Blues rocker brings Tucson crowd to its feet in Rialto show

When he slipped off stage in the middle of “Hard Times” at the Rialto Theatre on Friday night, we had an inkling that blues guitar phenom Christone “Kingfish” Ingram was going to dramatically reappear.

We had seen it earlier in the evening, when the opening act, the impressive Tucson bluesman Freddy Jay Walker, disappeared from the expansive stage and reappeared from a side door still playing his guitar as he made his way through the packed theater.

Walker got a robust round of applause and more than a few whoop-whoops and whistles from the audience filling all but a small handful of the Rialto’s 1,200 seats.

Ingram caused a near riot.

Nearly a dozen fans left their seats and stacked up in disorderly fashion behind the security guard planted in front of the Grammy-winning bluesman; a second guard had his back.

Ingram was showing off some pretty fierce rock guitar chops when a woman worked her way past security and the knot of fans filming Ingram on their cell phones. Before the security detail could protest, she snuck in and snapped a selfie with the bluesman, who never missed a note.

Ingram performed from the audience a good 10 minutes, and aside from an unruly man who tried to push past security to get closer, it turned out to be a highlight of his nearly 90-minute show.

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This was the first time the 26-year-old Ingram had played in Tucson, letting us in on the crazy good guitar skills that earned him a legion of fans in and around his native Mississippi and among some blues giants, including Buddy Guy.

His songs are modern takes on classic blues themes, from falling under the spell of a woman with “Voodoo Charm” to the struggle to make ends meet when you fall on those “Hard Times.”

He took us to his hometown in the blistering rocker “662” and left us “Fresh Out” of excuses and love punctuated by a prolonged riff on the upper register of his guitar that was reminiscent of an operatic soprano holding that impossibly high note of a Mozart aria.

Ingram on Friday took his Tucson audience on a journey through wonderfully long-winded riffs that morphed into distinctive voices, soulfully whispering in our ears one moment, then screaming with passion and urgency the next as he dreamed aloud about getting “Outside of This Town.” His blues softened on his self-penned “Rock & Roll,” a pop-leaning homage to his late mother that reflected on the sacrifices she made “so I could sell my soul to rock and roll.”

Ingram benefited from a stellar band that included the immensely talented keyboard player Deshawn “D’Vibes” Alexander. Alexander set up Ingram’s encore by playing “Eleanor Rigby,” eliciting a rousing applause.

Ingram’s show was the first of several heading our way, including blues harmonica great Mark Hummel headlining KXCI’s 12th annual House Rockin’ Blues Review (kxci.org) at El Casino Ballroom on Aug. 1 and the legendary Buddy Guy at Fox Tucson Theatre (foxtucson.com) on Aug. 8.