t experienced all of that, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”