HIP Video Promo Presents: Christopher Wyze & The Tellers premiere new music video "Naptown Blues" on Music-News.com

Christopher Wyze & The Tellers Honor Indianapolis Blues History on New Single "Naptown Blues"

IN, UNITED STATES, September 1, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Indianapolis-based Christopher Wyze & The Tellers are looking backward to move their next record forward. “Naptown Blues,” the title track from the band’s new album, draws directly on the story of Indianapolis blues musicians Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, two artists Christopher Wyze believes deserve far more recognition in the city they once called home and beyond. Carr and Blackwell have become a recurring presence in the band’s recent work. Christopher Wyze & The Tellers previously recorded “I’m Going Back to Tennessee,” their take on the duo’s 1928 song, while Wyze continued digging into their history. Together, Carr and Blackwell made nearly 200 recordings during an eight-year run from 1928 through 1935. For Wyze, the more he learned, the more surprising it became that their names were still unfamiliar to so many musicians around Indianapolis.

Their Indianapolis connection runs through the recordings themselves. Carr and Blackwell recorded “How Long Blues” for the Vocalion record label in 1928 using portable recording equipment inside an empty office of a local radio station housed in the Indianapolis Athletic Club building. Decades later, Blackwell recorded Live at 1444 Gallery in the same city in 1959, three years before his death. Wyze’s research has gone well beyond the songs. He uncovered information about Carr and Blackwell’s first meeting in 1928 and followed leads involving telegrams that belonged to Carr. Those discoveries shaped Naptown Blues, which turns the band’s attention toward Indianapolis and the musicians who helped put its blues history on record.

That hometown connection also runs through Wyze’s own career. A longtime writer, singer and harmonica player, he formed Christopher Wyze & The Tellers as a studio project with producer Ralph Carter in 2022. The band’s 2024 debut, Stuck in the Mud, came from writing sessions in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and recording in Muscle Shoals. The group later returned to Clarksdale for LIVE in CLARKSDALE, a live album and filmed performance mixing 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 what Wyze is uncovering.

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 photographs and headlines sit alongside the song, putting 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 at the thread connecting Carr, Blackwell and Indianapolis—and finding more reasons to keep their music in circulation.

More Christopher Wyze & The Tellers at HIP Video Promo
More Christopher Wyze & The Tellers on his website
More Christopher Wyze & The Tellers on Instagram

Andrew Gesner
HIP Video Promo
+1 732-613-1779
info@hipvideopromo.com