When you’re born and raised near the site of Robert Johnson’s mythical crossroads, it only follows that you’d pick up a guitar and play the blues.
“There’s not much to do in Clarksdale – it’s either music, sports or illegal stuff,” says Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram of his Mississippi hometown. “I chose music because it was around me 24/7. I lived right next to guys who were in a blues band.”
Born in 1999, Ingram was three when he started singing gospel in church. Age five, his dad showed him a documentary about Muddy Waters, and BB King’s musical cameo on sitcom Sanford & Son. But at a time when kids his age were listening to Rihanna and Lil Wayne, was it strange to be digging into what some friends called “that sad, old stuff?”
“I was never shy about my love for blues music,” says Ingram.”My classmates would ask questions and I’d explain about blues being the root and all the other music being its fruit. Maybe I gave them some understanding of what it was.”
His own understanding deepened when his parents got divorced, and he and his mum were homeless for a short spell.
“That’s when I started to double down on the blues and get serious about playing,” he says.
At the Delta Blues Museum in his hometown, he was mentored on drums, bass and guitar by two bluesmen, Richard ‘Daddy Rich’ Crisman and Bill ‘Howl-N-Mad’ Perry (he gave Ingram his nickname, after a character on the Amos ’n’ Andy radio sitcom).
By the age of 14, he was gigging regularly (and he even performed for Michelle Obama at the White House). That led to a fateful meeting with blues legend Buddy Guy, who took Ingram under his wing.
“After I played the Waterfront Blues Festival, Mr. Guy said he wanted to help me put out a record. He put the money up, and put me in touch with his producer, Tom Hambridge. We’ve been working together ever since.”
Ingram’s fourth album, Hard Road, is the studio follow-up to 2021’s Grammy-winning 662. From the ramrod blues groove of Bad Like Me to the crying Hendrix-like invocations of Crosses to the delicate 70s soul of Clearly, it’s packed with Ingram’s expressive gifts, mining the past while looking to the future.
“I always try to showcase growth,” he says. “I’m doing the blues thing, but on this record, I’m adding in R&B, funk and rock, trying to create something new.”
Ingram is humble about his role in spreading the blues gospel.
“Some people think that the blues is ‘my baby left me’ and long guitar solos,” he says. “But it’s a whole lot deeper than that. Blues is life experience. Blues is pain and anger. But it’s also good times. All across the world, I find people who appreciate that.”
Hard Road is out now on Red Zero.
