In Good Spirits Drink Your Dessert

Ingram’s latest album, released on the vaunted Alligator Records label, is called “662.” The guitarist and singer is, of course, not paying homage to the numbers that make up the area code with the title, but to the people of the area and their stories, their history and traditions. Ingram’s love for his home in the Mississippi Delta is obvious throughout the album and especially on the boogieing title cut which also reveals some of his own history. “662” sets the scene with the lyrics “The Mississippi Delta, birthplace of the blues/I was born right here in the 662,” before getting more personal with “Daddy worked at Cooper Tires, my mama was raised in the hills,” and “I’m still kickin’ these blues down in the 662.” Ingram’s guitar picking is countrified for most of the song except for an incendiary solo that closes the cut. On 662 song “Too Young to Remember” Kingfish sings about a salient aspect of blues culture that mostly doesn’t exist anymore, “I heard about those juke joints / Homemade whiskey used to flow / Well I’m too young to remember / But I’m old enough to know.” Ingram echoes a similar sentiment when reflecting on how the scene in the 662 has changed in his lifetime. “All of the old legends that I grew up hanging around, watching and listening to, all of them are gone,” Ingram says. “But what I’ve noticed for sure is that Clarksdale will always be a blues city, even with all the legends dying.” Ingram remains humble, even though his star is shining brightly right now as his fame beyond the Delta burgeons. One of the biggest rock stars in the world, Elton John, knows all about Kingfish. The Rocket Man recently interviewed Ingram for his podcast. “Elton is a great guy,” says Ingram. “He has a natural style of conversation and I could talk to him all day long. I hope that I get a chance to do something with him again.” Ingram has also collaborated with funk master Bootsy Collins on a song called “Creepin’” where he plays psychedelic guitar throughout the song while also handling a good portion of the lead vocals. A video has been made for the song and sharp-eyed viewers from the 662 may notice, through all the visual effects, that Ingram’s contribution to the video was shot in Clarksdale at Red’s Lounge. “Bootsy called me in I think 2018 and said ‘I have this song’ and originally I was just supposed to play a solo on it,” Ingram explains. “Then he said ‘can you write a verse, I want you to sing on it.’ So he told me the subject matter and I got together with my team and we wrote the verse. It’s a psychedelic masterpiece of funk and rock for sure.” Kingfish goes way back with Buddy Guy, who he has been on tour with. “Buddy told me, ‘your guitar is like your American Express card — never leave home without it,’” Ingram says with a laugh. Roger Stolle, the owner of Clarksdale’s Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and a mover and shaker in the 662, has been following Ingram’s progress for more than a decade. “The crazy thing about Christone is that he’s always been impressive,” says Stolle. “When I first saw him around age 10 or 11, it stopped me in my tracks. A true musical prodigy, he took his lessons at the Delta Blues Museum very seriously, then he took his hours of practice to the Clarksdale proving grounds, places like Red’s Lounge and Ground Zero Blues Club where he played with older musicians for tough juke joint crowds. These are folks who will tell you what they think regardless of your age. It’s this combination of natural talent, practice and field-testing under real-world conditions that bring us to today’s Kingfish phenomenon.” While he spends a lot of time touring these days, Ingram still lives in Clarksdale and has no plans to leave the 662. Now that he’s more famous, can he go out to eat or to a club in Clarksdale without being mobbed? “Sometimes when I’m at Red’s or Ground Zero I’ll get approached by a tourist or a local but I don’t get mauled or anything,” Ingram says. “But that would be cool! I could handle that.”