Long before blues history became permanently associated with a handful of cities and highway signs, Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell were making records in Indianapolis that would help shape what came next.
Christopher Wyze & The Tellers are revisiting that history with “Naptown Blues,” their new single and the title track from an upcoming 11-song album arriving October 2 through Big Radio Records.
Originally recorded by Carr and Blackwell in 1929, “Naptown Blues” serves as the entry point to a project built around the pair’s contribution to Indianapolis blues. Rather than modernizing the material until little of the original character remains, Wyze and the band deliberately stripped things back.
There are no drums or percussion on the album. Instead, the arrangements lean heavily on acoustic guitar, bass and harmonica with a single lead vocal, an approach Wyze says was intended to preserve some of the intimacy and rawness of the early recordings while still allowing The Tellers to put their own identity into the songs.
That’s an important distinction. Tribute albums work best when they remember the point isn’t to prove how much better recording equipment has become.
Carr’s piano and vocals paired with Blackwell’s guitar created a sophisticated and relaxed blues style that became an important part of Indianapolis’ musical identity during the late 1920s and 1930s. Their recordings included “How Long, How Long Blues,” “Midnight Hour Blues,” “In the Evening” and “Hurry Down Sunshine,” while Blackwell’s “Kokomo Blues” would become part of the musical lineage leading to Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Their influence ultimately traveled far beyond Indianapolis, reaching generations of blues, R&B and rock musicians.
For Christopher Wyze & The Tellers, Naptown Blues is an opportunity to bring some of that history back into the conversation nearly a century later—and to do it without sanding away the character that made the music important in the first place.
Sometimes preserving music history doesn’t require making it bigger.
It requires listening closely enough to know what not to add.
Naptown Blues arrives October 2.
Learn More: Christopher Wyze & The Tellers Official Website
Information provided by Christopher Wyze & The Tellers’ publicity team.