Christopher Wyze & The Tellers Pay Tribute to Indianapolis Blues Legacy with New Single “Naptown Blues”
Based in Indianapolis, Christopher Wyze & The Tellers are looking to the past as they push their forthcoming album forward. “Naptown Blues,” the lead track from the band’s latest release, directly draws from the narrative of Indianapolis blues figures Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell—two artists Christopher Wyze feels deserve much greater recognition in the city they once inhabited and throughout the wider world. Carr and Blackwell have emerged as a persistent theme in the group’s recent output. Christopher Wyze & The Tellers earlier cut “I’m Going Back to Tennessee,” their rendition of the duo’s 1928 song, while Wyze continued exploring their history. Across an eight-year span from 1928 to 1935, Carr and Blackwell together produced approximately 200 recordings. For Wyze, the deeper he dug, the more puzzling it became that their names remained largely unknown to so many musicians around Indianapolis.
The duo’s connection to Indianapolis runs through the recordings themselves. In 1928, Carr and Blackwell cut “How Long Blues” for the Vocalion label using portable gear set up inside an empty office of a local radio station housed in the Indianapolis Athletic Club building. Decades later, in 1959, Blackwell recorded Live at 1444 Gallery in the same city, three years before his death. Wyze’s research has extended well beyond the music. He unearthed details about Carr and Blackwell’s initial meeting in 1928 and followed clues involving telegrams that belonged to Carr. Those findings shaped Naptown Blues, which shifts the band’s focus toward Indianapolis and the musicians who helped put its blues history onto vinyl.
That local connection also runs through Wyze’s own career. A longtime writer, singer, and harmonica player, he launched Christopher Wyze & The Tellers as a studio project alongside producer Ralph Carter in 2022. The band’s 2024 debut, Stuck in the Mud, emerged from writing sessions in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and recording sessions in Muscle Shoals. The group later went back to Clarksdale for LIVE in CLARKSDALE, a live album and filmed performance blending original songs with blues standards. Click, click. “Naptown Blues” brings the story home. The title track gives the new album its Indianapolis identity while keeping Carr and Blackwell visible as musicians whose work remains central to Wyze’s discoveries.
The accompanying video from HIP Video Productions uses public-domain material from the 1920s, including newspaper clippings, photographs of entertainment venues, and other period images. Old photos and headlines sit alongside the song, placing faces, places, and printed history around the names Wyze wants listeners to remember. With the full album still ahead, Christopher Wyze & The Tellers continue pulling the thread that connects Carr, Blackwell, and Indianapolis—and finding further reasons to keep their music in circulation.
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Andrew Gesner
HIP Video Promo
+1 732-613-1779
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