Christone Ingram
Waterfront Blues Festival
Portland, OR.
July 3, 2015

I'm not going to be able to record as much this year. I'll try to get all the major acts and some favorites I've had over the years. Again, KBOO FM is broadcasting the show live. KBOO is an all volunteer station. All proceeds from the festival go to the Oregon Food Bank so please donate if you can. They also have a live stream on the internet. It's an MP3 stream. My set up is an old Technics Quartz Tuner> H2 Zoom> SD card> computer> TLH.

You may not yet have heard about CHRISTONE �KINGFISH� INGRAM, the prodigious young blues guitar shredder from Friar�s Point, Mississippi. But just 15, Kingfish is already a phenom in the blues guitar world. In the past few months he has played the White House for Michelle and Barack Obama; completed a tour of France which included major Parisian theatres; and seen one video clip of his mind-blowing, soulful guitar chops go viral�boasting, at last count, some 250,000 shares on Facebook and nearly 9 million views on YouTube.

Though still in his teens, KINGFISH�S success is hardly the �overnight� variety. Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1999, to Princess Pride Ingram and Christopher Ingram, Kingfish was exposed to the rich Gospel music emanating from his family�s church, as well as the blues he heard performed by such acclaimed Delta bluesmen as Big Jack Johnson and Michael Burks. A cousin to legendary Country music singer, Charlie Pride, Kingfish was a natural sponge for all these musical influences.

At age 5, he began to play the drums, three years later, took up the bass, and by 11, taking lessons at Clarksdale�s Delta Blues Museum with North Mississippi bluesman Bill "Howl-N-Madd" Perry, the guitar.

Kingfish started booking gigs in the Delta by the time he was in 7th grade, and quickly developed a local following, as well as a growing rep among the world-renowned blues musicians who visited the Delta.

�There was no place I probably wouldn�t be gigging,� he said, �I got hooked. This is what I am going to be playing for the rest of my life.�

(In 2012, KINGFISH, then 12, played bass at a street fair in Clarksdale in a pick-up band that included vacationing Waterfront Blues Festival Talent coordinator and guitarist Peter Dammann, and WBF FedEx Crossroads stage manager, harmonica ace and Clarksdale graphic artist Stan Street. �Yah, he�s a great bassist,� warned Street, �but you should hear Kingfish play guitar!�)

On guitar KINGFISH cites guitar influences that extend across the full spectrum of the blues, ranging from the Delta blues of Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Lightnin' Hopkins to the electric blues of B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Freddie King, Lefty Dizz, Lucky Peterson, Little Jimmy King and Buddy Guy; to the blues rock of Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Duane Allman, Jonny Lang, Humble Pie�s Steve Marriott, and Prince. He can perfectly reproduce the riffs of his mentors, but also, and more surprisingly for such a young player, has begun to forge a sophisticated, deeply soulful sound of his own.

More recently Kingfish has begun to work on his vocals, which sound less like those of a teen blues belter than of a young version of Albert King�s baritone.

Set List:
01 Everbody Want to Know Why I Sing the Blues
02 I Wonder Why
03 Little Blue Bird (announcer at end)
04 Unknown >
05 Hey Joe
06 Idiot announcers (1 & 1/2 min)
07 Purple Rain