Artist: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Album: Kingfish
Label: Alligator
Release Date: 5.17.2019
Welcome to the anointing. As a blues fan, you must have already read about child prodigy “Kingfish” Ingram who is being hailed not only by major publications as “the future of the blues” but by elder statesman Buddy Guy who says, “Kingfish is the next explosion of the blues.” At a mere 20 years old, Ingram makes his Alligator debut, with Guy’s two-time Grammy-winning producer Tom Hambridge at the helm, Guy sharing a track with Ingram, and Keb Mo’ aboard for six tracks. Yes, Ingram is flanked by royalty and poised to assume the mantle that many at one time thought would go to Gary Clark Jr.
Despite his youth, Ingram’s rise has been more steady than meteoric. A native of Clarksdale, he began performing in the church and was playing drums at 6 years old and bass at 9. By 11, he’d switched to guitar and began writing songs. While his friends chose rap and R&B, Ingram fell in love with electric blues, stimulated mostly by a PBS film on Muddy Waters. Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry mentored him and gave him his nickname. Perry began to spread the word.
Ingram made an appearance at the White House in 2014 as part of a delegation of young blues artists from Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum and later received the Rising Star Award from The Rhythm & Blues Foundation. He landed a part in the second season of the Netflix series Luke Cage. Now Ingram is touring as the opening act for Buddy Guy and headlining major festivals this summer, including the Briggs Farm Blues Fest.
Ingram co-wrote with Hambridge, a masterful writer, for eight of the twelve cuts.The opening track, “Outside of This Town,” already released as a single, reveals ferocious lead vocals and searing guitar. Ingram, an astute student of the masters, knows all the licks of the classic players as well as Hendrix and Prince, though in terms of guitar style, he does not lean to the rock side. He’s more in the mode of B.B. King with crisp, tight, staccato, and disciplined lines rather than engaging in histrionics. His vocals are equally as attention-getting, especially on “Been Here Before” and “Before I’m Old.” Those two blend confessional and autobiographical references with intense guitar. “Fresh Out,” the other single, has Ingram trading verses and guitar solos with Buddy Guy.
The album was recorded at Hambridge’s studio in Nashville and Ingram is essentially playing with core members of Guy’s and Hambridge’s band throughout – Hambridge (drums), Marty Sammon (keys), Rob Mcnelley (guitar), Tommy MacDonald (bass). Keb Mo’ lives in Nashville and lends guitar parts to six tracks, and shares vocals with Ingram on “Listen.” On the Hambridge/Fleming tune “Hard Times” Ingram just sings while ‘Keb Mo’ plays resonator. There’s humor in “Trouble,” fiery hot combustible blues in “It Ain’t Right” and smoldering, slow steamy blues in “Love Ain’t My Favorite Thing.” Ingram has already mastered the major styles and tempos and is likely a crowd-pleasing shredder live. He makes the wise choice by staying relatively restrained on record.
Ingram knows exposure is the biggest challenge to keeping blues alive. “I’ve found the biggest problem isn’t young people don’t like the blues, but that they really haven’t heard them. They haven’t seen or heard a lot of people in their age group who are singing and playing the blues or applying them to their experience. But once they do, I’ve seen them really enjoy and appreciate it. That’s the key for me now. I’m taking the music that the greats have made and making it work for my generation…I’ve found that it appeals to all types of people and their age doesn’t matter.”
Ingram has just given himself plenty of self-induced pressure. Based on this auspicious debt, he can more than handle it. Don’t go messin’ with this kid.
—Jim Hynes
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