Beginning out as a ardour venture, ‘Caught In The Mud‘ by Christopher Wyze & The Tellers quickly changed into one thing larger. We acquired to speak to Wyze about all of it.
Was there a particular second you realized Christopher Wyze & the Tellers turned greater than only a ardour venture?
Nicely, while you get a #1 hit on a blues chart, it begins to sink in. I say that considerably jokingly, however in all honesty, I had no concept this venture would develop into successful. We got down to make a studio album. That was the aim, your complete aim. And that made sense. I didn’t have a band, didn’t have a band identify, no file label…I hadn’t recorded a single tune I’d written. I’d solely began writing songs lower than a yr earlier than we recorded. We had nothing…besides a small pile of tune lyrics I had written and a few iPhone demos that co-writer and producer Ralph Carter and I had cobbled collectively from the place to begin of my lyrics. However I had what I felt had been good songs.
I knew I had an incredible producer and co-writer, and buddy in Ralph Carter. He had given me the arrogance and encouragement to write down songs. And I knew he knew the right way to make nice music. I might have been comfortable to say that we accomplished an album of our authentic songs – by no means thoughts undertaking something extra. However issues went in the wrong way.
We did hit #1 with considered one of our songs, ‘Again to Clarksdale’, on the Roots Music Report Blues single chart, which relies on worldwide radio play. We hit #1 singles on iTunes Blues in Germany and Mexico. The album, ‘Caught within the Mud’ and eight of the songs from it, hit a number of blues charts world wide: France, Australia, Canada, Belgium, the U.S., and a number of other international charts.
The blues media gave us a lot of love – radio stations, magazines, web sites, they wrote critiques of our album and have tales, and did picture spreads. Our movies have acquired 1000’s of hours of views. The album peaked at #2 on RMR within the early fall of 2024. At that time, I started to comprehend that what had began as a enjoyable ardour venture had changed into one thing a lot larger with blues lovers everywhere in the world. It’s loopy…the #1 metropolis on the earth for listeners to our music is Paris, France. Simply loopy. Beginning a few yr in the past, I started devoting just about full-time to music.
How do you go about evoking a basic blues sound in your music?
It begins with the fabric…the phrases and the music we create. And for me, that comes from being an enormous blues fan and listener to start with. After some time, the blues simply form of seep into you. Perhaps you begin listening casually, after which a bit extra. That turns into hours and years of listening to how musicians interpret the blues. Then, you get to the place the place the music, the groove, the texture, the message of the blues simply turns into a part of you. And finally, it finds its means into your music.
Evoking the basic blues sound comes from realizing the basic blues sound and what it appears like to listen to it and play it. The fellows within the band know the blues, so it’s considerably second nature to us. The remainder of the folks concerned with our music get it, too – beginning with our producer, Ralph Carter, who’s an enormous a part of creating the sound. There’s additionally our recording engineers, the blending, and the mastering. Christopher Wyze & the Tellers is a bunch of oldsters who really feel the music and put their blues into the completed product, whether or not it’s recorded within the studio or carried out reside on stage.
Elaborate in your relationship with the Shack Up Inn and the Juke Joint Chapel. What makes these locations particular to you?
I reside in Indiana, however for me, the Shack Up Inn is my different dwelling. From the primary time I set foot on the grounds there, about 15 years in the past, I felt like I had in some way come dwelling. For many who don’t know, the Shack Up Inn is on the grounds of the previous Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale. The centerpiece is the previous cotton gin, and inside that, there’s the Juke Joint Chapel Music Corridor, together with rooms you may keep in. Strewn across the gin are a bunch of previous sharecropper shacks which have been drug onto the grounds from the encompassing space and refurbished to make them into residing quarters – cabins, if you’ll. There’s a grass courtyard strewn with picnic tables and remnants of issues from years passed by – farm tools, automobiles, furnishings, junk artwork, you identify it – previous stuff that the majority people would have in all probability tossed out. The entire place is a sense. Anyway, that’s the scene. And I can inform you, if that setting doesn’t provide you with a taste for the blues and the historical past behind it, you don’t have a pulse.
I traveled to Clarksdale and the Shack Up Inn for the primary time to attend a week-long blues harmonica camp. On the time, I used to be fronting a canopy band; we performed blues. I play the harp some, however I wished to get higher. So, I signed up for the camp. I believed I’d choose up some harp suggestions and tips, and I did. However I acquired far more than that out of my go to. I walked away with a means higher deal with on the blues and what it was and is all about. And I took that with me and carry it all over the place I am going. It’s a part of me now.
I met nice musicians and lecturers: Jon Gindick, RJ Mischo, Cheryl Area, TJ Klay, Hash Brown (Brian Calway), Richard Sleigh, and Ralph Carter, who turned an incredible buddy and mentor for me. Ralph inspired me to not simply play the blues however to start out writing blues songs. In the end, he and I co-wrote and he produced our two albums. I write most of my lyrics proper there on the Shack Up Inn and I proceed to return to play music, to write down music, to get along with fellow musicians…and now to file. We recorded and filmed our LIVE in CLARKSDALE album contained in the Juke Joint Chapel on the Shack Up Inn.
There’s an simple chemistry between everybody on stage.
Sure, and it’s so a lot enjoyable to play with this group. All of us love the music of the blues. All of us respect one another as musicians and performers…and all of us get a kick out of performing reside. I like it when people point out how a lot enjoyable it appears like we’re having on stage. It tells me that the enjoyable we have now is contagious; it infects our audiences. That’s what it’s all about for us.
What was it prefer to share this momentous second with Irene Smits on stage?
Nicely, it was cool, enjoyable, and energizing. Irene lights up the stage…and is such a good looking songstress. I met her and her husband, Tom, years in the past in Clarksdale. I’ve watched their music take form and evolve…on the identical time, my music took form. They carry out and file as Goodnight Irene. The loopy factor is that I had no concept Tom and Irene had been in Clarksdale on the time we confirmed up for the present. I discovered the day earlier than we recorded and filmed. They had been on the town from their dwelling within the Netherlands to play a gig. We in some way linked and I requested Irene if she’d be up for becoming a member of us on stage for a tune – ‘Caught within the Mud’. She got here to rehearsal the day earlier than the present to run via the tune a few occasions. And the subsequent day, she joined us for ‘Caught within the Mud’ within the reside present. What began as a loopy coincidence turned out to be one of many highlights of the reside album and video.
What’s been the response to ‘Caught In The Mud (Stay)’, and the better venture to this point out of your followers and listeners? How do you’re feeling now that this efficiency is launched to the world?
The response has gone past our wildest expectations. Going into this venture, folks instructed me how powerful it’s to achieve success with a reside album. They warned me to not get my hopes up too excessive. And similar to with our debut album, which we did within the studio, my solely expectation was to make some nice music. I figured if we did that, properly…mission achieved. I felt actually good once we completed the studio recording classes, and felt the identical means in regards to the Stay in Clarksdale session. I felt like we pulled it off and had finished our greatest. The reception we’ve gotten is icing on the cake. As soon as once more, we made it onto the blues charts world wide, and the album, present video, and documentary movie have gotten a lot of media protection and critiques from world wide. And our fan base, listeners, and followers on social media develop by the day. How do I really feel? Implausible!
Is there something you realized about your self whereas crafting this three-part venture?
I continue to learn, and it’s just about the identical lesson: have a “why not?” perspective, and good issues would possibly simply occur for you. I say “would possibly” as a result of there are not any ensures on this world. But it surely’s laborious to do something of any consequence with out first believing you are able to do it. Shortly after our debut album was launched – and we noticed the good response it was getting – I had this concept, name it extra of a dream. I wished to file and movie a reside present, and do it on the Shack Up Inn, within the Juke Joint Chapel, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Now take into account, at that time, Christopher Wyze & the Tellers was only a studio band – one which had spent a complete of 5 days collectively in a recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In truth, there was no reside performing band; it didn’t exist. So, the very first thing to do was to place a band collectively. Then, organize the gig on the Shack Up Inn, line up the audio and video recording crews, get producer Ralph Carter on board, get Huge Radio Information, our label, …and on and on. Nicely, the educational in all of that is that for those who suppose you are able to do it…properly, possibly you may. And for those who suppose you may’t…you positively can’t.
What would you like the world to find out about Clarksdale and its place in blues historical past?
It’s the hub, the middle for the music of the Delta…the blues. Within the documentary movie we made (WYZE in CLARKSDALE), we take folks to the very place the place W.C. Helpful first heard the blues: Tutwiler, Miss, a couple of minutes from Clarksdale. Helpful took that music he heard on the practice station there and popularized it. He gave it to the world. Helpful grew up in Clarksdale. So it’s honest to say that Clarksdale and that space of the Delta is the place the blues had been born. Folks ought to know this in regards to the blues – and lots of do. The entire city and space is steeped in blues music. Within the documentary movie, I introduce folks to among the historical past, locations and those that make Clarksdale so particular in that means. Sadly, People appear to be much less conscious of the significance of Clarksdale than do others from outdoors the U.S. Make a journey to Clarksdale and on any day of the yr, the vast majority of folks visiting are from outdoors the united statesA. Europeans, particularly, cherish the blues, and so they flock to Clarksdale. He’s one thing loopy: for our band, Spotify tells us that the #1 metropolis on the earth for listeners to our music is Paris, France. Loopy.
The place does Christopher Wyze & the Tellers match into an rising blues revival? What can followers look ahead to subsequent?
That’s possibly a greater query for our followers and the blues media, but it surely’s wanting like we’re proper within the thick of it. All of this has made our heads spin to consider what’s occurred for our music in simply the previous yr – the Radio play…the media protection…hitting blues charts within the U.S., Australia, France, Canada, Belgium, iTunes, Mexico, Germany, and a number of other international charts. And now, being nominated for a Blues Blast Music Award for “Finest New Artist Debut Album” (followers can vote right here)…it’s simply wonderful to be part of all the good issues taking place with blues music world wide.
All of this has come on the energy of 1 studio album of authentic music and one reside efficiency as a band…our LIVE in CLARKSDALE album and video. Subsequent for us…we’ve simply now gotten the ball rolling on plans for a studio album of all-new, authentic music. We’re at work to place collectively a touring schedule of festivals within the U.S. for 2026. We’ve acquired an out of doors probability of attending to Europe for some exhibits subsequent yr.
To our followers on the market: I need to say, “Hey people, let these venues and festivals on the market know you need them to e book Christopher Wyze & the Tellers!” Lastly, we proceed to place out an increasing number of video content material and different goodies on our web site and social channels. For those who love the blues, be part of us at our web site. If you do, we’ll hold you posted on new music, new movies and tour dates.
You may watch the reside video of ‘Caught In The Mud’ beneath, and discover out extra about Christopher Wyze & The Tellers and their music on-line on YouTube, Fb, and Instagram.
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