Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram

A triple-threat blues prodigy channels the ghosts of the past on his new album.

- JEN ROSENSTEIN

When you’re born and raised near the site of Robert Johnson’s mythical crossroads, it only follows that you'd pick up a guitar and play the blues. “There’s not much to do in Clarksdale — it’s either music, sports or illegal stuff,” says Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram of his Mississippi hometown. “I chose music because it was around me 24/7. I lived right next to guys who were in a blues band.”

Born in 1999, Ingram was three when he started singing gospel in church. Age five, his dad showed him a documentary about Muddy Waters, and BB King’s musical cameo on sitcom Sanford & Son. But at a time when kids his age were listening to Rihanna and Lil Wayne, was it strange to be digging into what some friends called “that sad, old stuff?”