January 2024
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
BY-------Graham Sclater
With the New Year I thought I would write about a fresh young musician that is
creating quite a buzz around the world in the mixed genres of Blues, Rock, Soul
and Gospel.
I first saw Christone “Kingfish” Ingram in late 2023 on BBC2’s - Later with Jools
Holland and I absolutely I loved his music and playing.
Christone Ingram was born to Princess Pride and Christopher Ingram of Clarksdale,
Mississippi, in January 1999 and his mother is a first cousin to country musician
Charley Pride.
His extended family sang and played music in church and Ingram grew up
attending gospel music performances, and while still young got up to join groups, and although he had no real expertise, he had feeling and soul. He continued to listen to, and learn, from the music of legends including: Robert Johnson, BB King, Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. His love of music soon saw him become a well-known performer as a teenager playing gigs around his hometown at Red’s Lounge, Ground Zero Blues and many more.
His unusual name “Kingfish” was given to him by Howl -N -Mad Perry, a character in the sixties television show, Amos ‘n’ Andy. A series I remember watching on the BBC in the mid-fifties.
In November 2014 he played at The White House with the Delta Blues Museum as the guest of Michelle Obama. Five years later his debut album entitled simply Kingfish, was recorded at Ocean Way Studios, Nashville, and produced by Tom Hambridge. It was released by Alligator records in May 2019 and it was soon to reach Number 1 in the Billboard Blues Chart where he was referred to as a “blues prodigy.”
One such review was "a stunning debut from a young bluesman with an ancient soul and a large presence in the here-and-now.”
His first album also lifted him to the dizzy heights of being nominated as The Best Traditional Blues Album and put up for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Following that award he was in demand and for the next two years he toured continually headlining at concerts and blues venues across the USA.
Kingfish, released his second album, 662, the zip code for Clarksdale Mississippi, in July 2021and in 2022 it won the Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album and to further celebrate his success Fender released a custom Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe. Later that year he supported the Rolling stones in Hyde Park as part of the British Summer Time concerts.
His success continues and last year, he was quite rightly, named as “The Contemporary Blues Male Artist” of the year.
“Kingfish” is a larger than life character as well incredibly versatile musically and if you do get a chance to catch him when he is next on tour I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
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