Not long into his Tucson debut at Rialto Theatre last July, blues guitar phenom Christone “Kingfish” Ingram took his show from the stage to the audience, where he was greeted by a sea of cellphone cameras and fans lining up for photo ops.
Ingram gave Tucson a taste of the hard-drving blues rock that has earned him legions of fans well beyond his native Mississippi.
He will likely deliver as blistering a show when Arizona Arts Live and the Rialto bring Ingram’s “The Hard Road Tour” to the historic downtown theater on Friday, Sept. 18.
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Chrstone “Kingfish” Ingram returns to Rialto Theatre, where he played this sold-out show in July 2025.
His Rialto show last July was a precursor to this year’s tour and came nearly three months before he released "“Hard Road,” his third studio album and one that he had a role in writing all of the songs.
The album has been widely acclaimed for demonstrating the 27-year-old’s artistic maturity.
Glide Magazine said the album "represents considerable self-reflection” and maturity from “this once child prodigy. … His guitar still does plenty of talking, but we hear his true voice more than previously.”
Bobby Liddycoat, writing in Blues Rock Review, echoed Glide in saying the album “definitely demonstrates a growth in maturity and impressive versatility,” adding that Ingram also embraces funk, soul, hip-hop, pop and jazz, seamlessly crossing “their boundaries with ease and remarkable acuity.”
Ingram is set to go on stage at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St., at 8 p.m. Friday; doors open at 7. Tickets are $43.50-$87.65 through ticketmaster.com.
Rising country star playing Tucson debut
In case you saw her name on 191 Toole’s lineup and wondered, no, Alana Springsteen is not Bruce Springsteen’s daughter.
She gets that question a lot, she’s told interviewers, but it’s understandable: What’s the chance of there being two singer-songwriters named Springsteen? Not a stretch to try to connect familial dots.
Springsteen — Alana, not Bruce “The Boss” — is going to introduce herself to Tucson on Monday, Sept. 21, when she brings her “I Hope It Helps Tour” to 191 Toole.
The album, described as a boldly autobiographical work that carves out a “space for raw catharsis and unfiltered reflection," was two years in the making. It followed her 2023 debut “Twenty Something,” which was born of a trio of EPs — “Messing It Up,” ”Figuring It Out” and “Getting It Right” — that she recorded over the spring/summer of ‘23.
Alana Springsteen brings her “I Hope This Helps” tour to 191 Toole on Monday.
Most of Springsteen’s music is self-reflective; her songwriting feels akin to a diary with experiences relatable for many people in their early to mid-20s.
The 25-year-old Springsteen discovered her voice singing in her church choir as a kid and taught herself guitar at age 7. When she was 14, her family relocated from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Nashville to support her career.
Her debut album spun off a pair of chart-climbing singles — “Ghost in My Guitar” with Chris Stapleton and “Goodbye Looks Good On You,” a duet with Mitchell Tenpenny. “Hot Honey,” her collaboration with Dutch DJ Tiësto, topped Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart in July 2024.
Texas country singer Erin Kinsey opens Monday’s 21-and-older show at 8 p.m. at 191 Toole, 191 E. Toole Ave. Tickets are $29-$38.15 through rialtotheatre.com.
War, Tower of Power and 50 years of greatest hits
Warning: We are not responsible if reading this results in what we like to call “Can’t get this song outta my head!” syndrome.
That’s what happens when the mere mention of a band or an era or a song title plants the seed deep in your medial prefrontal cortex — that’s the part of your brain reserved for music and sound; trust us, we looked it up — and suddenly, consciously or not, a song is stuck on repeat in your head.
Here, let’s test this with War, the pioneering cross-over band that fused funk, rock and soul, with Afro-Cuban rhythms.
You hear it, dontcha? “Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends?”
Or maybe your mind is grooving to this War oldie but goodie: “All my friends know the low rider (Yeah) / The low rider is a little higher (Yeah).”
War brings 50 years of hits to the AVA at Casino del Sol with Tower of Power on Saturday, Sept. 19.
And who can forget this groovy gem: “The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine / He'd drink whiskey, Pancho drank the wine.”
When War and the funk-soul band Tower of Power bring their co-headlining “50th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour” to the AVA on Saturday, Sept. 19, expect that musically-inclined slice of your brain to go into overdrive.
Between them, War and Tower of Power, who both got their starts in the late 1960s and found mainstream success in the mid-1970s, have dozens of radio singles and a handful of charted hits over the past five decades.
Yes, that’s a lot of potential songs to get stuck in your subconscious.
But we’ve actually discovered a cure for “Can’t get this song outta my head!” syndrome: It's worth having the songs stick when you experience them live.
Saturday’s concert at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42.40-$107.40 through casinodelsol.com.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Bluesky @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
Reporter
