Three weeks ago my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Christone "Kingfish" Ingram show at Blues On Whyte. This was the second night of a two night sold out stand here in Edmonton. The only Canadian dates of his current Fish Grease 2! A Juke Joint Tour. When I saw this show advertised I had never heard of Kingfish, so I looked into it a bit more. I watched a few videos on YouTube and such. Well the guy sounded pretty damn good, so I figured I would take the chance and check this kid out.
This kid "Kingfish" is a 21 year old from Clarksdale, Mississippi and released his self titled debut album in March of 2019 on Alligator Records. He's already been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category, while he didn't win, still pretty impressive.
What struck me most was how this guy plays and sings with such soul, he's like an old blues guy in young mans body. The man can play guitar where it leaves you hanging on every note. No wankery here, blues guitar playing with meaning. He reminded me of BB King when BB used to actually play a whole song without stopping and talking through a song. Kingfish was backed up by a bass player and drummer and that's it. He was the show with his soulful singing and playing. The sold out crowd was up and dancing through out his hour and a half show. He played pretty much his whole album, opening with "Before I'm Old", and other songs such as "Hard Times", "Love Ain't My Favorite Word", "Outside Of This Town" and the funny "Fresh Out" song. Also a couple of covers like Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" and "Catfish Blues" by Muddy Waters. At one point during his set he walked through the whole bar playing which wasn't easy considering how packed the place was. As he was doing this he happened to come by the table we were sitting at, someone had left there seat going for a drink or a piss or something, well Kingfish sat at the end of our table and ripped it up for a few minutes, that was cool. This was an absolutely amazing show. For all the guitar players in the audience you were either inspired to pick up your guitar and practice more or pack the damn thing away and never play again. This was the best blues show I have seen since Johnny Winter used to rip it up back in the day. If you are a fan of the blues, I highly recommend picking up his album and seeing him in concert. This will surely be in my top ten shows of the year. Good times!!!
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.
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