At the 2022 GRAMMYs, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram strode onto the stage in Las Vegas and accepted the first golden gramophone of his young career. Beating out industry giants like Joe Bonamassa, Shemekia Copeland, and Steve Cropper, the 23-year-old took home the GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
"For years, I had to sit and watch the myth that young Black kids are not into the blues," an emotional Ingram said as he accepted the GRAMMY. "So, I just hope I can show the world different."
That's just what Ingram has been doing for the better part of a decade. Hailing from the blues Mecca of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Ingram took an early interest in the blues and started gigging around the area while still in junior high. In 2014, a student band he was in — from Clarksdale's Delta Blues Museum — performed at the White House.
By the time he was 18, Ingram was regularly playing with such guitar heroes as Gary Clark, Jr. and Eric Gales. In 2019, he released his debut album, Kingfish, on the celebrated label Alligator Records.
Kingfish was nominated for a GRAMMY and helped win its namesake five Blues Music Awards in May. Ingram hit the road, opened for Vampire Weekend and Buddy Guy, and was celebrated on the covers of Guitar World and DownBeat and by Rolling Stone and Elton John — among others.
During COVID, Ingram wrote and recorded 662, his follow-up record with GRAMMY-winning producer Tom Hambridge. Named for his area code in his native Mississippi, the album was a more personal statement from Ingram, reflecting not just the pandemic but also the recent death of his mother.
Roundly praised in the press, the record earned Ingram his GRAMMY. And just a few weeks later, he earned two Blues Music Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Artist — Male and Best Contemporary Blues Album, bringing his career tally to nine BMAs with no losses.
Ingram wasn't able to pick up his BMAs, however — he resumed touring as soon as restrictions allowed. That's where GRAMMY.com caught up with him, as he traveled from Portland, Oregon, to Los Angeles for a show.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
With this GRAMMY and two more BMAs, your profile raised considerably in the weeks before this leg of the tour. Are you seeing the impact of those wins on the road?
Oh, man. It's been fun. Already everyone is excited and ecstatic over the wins. So, yeah, it's been really beautiful.
Are you seeing new faces or bigger crowds at the shows?
Most definitely. You have some people in the crowd chanting congratulations on the GRAMMY win, so you know that's what they are there for.
What was that night like — when you got to go up on stage there and accept the GRAMMY in Las Vegas?
I know you probably hear this a lot, but it was like I had no words — because I was definitely nervous. It was a short walk [to the podium], but it was also a long walk because I had all these words piling up in my head of what I was going to say.
So, I just had to get up there and just try to make it brief so I didn't embarrass myself. It was very nervewracking, for sure.
Your acceptance was brief, but you packed a powerful message — that the blues are not dead.
Not at all, not at all. You know, that's just a myth that people put out. There are definitely young kids and young Black kids that are into this style of music. Not all of us are really into top 40 like that for sure.
And then, a few weeks later, you added a couple more awards to your mantle at the BMAs.
Yeah, man. We missed the awards because we were in Dallas for a show. But we racked up two more BMAs, and we're definitely thankful for that and, you know, everybody who holds me in a high regard enough to even consider me for those awards.
How did you find out about the BMAs?
I had a friend text me. She was texting me throughout the show, and she was like, "Yeah, you just won again."
Those awards push your BMA tally to nine in three years. You've won every time you've been nominated, which is very impressive.
It's kinda strange. Nominated for nine, and we've won all nine. It's definitely something to see. I hear from certain people it's a record, actually.
Did you expect you would get all these accolades and all this attention so early in your career?
Not at all. Obviously, I have been doing this a long time, and I think some dues have been paid. But I still didn't think that all of this would come this early. I thought at least when I was like around 30 or something like that, but I'm really glad to see everybody really digging what I do.
There are guys who have been playing the blues for decades, and they haven't gotten a GRAMMY.
I know, but I can truly say we kind of grinded and work hard in recent years. Not saying that they haven't, but at the same time, there's definitely a lot of grinding behind us that's for sure. It didn't just happen.
You've also gotten to work with so many of your heroes, legends like Buddy Guy and Eric Gales. Do those relationships mean more to you than all the hardware?
Most definitely, because those were the guys that I was Googling and YouTube-ing. So, to even be put in the conversation with those guys or to even jam with them or even have them like what I do — it's a really beautiful thing, man, cause I'm very inspired and influenced by what they do.
What do you think they see in you and your music that they want to play with you and help bring you along?
I think something that everybody sees — especially other musicians — is passion. I'm definitely very passionate about what I do. When it comes to the blues, I kind of look at it as being my history, my heritage. So it's something I'm very passionate about.
It must be tough with your schedules, but have you been able to develop relationships with any of these guys? I know you and Eric Gales have played together a lot, and obviously, y'all are from the same region.
Every time we see each other there's always love, and we even see each other when we're not on the same stage. Matter of fact, I was texting Eric the same night of the BMAs because he had won one as well. So yeah, there's definitely a connection, a bond there.
So, has all this attention got you thinking about next steps — about where you want to take your career?
I'm always thinking about that, because there are so many things I want to do musically. I have different album ideas. I want to put out a gospel record sometime soon. Yeah, so it definitely lit a fire under me, for sure. I want to release more music and show the world what I have to offer creatively.
What was it you wanted to accomplish with 662?
Well, for one, I just wanted to just show people what I had been going through in the last two years. I wanted to get more deep and more personal with the songs than I had on my first record. And musically, I wanted to just show the growth that I had the last two years as far as my voice and different guitar tones and positions and whatnot.
How did the pandemic affect your creative process in making 662?
Honestly, I feel like it did some good, in a way, because we actually wrote the album in quarantine. We wrote it from, I wanna say, about May to September 2020. And not only that, it was also good for me because that was time that I could just sit back and workshop on my songs, right? I could workshop on my guitar skills, so that I could be ready for the studio in September.
What are you guys working on now? What projects are in the pipeline?
We've got a couple things, musically. We're always of the hunt for different producers. I've always wanted to do something with like hip hop and the blues. So, we got something like that brewing. I can't really speak about it that much, but we got that brewing. And, yeah, just out here doing shows and making more music for sure.
It must feel great to be back performing in front of live audiences again.
We're really enjoying the shows and got a couple more left on the schedule. It's just so great to see everybody, man. I appreciate everybody's support and everything.
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