Interview: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

By Martine Ehrenclou

Since the release of Kingfish, his Grammy-nominated 2019 Alligator Records debut, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has quickly become the defining blues voice of his generation. From his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to stages around the world, the now 22-year-old has already headlined national tours and performed with friends including Vampire Weekend, Jason Isbell and Buddy Guy (with whom he appeared on Austin City Limits). He was interviewed by Sir Elton John on his Apple Music podcast, Rocket Hour, and recently released a duet with Bootsy Collins. Rolling Stone declared, “Kingfish is one of the most exciting young guitarists in years, with a sound that encompasses B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Prince.”

With jaw-dropping guitar playing and rich, soulful vocals, Ingram plays with unequaled passion and authenticity. By the time he turned 16, he was turning heads and winning awards, performing at the White House as part of a student delegation from the Delta Blues Museum. Ingram’s debut album, Kingfish, debuted on the Billboard Blues Chart in the #1 position and remained for 91 weeks. That album received a Grammy nomination, and in 2020 Ingram won five Blues Music Awards and four Living Blues Awards.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram rereleased his sophomore album, ‘662’ on July 23rd on Alligator Records, his second album produced by Grammy winner Tom Hambridge. With ‘662’, he creates contemporary blues music that speaks to his generation and beyond, delivering the full healing power of the blues.

Martine: You have a great new album out, ‘662’. I love it.

Christone: I really appreciate that. Thank you so much, I put a lot of heart into it.

Martine: You can tell. It has blues, blues rock, rock and groove. Did you record it during the pandemic?

Christone: We recorded back in September in Nashville at Ocean Way Studios. All the time that we were off the road, I wanted to utilize that time, to put out another record. And me and Tom Hambridge, and Richard, we pretty much set every Thursday on Zoom from May to September just building out one by one. By September we were done and had 20 songs to record, and we got them all done in a week.

Martine: You have 20 songs? I only see 12 on the album.

Christone: Yeah, yeah. There’s a whole lot more that’s been recorded that didn’t make the record. We got stuff in the vault.

Martine: You got more coming? That’s exciting. Can you tell me about 662?

Christone: With us being off the road, I came back home, I just wanted to chill, and tell the story of the record coming from here in the 662. And I wanted to show the growth musically that hasn’t been shown since the first album came out. We went outside the box a little bit. I feel like this record has a blues/rock feel. The first record was a little bit more traditional than this one. We were able to go outside the box and do some different chord progressions and chord grooves. We also wanted to talk about some of the stuff that was going on in the world, that’s one of the songs, “Another Life Goes By”. Because when you think about the blues, all of that plays into what the blues is for sure.

Martine: It’s a beautiful song that addresses gun violence and hatred. Your voice is rich, so soulful. Can you tell me about writing it and what it means to you?

Christone: It’s actually crazy because people say that we’ve come a long way, but just to show you how far that we got, that song was written two or three years before last year, before the George Floyd incident, and all the protests. So, the fact that that song can stand the test of time with what’s going on today, you listen to what the song’s talking about, it shouldn’t be like that. That song is still relevant today even though it was written a few years ago. It just goes to show you that we have a problem, and with us being young black blues players, it’s important to talk about that, because that’s our blues of today. I did the song with Tom Hambridge, and pretty much told him how I felt. We were going back and forth writing down lines, ideas. It means a lot but I hate that it means a lot because that’s something that we shouldn’t be experiencing in this day and age. It’s a song I had to do but it’s also a song that pains you as well because that’s something that we don’t need to be talking about. We all need to be on one chord.

Martine: Agree with you completely. We still have a ways to go. Tell me about your guitar solo on it.

Christone: What I did have in mind, if you notice the difference from the first record, there’s a different array of tones. You got humbuckers, you got clean, you got acoustic. With that song I felt like how chill with cool tone it was, just let me put that clean crisp tone on there, and showcase some of the growth that I’ve had, studying some of the theory, and different jazz blues lines.

Martine: You have a couple of songs on the album that have wonderful groove. On “You’re Already Gone,” it’s kind of jazzy, R&B.

Christone: That’s one of my favorites. Thank you, I appreciate that.

Martine: And your voice on that, I was thinking Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross.

Christone: Hey, that’s great company right there. Thank you, most definitely. That was the motive we had.

Martine: Tell me about that.

Christone: I was very shy with my singing around the first record. There was a lot when it comes to recording and producing that I didn’t know. I didn’t know that Tom’s job, and other producers that I work with, you got to bring it out. With some blues singers, you don’t necessarily have to, but sing like you really feeling it. You don’t have to scream or holler like Robert Blair, the quartet singer, but just feel it, and feel it from the inside. And I think with me remembering that on this session, I think that’s what made my vocals shine a whole lot better, a little more bassier, and you can really feel all the emotion that I’m really putting into the song.

Martine: It’s really soulful, and the tone in your voice is beautiful. On “Too Young to Remember,” is there a little Prince influence on that?

Christone: Yeah, possibly, (laughter) yeah, with the guitar solo. Plus I’ve always dug Prince’s style of songwriting. Prince had songs where he could just say a couple two words, but those two words tell a story. I feel like that’s one where I don’t say much on the song, but you pretty much get the gist of the story and what it means.

Martine: Prince is one of your heroes. In that song you mention that your heroes are Jimi, B.B., Buddy Guy, and Lightning Hopkins. Who are other heroes?

Christone: All the black artists like Prince, and Henderson, the guy from Living Colour, and Gary Moore, Bad Brains, pretty much all the rock stuff. Ernie Isley, from the Isley Brothers, Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic, Rick James. I dig a whole lot of different stuff from that vein.

Martine: I’ve never seen or heard you play less than stellar. Is there ever a time when you get frustrated with your playing or singing, like when you’re trying to accomplish something and it doesn’t come around the way you want?

Christone: Oh, all the time. It doesn’t happen a lot with my singing, because I’ve gained a lot of confidence with how my voice sounds now. But with my playing, oh, all the time, all the time. Musicians, sometimes, they can have these elitist attitudes. If you don’t play a certain way then your playing doesn’t have any substance. There’s a new breed of blues musicians coming in, remember blues/rock was the big thing a couple of years ago. But now, slowly blues musicians are incorporating fusion lines and jazz lines in their playing.

Martine: Definitely, Eric Gales for one.

Christone: Yeah, Eric, and a number of guys like Josh Smith, and Seth Rosenbloom. A lot of players say that’s the standard, and that’s something that I’ve been struggling with. I sometimes read bad YouTube comments, (laughter) they get really technical saying, “Oh man that’s nothing but Pentatonic,” and “He’s not playing anything of substance, like jazz lines” and stuff like that. Oh man, that’s frustrating. Each and every day I’m trying to better myself so I can add some of that fusion stuff into what I’m doing as well.

Martine: It’s hard for me to imagine you getting frustrated considering how well you play, but okay. (laughter) Tell me about the title track.

Christone: (Laughter) With this song, we felt like we needed to write an ode to my county, and my city. 662 is the area code from where I’m from, so we just felt like that was a great way of doing that. Plus, I love the groove, and I love the big ending that we put on it because it takes you by surprise, because I love shock factor.

Martine: Tell me a bit about your vision for the album.

Christone: I had a vision of where I wanted to go, but the songs weren’t written yet. At the beginning when I told Tom what I wanted on the first songwriting session, I told him, “I want to go like the first record, but just punch them in the gut a little bit harder with the rock tones, and the shredding. But we can show the smooth side of Kingfish is always showing.” Songs like “You’re Already Gone,” and “Another Life,” and a few more on there that are more smooth.

Martine: Speaking of smooth, who are some of your vocal influences? As I mentioned before, when I listened to you sing on the album, I thought of Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass.

Christone: Oh, wow. You just mentioned one of them, Luther Vandross for sure. I love singers who have a slow vibrato, like Erykah Badu, Sam Cooke, David Ruffin. I’m into smooth vibratos. Wilson Pickett, he’s definitely one. And even a couple gospel vocalists, a gospel quartet vocalist like Robert Blair, Lee Williams, and even the smoothness of a quartet singer by the name of Harvey Watkins Jr., for sure.

Martine: I listen to contemporary gospel. Do you listen to J Moss, Smokie Norful?

Christone: Yeah! Ah yeah, I love Smokie for sure. Another vocal influence is Nate Dogg. He had a rich bassy voice as well.

Martine: You have more rock on this album. Tell me more about that.

Christone: I just wanted to go harder than the first one, because we did some rock on there, but I wanted to go hard. I wanted something that they could play on rock radio without thinking this is a blues track. The riff for “Long Distance Woman,” I had actually been sitting on that riff for a minute, and I wanted to add it to something. In one of the writing sessions that me and Tom had, we went in that direction.

Martine: It sounds like you and Tom Hambridge work really well together.

Christone: Yeah, yeah, He was the first songwriter that I had worked with hands-on, so I got a sense of what songwriting means. And not only with him, even with Toronzo Cannon, a lot of different blues guys that I’m into that I think are mighty with the pen, and Toronzo was definitely one of them. He would tell me the simple task of wanting to tell a story.

Martine: He’s a great songwriter.

Christone: Most definitely. Those two guys I pretty much learned that from when it comes to just wanting to tell a story. And so they helped me out tremendously with that.

Martine: Tell me about your guitars. I’ve seen you with Les Pauls and with Strats. Do you have a number one?

Christone: Pretty much my favorite thing is anything with humbuckers. But for this record we wanted to use some different stuff, like I used a Strat on some of the rockier tunes, which is a Custom Shop Strat that Fender did. And I used a PVT50 on two of the rockabilly songs. Because I’m a big fan of vintage PV, I wanted to play one of those on the record. And the guy who actually makes the Les Paul we play a lot, he made another guitar for me that’s a Telecaster, but it has humbuckers.

Martine: What’s next for you?

Christone: The tour, the album, we got dates lined up on the East Coast, Midwest, West Coast, all parts of the Southern region. I’m just very happy to get back out there. Also in the near future, I want to try and put blues and the hip-hop sound together. I know it’s been done before, but I want to see what can I do. I’m back writing with Tom. I got a bunch of new songs in the can as well.

Martine: You’re a busy guy. Thank you so much Christone. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Christone: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Listen to “Another Life Goes By”

 
For more information on Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

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