After decades as a journalist, businessman, and singer and blues harp player in cover bands, Christopher Wyze decided a few years ago to take the plunge into the world of original music. The latest album from Christopher Wyze and the Tellers is called Live in Clarksdale, which features onstage versions of some of the tunes from Wyze’s 2024 album Stuck in the Mud, as well as classic blues covers like Leroy Carr’s “How Long How Long.”
Most of Wyze’s original material is co-written with Ralph Carter, who had a long career as a collaborator and instrumentalist with classic rocker Eddie Money. “Ralph is really kind of my mentor inspiration,” Wyze said. “He’s kind of rock and roll royalty, because he’s been in arenas and did the rock star thing with Eddie Money. I met him years ago down in Clarksdale, Mississippi at a blues event and we kind of hit it off and decided we should do an album someday. I said I hadn’t written any songs, and he said, ‘Well, you better get started.’”
So Wyze and Carter began writing together, often sitting at a picnic table in Clarksdale, home of the Delta Blues Museum. The result was last year’s album, Stuck in the Mud. Wyze wanted to get an outside opinion of the record, as he was still basically a novice when it came to the world of original music. “We had recorded our album in Muscle Shoals,” he said. “But the Nashville Songwriters Association International has all sorts of genres represented, and I thought if I was going to be a songwriter I’d really better learn something about it. The NSAI had a mentor program, where if you’ve got songs and you want somebody to listen to them there’s some great people who volunteer, like Jim Reilley (Vince Gill, Carly Pearce). Jim used to be in a band called the New Dylans.”
“I owe Jim everything,” Wyze continued, “because he said, ‘I really like this stuff and I would buy your album.’ I told him I wanted a record label behind our music, and he connected me with Johnny Phillips at Select-O-Hits down in Memphis, it’s the Phillips family company, Sam Phillips’ (Elvis, Johnny Cash) nephew. Johnny said, ‘Let’s do it, let’s put it out on Big Radio Records.’ So you know, without Jim Reilley, and the National Songwriters Association, I don’t know where I’d be. They really helped me get going, what a tremendous organization.”
While he did have quite a bit of performing experience before he took the leap into the world of songwriting and recording, Wyze said there’s no time like the present for someone who’s a little older to get started, especially with the types of resources that are available today. “I first met Ralph at a harmonica camp in Clarksdale,” he said. “I drove down to Muscle Shoals for a songwriter workshop, that was before I signed the record deal. I was trying to meet everybody I could. And things like the Nashville Songwriters Association (can be helpful). It’s completely 100 percent joy doing this. A lot of things I tried didn’t work, but somehow it finally clicked. Don’t give up, get involved.”
You can follow Wyze and his band at christopherwyzeandthetellers.com.
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