Big Radio Records, a division of Memphis music institution Select-O-Hits, has announced the upcoming release of LIVE in CLARKSDALE—a powerful live album and DVD set from chart-climbing blues act Christopher Wyze & the Tellers. The CD+DVD package, out on April 18, 2025, captures the band’s fiery performance at the legendary Juke Joint Chapel inside the Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, Mississippi—a setting deeply rooted in blues history.
Capturing the Spirit of Clarksdale
Recorded on October 1, 2024, LIVE in CLARKSDALE features ten tracks, including eight originals from the band’s acclaimed debut Stuck in the Mud and two poignant covers of 1920s blues standards by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell—How Long, How Long Blues and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.
“It’s hard to find a blues-ier place to play our music, make an album and shoot film,” says frontman Christopher Wyze, citing legendary artists like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Charlie Musselwhite, and the North Mississippi All Stars who have performed at the same venue.
For Wyze and two of the Tellers, who hail from Indianapolis—the same city where Carr and Blackwell lived, recorded, and were laid to rest—those covers carry deep meaning. “They surely had good reason to play the blues,” Wyze reflects. “It just felt right to record two of Leroy and Scrapper’s best. I got a little choked up on stage.”
A Multimedia Blues Experience
The LIVE in CLARKSDALE set includes not only the concert audio but also two video features: the full live performance and WYZE in CLARKSDALE, a 50-minute documentary hosted by Wyze himself. The film offers a rare, immersive journey through Clarksdale—the birthplace and home of the blues—exploring its rich culture, iconic locations, and lasting musical legacy.
A Rapid Rise in the Blues World
LIVE in CLARKSDALE is the band’s second release with Big Radio Records in just nine months. Their July 2024 debut album Stuck in the Mud delivered a #1 single (Back to Clarksdale) and landed at #38 on the Roots Music Report’s “Top 200 Blues Albums of 2024.” That made Christopher Wyze & the Tellers one of only three new acts to break into the year-end top 50.
Johnny Phillips, co-owner of Select-O-Hits and head of Big Radio Records, is excited about what this release means for the band’s growing audience. “They set out to do something unheard of today—build streams, radio play, album sales, reviews, and a fan base without having first made their name as a live act. But they did it,” he says. “Now, people finally get to see and hear what this band can do on stage. The sights, the sounds, the Juke Joint Chapel… it’s just amazing.”
As the nephew of the legendary Sam Phillips—founder of Sun Studios and Sun Records—Johnny knows a thing or two about musical heritage. “Our family’s been in this music game a long time,” he says. “It’s great when you get to introduce something as unique and original as Wyze and the Tellers. To blues fans everywhere, I say: check out this new album and video.”
Release Details
LIVE in CLARKSDALE will be available on April 18, 2025 as a CD+DVD set, and across digital platforms, online retailers, and independent record stores via Select-O-Hits distribution.
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