“Blues music came up out of the ground, and out of people’s hearts and into the hearts of others. It started in the south and has traveled the world over. And so, the blues is part of everyone – whether you’ve heard the music or not. It tells everybody’s story.”

Christopher Wyze: Clarksdale’s Odyssey

Big Radio Records, a label of Memphis music mainstay Select-O-Hits, released Christopher Wyze & the Tellers album “Live In Clarksdale”. The CD+DVD set captures the raw blues energy of their October 2024, performance in Clarksdale, MS. Two video features accompany the 10-song soundtrack: the live show, plus a 50-minute documentary, WYZE in CLARKSDALE. In the film, Christopher Wyze hosts an unforgettable journey into the places, people and stories of the birthplace and home of the blues. “It’s hard to find a blues-ier place to play our music, make an album and shoot film,” says Christopher Wyze. He cites Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Charlie Musselwhite, and North Mississippi All Stars as blues artists who have played the album’s venue: the Juke Joint Chapel music hall at Clarksdale’s iconic Shack Up Inn. The soundtrack unleashes eight Roots Music Report charting blues songs from the band’s July 2024 debut album, Stuck in the Mud. Two 1920s blues standards from Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell fill out the show: How Long, How Long Blues and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” “Carr and Blackwell recorded them for Vocalion Records, in a hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana,” says Wyze. “That’s also where the two made their homes and are buried. And it’s where they both met tragic ends,” he adds. “They surely had good reason to play the blues.”                                (Photo: Christopher Wyze)

Wyze explains that their stories hold special meaning to the band. “Indianapolis is home to me and two of the Tellers. It just felt right to record two of Leroy and Scrapper’s best. I got a little choked up on stage.” Live In Clarksdale marks the band’s sophomore release on Big Radio Records in just nine months. Although comprised of veteran blues musicians, the band appears to have shot out of nowhere. Their July 2024 debut album, Stuck in the Mud, produced a #1 RMR blues single: Back to Clarksdale. The album ended the year at #38 on RMR’s “Top 200 Blues Album Chart for 2024,” based on worldwide radio play. And with that feat, Wyze & the Tellers became just one of three newcomer acts to crack into the top 50.

Interview by Michael Limnios               Archive: Christopher Wyze, 2024 Interview 

Special Thanks: Christopher Wyze & Betsie Brown (Blind Raccoon)

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

To answer the question, it may help to understand a little background. First thing is to know is that I’ve been playing music and performing for 20+ years – in cover bands – with other people’s songs. In early 2022, I started writing lyrics for a yet-to-be produced album. In May of 2022, we recorded most of the album over five days in Muscle Shoals. For the next 18 months, I pitched the album to record labels, literally knocking on doors, sending emails, making phone calls. I joined the Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI) and got introduced to producer and artist Jim Reilley who introduced me to Johnny Phillips in Memphis. Johnny heads up Big Radio Records. In December, I received a “One to Watch” songwriter honor from NSAI…and soon after, I signed a label deal with Johnny.

Big Radio Records is part of Select-O-Hits, which was founded by Sam Phillips (Sun Studios, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, etc.) and his brother (Johnny’s father, Tom) in 1960. The company has been a part of more than 300 gold, platinum and grammy winning albums, so I must say it was a bit head-spinning for me, a “new” artist, to sign with a label with that kind of influence and history behind them.

After I signed, we hustled back into the studio to record three more songs for the album, this time in Clarksdale, Mississippi. In July of 2024, Big Radio Records released  the album. It got tons of radio play, hit blues charts in multiple countries and produced a number one single on the RMR Blues radio chart – “Back to Clarksdale.” “Stuck in the Mud” ended the year an RMR Top 40 Blues album of the year. Again, just crazy. And now, my second album, LIVE in CLARKSDALE just released – nine months after by debut album. It has been a crazy and amazing three years.

So, to answer your question, the most obvious way I’ve grown is by creating, recording and performing my own music – music, I need to point out, that I created with some great co-writers. So, what remained the same is my approach to fronting a band, to singing and playing the harp. I’ve been doing that a long time. And I absolutely love every minute of it. But what’s super cool is how energizing and fun it is to be doing all of that with my own songs!

As far as my music making process, even though I’m in my third decade of performing music, I’m fairly new to making music in a studio. One thing I’ve learned for sure in the process is how important the producer, the recording engineer, the studio players and the mixing and the mastering is to making great music. Now’s when I give a huge shout out to our producer, Ralph Carter. I met him in Clarksdale 10 years ago. He encouraged me to write music. He told me that someday we would make an album together. I thought he was crazy. But lo and behold, we did. Not only did we make an album, but we signed with a record label as a band that had never played even one show. And…the record has turned out to be pretty darned successful. Ralph produced the first album and our new one, too. He also co-wrote many of the songs with me. I write lyrics, he dreams up the musical expression. Then together we work it out and put it all together. We wrote nearly all the songs we’ve recorded at a picnic table at the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale. So, that’s my process and I’m sticking with it!

”My hope is that in some small way these creations touch people – maybe just a few people – and do something that keeps the blues interesting, moving and just flat-out fun for those who listen and watch the creations we’re putting out there.” (Photo: Christopher Wyze, Sonny Boy Williamson II grave, Mississippi)

What musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? Why is it important to preserve and spread the blues?

I get a lot of inspiration from the early blues musicians and those who followed in the next wave, in the Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy II, Little Walter era. Recently I’ve gotten on a Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell kick. Those two were about as big as anyone in the 1920s, recording some great music that still gets played, recorded and performed today. But most folks haven’t really heard of them. I was one of those people until not long ago. But the more I learned about Carr and Blackwell, the more their story connected with me.

I found out Carr and Blackwell lived most of their lives in Indianapolis, Indiana USA – the same town where I’ve lived most of my life. It seemed a little weird, almost eerie at first – two once-famous bluesmen, from my hometown, that I’d never heard of? Weird. But it inspired me, and I wanted to learn all I could about these guys. A lot of it seemed hard to believe. For instance, they recorded what’s probably their biggest hit, the million seller “How Long, How Long Blues” in an Indianapolis hotel room in 1928 for Vocalion Records. Very cool. Carr and Blackwell are also both buried in Indianapolis. I have photos of their gravestones. On our new album, LIVE in CLARKSDALE, I thought it would be cool to perform “How Long How Long Blues on the stage of the Juke Joint Chapel in Clarksdale. And we did. What a thrill! On the album, we also performed and recorded a song Scrapper Blackwell recorded shortly before his death in 1962 – a great blues classic: “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” Man, that almost got me teared up on stage.

So, why is it important we preserve and spread the blues? Easy. It’s the story of hardship and struggle and good times and bad times all put into words and music that tell the story of the human condition. Like great painting and sculpture and theater – like Shakespeare – the blues is timeless. It tells stories that everyone can relate to – real stories of life that can and do touch people deep down in their souls. Try listening to the song “My Old Pal Blues” that Scrapper Blackwell wrote about the day he learned of his musical partner Leroy Carr dying from alcohol at age 30. You can’t listen to that without feeling the real pain. Scrapper just had to write and sing about the pain, the funeral and the burying ground. It was the only way he could deal with the pain. “You’ll never hear his voice no more.” That’s the blues.

Blues music came up out of the ground, and out of people’s hearts and into the hearts of others. It started in the south and has traveled the world over. And so, the blues is part of everyone – whether you’ve heard the music or not. It tells everybody’s story. That’s why it should be revered and never forgotten. And it should be continued, with new artists bringing their take on the blues into music that still touches the soul of people today more than 100 years after the genre was set down as a true artform.

”wish there were a way for more musicians to “make it” in the world. It’s so hard today to be a viable act – to write music, record music, perform music and yes, sell music.” (Photo: Christopher Wyze)

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album Live in Clarksdale?

Our new album – LIVE in CLARKSDALE – includes the show soundtrack and a video of the performance we gave at the Shack Up Inn on October 1st, 2024. One interesting story is that it was the first-ever live performance for Christopher Wyze & the Tellers. Remember, this band started as a studio album project. We didn’t know if CW & the Tellers would have an audience and whether folks would want to hear us play and perform. After the success of the Stuck in the Mud – the studio album – I started dreaming again. Wouldn’t it be great to take this band on the road and tour the U.S. and Europe? I said it was a dream…and when I woke up, I said to myself, “What band?” Again, we were a band for 6 days – the entire time that it took to record our first album, “Stuck in the Mud.” I started thinking that the way to get the band on the road was to take the first step. Do one show. Record the show. Film the show. Let people see and hear us play the blues in the greatest town in the world – the place where it all started – Clarksdale, Mississippi. So that’s what we did. I called Ralph Carter, who produced our first album and ran the idea by him. He got fired up and said, “Let’s do it.” Reap and I put together a band – three of us from Indianapolis, me, bass player Gerry Murphy from “Stuck in the Mud,” and John Boyle and old bandmate on guitars, Drummer Douglas Banks, who played on three Stuck in the Mud songs, came form Memphis, keyboard player Mark Yacovone is from nearby Oxford, Mississippi and Ralph, who did the musical directing and producing came from his home in Ventura, California. Two local guys form Clarksdale: engineer Levi Land, and film maker Coop Cooper captured it all -- sound recording and video. The band got together (for the first time) the day before the show and ran through the songs. We all had dinner that night together, bunked out at the Shack Up Inn and the next day we went and put on the show for an intimate and enthusiastic crowd inside the Juke Joint Chapel at the Shack Up Inn. What an adventure. After the show, Coop edited the film, and the same team from the first album Michael Wright in Muscle Shoals (mixing) and Brian Hazard in California (mastering) finished the music. They know our sound and brought the music to life. The early reviews have been so very positive on the feel and sound of the live music, which is really pleasing. We want people to feel like they’re right there in the juke Joint Chapel, enjoying the show.

One amazing coincidence came up out of nowhere on rehearsal day – the day before the live show. The studio version of our song “Stuck in the Mud” features a female backup singer (Dana King). Since that is the only female part in the whole show, we decided to have the fellas in the band handle the backing vocals. But that day I got a message from an old friend – a female singer, Irene Smits, from the Netherlands. I had met her and her musician husband Tom in 2019, in Clarksdale. They perform the blues in Europe (and the U.S.) as Goodnight Irene. The message said she and Tom were in Clarksdale to do a show and that they wanted to say hi, since they were back in the states. They had no idea I was in Clarksdale! As you might imagine, I asked Irene if she would be willing to join the band on stage, in the recording and on film to do the female voice part. And she did! She even had a gig a few hours later. When you watch and listen to the show, you’ll see her right there on stage, next to me. And she absolutely lit up the stage. What a fun and lucky coincidence!

One other thing happened that’s worth mentioning. After the show, I returned home to Indianapolis. But I kept having this gnawing feeling that I needed to do more than just do a live show album and video. I felt like I needed to tell more of the story of Clarksdale and the Delta blues that has such a profound and positive influence on my life. So, on December 28th, bandmate Gerry Murphy and I hopped in the car, drove to Clarksdale and met up with Mississippi film maker Cooper to finished the job. Over two days, we filmed and produced a documentary called “WYZE in CLARKSDALE.” We traveled in and around Clarksdale and captured the sights and sounds of the place so that others who have never seen or experienced it could get a flavor for what the Delta blues scene is all about. It was one of those things I felt like I had to do. Will people watch it? Buy it? We hope so. But that’s not why I did it. I wanted to show people who may never get to Clarksdale what it’s all about.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?                                        (Photo: Christopher Wyze)

I wish there were a way for more musicians to “make it” in the world. It’s so hard today to be a viable act – to write music, record music, perform music and yes, sell music. There’s hardly a way to make a living as an artist. And that means a whole bunch of amazing music may never get made. A million streams would buy gas in your car for a month. I don’t know what to do about it, but I wish it could be different. One thing I do about it when it comes to my music is to spend the majority of my time working on the business side of the music. I spend a minimum of 30 hours a week on social media, creating stories, videos, photos, you name it. And then there’s the nuts-and-bolts business part – registering songs with multiple right management organizations, song copyrights, paying bills, and on and on…stuff I had no idea about before I got into this. And then there’s a whole bunch of business stuff that’s actually great fun – things like getting to talk with you and tell people about our music. I love that part of it. I was an advertising guy and writer of books and owned a business before I became an “all in” musician, so I know how to do a lot of the business side. The part I seem to spend the least amount of time on is the music. But…I’ve started to make plans for album number three. I have roughly 100 song ideas I’m sorting through. I’ll pick out the ones that seem the most promising and start writing lyrics!

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

You’re seeing it – I write stories – song lyrics. We make albums, we produce videos, we even made a documentary film all about Clarksdale and the Delta blues scene. My hope is that in some small way these creations touch people – maybe just a few people – and do something that keeps the blues interesting, moving and just flat-out fun for those who listen and watch the creations we’re putting out there.

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