September 1, 2025 • 51 mins
Ever wondered what it would be like to completely reinvent yourself after a successful career? Christopher Wyze's remarkable journey from advertising executive to blues musician proves it's never too late to follow your passion.
Growing up in Indiana, Christopher's introduction to blues came when his college-aged brother brought home BB King and Bobby Blue Bland records. Though the music resonated with him, life took him in a different direction – building a career in marketing, running an advertising agency, and writing books. Music remained a distant memory until a chance encounter at a church wine dinner twenty years ago led to an impromptu performance that changed everything.
When invited to front a local band, Christopher embraced the opportunity despite having been away from music for decades. Feeling he needed to contribute more than just vocals, he taught himself harmonica and eventually found his way to Clarksdale, Mississippi – the heart of delta blues country. There, he met Ralph Carter, former musical director for Eddie Money, who became his producer and collaborator. Their partnership led to recording sessions at the legendary Muscle Shoals studios and a record deal with Big Radio Records, a company with direct ties to Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis and Howlin' Wolf.
What makes Christopher's story particularly fascinating is how his life experience shaped his music. Unlike genres where youth dominates, blues benefits from the authenticity that comes with age. As Christopher puts it, "This music doesn't happen without experience." His background as a writer and marketer gave him unique tools for songwriting and promoting his music. Perhaps most remarkably, his song "Three Hours from Memphis" – written while driving to meet his producer – unwittingly predicted his own journey before it fully unfolded.
Ready to be inspired by a second-act success story? Listen as Christopher shares how embracing the blues led him to find joy, purpose, and unexpected friendships in the later chapters of his life.
Links
- Jay Franze: https://JayFranze.com
- Virtually You: https://www.virtuallyyouva.com/
- Christopher Wyze: https://christopherwyzeandthetellers.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony Scott (00:05):
Welcome to The Jay Franzi Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Jay Franze (00:34):
Now here's your host , Jay Franze, and with me
tonight the Sandy to my Danny,my beautiful co-host, Miss
Tiffany Mason.
Tiffany Mason (00:44):
Well, good evening everyone.
Jay Franze (00:46):
If you are new to the show, this is your source
for the latest news, reviews andinterviews.
So if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any
questions, please head over tojfranzycom.
Well, tonight we have a veryspecial guest, miss Tiffany.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest, miss Tiffany.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest.
We have a recording artist withus.
(01:08):
But you get this as a twist toit.
Tonight, miss Tiffany Hold on Ilike a twist we will get there.
Hailing from the great state ofIndiana, we have Mr Christopher
Wyze.
Christopher sir, how are you?
Christopher Wyze (01:22):
Glad to be with you, jay, and Tiffany
especially.
I thought you were the surpriseTiffany.
But are you Glad to be with you, jay and Tiffany especially?
I thought you were the surpriseTiffany, but I guess I'll be
the surprise tonight.
She's a surprise to everybody.
Jay Franze (01:33):
She is definitely a surprise, mr Christopher.
Sir, how did you develop apassion for blues, being from
Indiana?
Christopher Wyze (01:44):
Well, it's funny, my brother came home from
college, you know, and that'll,like, you know, corrupt you or
something.
He came home with an albumcalled BB King and Bobby Blue
Bland live together for thefirst time and he put those
vinyls on.
I remember when he came homefrom college and it was like
(02:05):
whoa, that is super cool.
Now my mom listened to peoplelike Sam Cooke and Sinatra, so
there was a little bit of thatin there, you know.
But it was like cooler thanthat.
It was kind of like mixed upwith Elvis and all that.
So I kind of stuck that in theback of my head and then we had
the Mills brothers playing inthe house and so forth.
(02:25):
So I had a little bit of bluesgoing on there and that's kind
of where it first came in.
But eventually I kind of made apilgrimage to Clarksdale,
mississippi, and then it justgot off the rails, man for me
and I just got steeped in theblues, but we'll get into that
if we need to.
But that's kind of where it allstarted.
Jay Franze (02:46):
Were you already performing at that time?
Christopher Wyze (02:48):
Well, you know , I performed and sang, you know
, musicals and in a choir andthings as a kid and in high
school and so I kind of came tomusic as a performer and we had
a real good music program.
We would like sing the messiahwith an orchestra and things
like that so I mean it was.
(03:10):
It was super cool and you know,I got to, uh, I got to
understand, uh, really, all theparts of music.
I was a freshman in high schooland I was a first tenor, so I
could have been in the viennaboys choir and then a sophomore.
I was a second tenor and then abaritone and then a bass.
So I kind of matured my waythrough the treble clef into the
bass clef but along the way itwas like oh, I get it, there's
(03:33):
kind of a melody and there'ssome harmony, and then there's
the bass and that's kind of therhythm and even if it handles
Messiah, you get a sense for howit all fits together.
So I sang and then I went toschool, went to college, I was a
writer and a journalist and anadvertising guy and I really
(03:56):
went away from music for a long,long time and, kind of 20 years
or so ago, started singing in acover band as a front man and
uh, the guys were into the blues, the guys who were in that
cover band who asked me to bethe front man and I of course
had to say, wait a minute,what's a front man?
I actually said that.
I remember I was like, I waslike this kind of uptight
(04:18):
business guy.
I'm like, oh, hold on here,what are you talking about?
But I, uh, I eventually didthat.
And then these guys were justcrazy about the blues and it's
like whoa, I remember that stuff.
So I kind of jumped back intoit and I decided to learn the
harmonica, which sent me on anodyssey to the Mississippi Delta
(04:38):
, and I learned a heck of a lotmore there and met a lot of
folks who helped me really makerecords and really get into this
business in a crazy kind of waythat I never imagined.
Jay Franze (04:50):
Now you say you were brought back into the blues
when you joined this band.
So what music were youinterested in at that time?
Christopher Wyze (05:01):
I listened to, you know, classic rock man.
I mean that's what I liked.
I liked Supertramp and I likedEddie Money and I liked Kansas
and Boston and Elton John.
I liked I mean just all thegreat kind of stuff.
I grew up in the 70s.
My sisters were quite a fewyears older, you know they don't
(05:23):
want to admit that, but theylistened to the Beatles and God
I love the Beatles.
They didn't listen to theStones, they listened to Beatles
, the Beach Boys, john Sebastian, just stuff like that.
The Monkees, I mean I love theMonkees.
So there was kind of musicflowing all around.
But you know, just, hey, man,rock and roll, baby, this is the
(05:43):
70s.
And it was kind of like youknow, garth and whatever his
name is in the movie.
I mean that was kind of the wayit was.
I had terrible hair at the time.
It was really bad, you know.
Tiffany Mason (06:00):
And we thought we were cool, but we were not cool
.
I have a podcast where I talkto people about music and it's
pretty common that an oldersibling will expose them to.
You know a certain type ofgenre.
So what was that like?
Like he comes home and he'slike hey, christopher, you got
to check out this final or how?
How does the conversation godown?
Where are you guys end upswapping music?
Christopher Wyze (06:20):
It was more like hey, what are you doing in
my room?
I mean, just because I'm likethat's what.
I was expecting, like, have mystuff and, by the way, I'm going
to put on some tunes and getout.
You know it's kind of like that.
But I think I must have had myear up against the door or
something.
And you know he's a college kidso he's playing it really loud
so I could hear it.
(06:41):
We get along famously now, butit wasn't quite that way when we
were growing up.
You know not, when it's yourkid brother, yeah, and I was the
younger brother, so it's like,oh, leave me.
You know, get out of here, kid,you know you bother me.
So it was more like that.
And my sister, you know, listento the, the Beach Boys and stuff
(07:02):
like that.
So you know, I heard that kindof coming under the door kind of
way as well.
So that's that's kind of whereit was.
But we, you know, we got into,well, like fog hat man, I
remember, and the doobiebrothers and uh, yeah, it was
just so cool.
And we, we actually, you know,I remember going to see the
doobie brothers and fog hat inin evansville, indiana where I
(07:23):
grew up big, big stadium showsand we just thought that was,
you know, that was just amazing,it was just super cool.
So you know, we kind of had ourown music that we got into,
that probably everybody did, butwe thought it was ours right.
Jay Franze (07:37):
You mentioned the Beatles and the Stones and bands
like that growing up.
Do you make that connectionbetween blues and that style of
music?
Because the stones and thosetype of bands incorporated blues
into their music?
Christopher Wyze (07:52):
no question, 100 now not, you know, I
certainly didn't recognize it atthe time.
But when really try to studyand learn about the blues and
when you do you go, oh, I get itthere about the blues.
And when you do you go, oh, Iget it, there was the blues.
And then there was rock androll.
And you know, I didn't knowthat.
And now that I make music andwrite music and things like that
(08:14):
I didn't know how importantsort of the pattern of the blues
the one, four, five and the 12bars and all that kind of stuff
was to popular music, rock androll music and rockabilly music,
country music, I mean the bluesflows through every bit of it.
So you know, I've got a bit of adifferent perspective now that
(08:35):
I that I kind of see everythingthrough the lens of the blues,
which is super cool and and justkind of a side note, our
music's on big radio records.
It's part of a company that wasfounded by Sam Phillips in 1960
.
So it's called Selecto Hits andSam Phillips, you know who
recorded Elvis and Howlin' Wolfand a lot of great blues men
(08:56):
there in Memphis.
His nephew and his son run thecompany today and that's the
guys I work with there at BigRadio Records out of Memphis, so
it ties right into the bluestoo, which is kind of you got to
pinch me.
It's just like so cool to bethat close to you know something
really important and historicand uniquely American about what
(09:20):
goes on with the music that wemake here.
Jay Franze (09:22):
We grew up roughly at the same time.
What goes on with the musicthat we make here?
We grew up roughly at the sametime and if I were thinking of
making it in music these days,it would be tough because of the
age of the typical artist thatmakes it these days.
But you've chosen a genre thatactually benefits the more
seasoned people, so do you feellike being in that genre is
(09:45):
what's going to lead you to alonger career?
Christopher Wyze (09:48):
Well, there's no question.
It's interesting.
When I first started writingmusic and recording music, which
was five years ago, for thefirst time, I wasn't really sure
what was going to happen.
All I wanted to do was makethis record.
I'll tell you how we made ithere in a minute and I had no
idea where it would go.
(10:09):
I had no idea if I would justlike play it for friends at
parties and make sure they hadplenty of adult beverages before
we put it on and that kind ofstuff.
But that's not the way thisthing went down.
In fact, I ended up joining theNashville Songwriters
Association Kind of out of theblue.
I took these recordings that Iwasn't sure what I was going to
(10:30):
do with, and through theirmentor program, some folks
listened to it and said, hey, welike that.
I had one guy say I would buythat stuff, and so then I went
to this event.
I got to looking around, jay.
I was looking for guys thatlooked like you and I that era,
but I was actually looking atfolks like Tiffany as well, if
(10:51):
you know what I mean.
Oh, I know what you mean.
I get it songwriting conferenceand I'm the oldest person here
and I might be older than anyonehere knows.
So I'm like you know, I'm amarketing guy, I was an
(11:12):
advertising guy forever and everand I'm like, whoa, wait a
minute, that's not your market,christopher Wise, your market is
something else.
And so, long story or shortstory, long Jay.
Yeah, it occurs to me thatthat's the only place I can fit.
You know I get it.
They're like you're not our guyman and you got to be smart
enough to know where your placeis.
I think, whatever you'remarketing or promoting or having
(11:35):
people that you want to beinterested in it.
So it just it all kind of cametogether, kind of curiously,
that oh yeah, I love the blues,I sing in a blues band and I
just got into the NationalSongwriters Association because
I didn't know really much aboutsongwriting.
So I thought I'd I don't knowjoin an association and see what
happened.
And that's what happened.
(11:56):
It led me to a good decision,which was to get after the blues
and to do it after I'd alreadyhad my career.
I owned a business, I I spentdecades being a writer, an
advertising guy, writing books,and you know I wrote all sorts
of advertising and videos andcommercials and technical things
(12:17):
, and five books I've got inprint and so forth.
So I've written a lot of stuff.
And so by the time I time I gotto the point where I needed to
write music.
I already knew how to write.
I've been doing it for decades.
I hired writers.
They worked for me.
I trained writers, I editedtheir stuff, and so then I got
to do that stuff for me.
(12:37):
When it came to writing songsand put it through the same sort
of process and hurdles that Iused to give to other people.
But I do it now with my music.
Wait a minute, that's aterrible verb.
Where'd you get that?
That doesn't make any sense.
No one understands that.
You're putting me to sleep, man.
I'm telling myself this.
It's like you've got to dobetter than that.
Jay Franze (12:55):
So in this genre.
This music doesn't happenwithout an experience, and I
think that's what makes theolder generations better at the
music than the youngergenerations.
Tiffany Mason (13:09):
Like piggybacking on this a little bit.
Yeah, you said you vieweverything through the lens of
blues.
So what is that lens?
Christopher Wyze (13:18):
Well, I guess a little backdrop.
You know, as I said, I kind ofhad a business career.
I ran a business and I got awayfrom music, so that's the first
thing.
I sort of put it away.
And then I was at a wine dinnerit was a church wine dinner,
but a wine dinner neverthelessand there's a guy up there on
(13:39):
stage and he's playing acousticguitar.
He's really good, he's about myage this was 20 years ago, and
I don't guitar.
He's really good, he's about myage, this was 20 years ago, and
I don't know he takes a break.
I go up and I say, hey, man,that was that was really good
stuff and I really enjoyedlistening to you.
And he says, well, are you amusician?
I don't know why he said that.
And then I said, well, yeah, Ising.
I was like I don't know why.
I said that I really hadn'tsung in 20 years.
(14:01):
But I was like, yeah, I mean, Ithink I was at the point in my
life where somebody needed toask me if I was a musician.
And then I needed to say, sure,I'm a singer.
And so he said, well, hey, whatdo you like?
And we talked about stuff likethe Beatles and the blues a
little bit.
And he goes well, tell you whatdo you know?
This one and this one.
(14:21):
I'm like oh yeah, yeah, I singin the shower all the time, man,
I'm pretty good at it.
He's like well, tell you what,let me, let me get a glass of
wine here and I'll run up onstage.
Why don't you join me?
I said that sounds great.
Yeah, let's do it.
So I always enjoy.
Yeah, this really happened.
And so we run through two orthree songs and people are like
(14:42):
more, you know, do more.
And I I'm like what else youknow here, rick?
And you know we must have gonefor an hour or so.
And I was like well, that wasfun, I'll see you later, buddy.
And he's like whoa, get backhere.
What's your name and what?
What's the deal here, dude?
And he says, hey, we need afront man in our band.
I think I said this and I didsay well, what do you front?
man what's that he's like whathe goes come over to my house
(15:04):
next week we're having a bandrehearsal and uh, let's do this
thing.
Man, and that was 20 some oddyears ago.
And uh, he was great bluesguitar player and you know, we
sang covers, a lot of rock androll but but really all kind of
blues based rock and roll.
And these guys talking to bluestoo and decided, hey, I'm just
(15:24):
a singer and I kind of had aninferiority complex although you
might be surprised by that, yes, because I did hop up on stage.
But you know, I thought, hey, Igot to contribute more than
just singing in this band.
I'm going to learn theharmonica.
I always love the harmonica inthe blues and so I started
playing it and I eventuallysigned up for a one week
(15:47):
workshop in Clarksdale,mississippi, where you learn the
blues harmonica.
And.
I was already playing it and I'mplaying it on stage and with
the band and so forth, but Iwanted to learn to get better.
So here I plopped down, kind oflike from outer space in Clark,
the marshdale, mississippi, atthe shack up in which is
literally a shack, and uh,there's a bunch of like the
(16:10):
greatest blues musicians I'veever seen who are really kind
and helpful and they want you tolearn the blues and some of
them are like amazing at guitarand harmonica.
And eventually I met at thatvery first time I went there
Ralph Carter, who became myco-writer on Stuck in the Mud,
(16:33):
that album back there andproduced both of those albums on
the wall back there.
Well, ralph didn't play theharmonica but he was one of the
instructors in the camp becausehe was kind of rock and roll
royalty.
He had played and wrote songsand was the tour musical
director for Eddie Money.
So here's Ralph Carter who'slike the kindest man in the
(16:53):
world.
He's kind of like Jesus, only alot nicer.
But he's one of these guys.
I mean, ralph is just a gentle,gentle man and we kind of hit
it off.
We're about the same era and youknow, I go down to this camp
and some people bought aharmonica on the way to the camp
.
I mean, it's kind of like bluesfantasy camp and that's okay
(17:14):
and they're going to teach themhow to play.
I was already playing in a bandand you know, I wanted to kind
of like how do you give me thesecrets of this thing?
I want to be a really cool guyon stage with this, and so there
were people there who couldteach me that too.
But I remember at the firstcamp it didn't take too long
where Ralph and I ended upsharing a beverage or two and
he's like I don't know, we endedup kind of jamming and singing.
(17:38):
He's like hey sort of like whatare?
You doing here you can do this.
I mean, it was kind of likethat.
I'm like, well, I hope so.
I, you know.
I went back several more timesand Ralph began to say, hey, you
need to start writing music.
I'm like, what do?
I know about writing music.
You know, we talk and all that,and then and then and then one
(17:58):
time he goes hey, we're going tomake a record together someday.
I said, man, I'd love to be onyour record.
And he goes we're going to doyour songs, you're going to
write the songs.
And it was like I mean, I'mlike I'm shaking, I'm like wait
a minute.
You're that guy up there onstage with Eddie Money and the
videos with Apollonia and stufflike that, and I'm this guy who
(18:22):
just sings in a cover band andyou're telling me I can do this.
It didn't add up.
Tiffany Mason (18:27):
There's nothing better than when somebody really
sees it in you and can give youthat boost of confidence before
you have it for yourself.
And that sounds like that'swhat Ralph did for you.
Christopher Wyze (18:38):
Well, I had a little bit of confidence.
No, it's because you knowbusiness was serious to me and
you know, feeding the family andhaving people work for me and
wanting them to get a paycheck,I mean that stuff's really
serious.
Making music that's just totaljoy and fun and ridiculously
(19:00):
cool, and so I never sweatedthat.
I just have no frets or worriesor anything about music, other
than I love it and it's fun.
And so you know I'm sort oflucky.
I said to Ralph a few years agoI'm like dang, I wish I would
have gotten into music when Iwas younger.
I mean, in a big way he goes.
You know what.
(19:21):
I think it worked out prettygood for you the way it ended up
.
Because when I got into it now,you know, does it matter
whether I have a hit song orthis album does?
Well, I'm not knotted up aboutthat, I'm just trying to do good
music and have people enjoy it,and I probably wouldn't have
approached it that way if I was20 or 25.
(19:42):
Right, I'd probably gotten allwrapped around the axle and I'd
have tried too hard and I'd haveworked too hard and you know
what else Too hard, who knowswhat.
Because I asked Ralph what wasthis really like?
What was it really like being arock and roller?
He said, well, imagine anythingyou can think of that.
You know rock and rollers wouldhave done back in that era and
that's exactly what we did.
(20:02):
So it was kind of like oh, Iget it.
So, oops, sorry, ralph.
I hope I'm, not selling you downthe river.
He has a lovely wife.
Jay Franze (20:13):
All right.
Well, you mentioned somethingin there.
I want to make sure that wetouch on before we get past it.
And that was performing andperforming live and the passion
you have for it.
But blues performing isdifferent than rock performing
and it's got a different feel toit and it also incorporates
humor.
So how do you approachperforming live?
Christopher Wyze (20:37):
humor.
So how do you approachperforming live?
Well, it's all about theaudience.
I see so many performers.
I saw I won't say his name at abig venue here in Indianapolis a
couple years ago and there wereparts of the show where this
guy who's selling zillions ofrecords or whatever they sell
nowadays, he's not even lookingat the audience.
I mean, he's kind of turnedaround, he's kind of sullen.
It's like really, really thatthat's what that's about.
And so I approach it like look,these people took time out of
(21:01):
their lives and their days andwhether I'm singing at a you
know a small little brewery orsomething in the beer garden or
something bigger than that, theydeserve the best that we can do
and sort of be taken away fromthe things they left to come and
do this.
And so I take that seriouslywith a big old smile on my face
(21:23):
because that's really what it'sabout.
So I like having fun.
You know the blues I'll haveguys.
You know we'll start a bluessong and it's.
You know they're kind ofvamping over there.
And a lot of times I'll justtell stories.
And what will I tell a storyabout?
Anything that occurs to me.
Tiffany Mason (21:39):
I'm like.
Christopher Wyze (21:40):
I just tell stories.
Sometimes they turn into songs,you know.
You know I might say, hey,how's everybody doing tonight?
You know you say that you go.
Is everybody being nice to you?
I said is there anybody outthere who had a bad day?
Seriously, raise your hand.
You have a bad day.
I'll tell you what, that's all.
I just might go into this riffand it might go five minutes
when we're all talking aboutwhat kind of day we had and how
(22:02):
it was bad, and by golly we'regoing to put some music at you,
and we're going to throw theblues in your face and this is
going to go away, and that'skind of our job.
Are you?
Tiffany Mason (22:14):
doing a song about this when we're finished.
It's like mer mer, mer, mer mer.
I was on the Jay Frenzy showMer mer, mer mer mer.
Christopher Wyze (22:24):
Yeah, I've got it.
I've got the song man.
Tiffany Mason (22:27):
Okay, we're looking forward to it.
Christopher Wyze (22:29):
I like that.
That's the ringer on my phone.
You can have that ringer onyour phone.
That riff is my ringer, ofcourse.
So how do you get theperformance and the humor and
that kind of stuff?
And that's what the blues guysdid.
You know, I would listen toHowlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters and
they would tell stories.
(22:50):
Junior Wells oh my goodness, hemight go on for five minutes
about stuff, and it was like.
I'm not trying to mimic it, Ijust kind of feel it.
I know what, I know whatthere's, I know what they're
feeling well.
Jay Franze (23:04):
Blues is about hard times, and you can't get through
hard times without having humoryeah, right, yeah, and it's
just so cool that it goes backso far.
Christopher Wyze (23:16):
I mean, the blues is old man and people
figured out that kind of has agospel tradition too, that when
you sing about having hard timesand you bring everybody
together, that feels better, andso I think that's where the
humor is.
You can see thelight-heartedness in it.
I don't know, man, it's special.
Singing the blues, playing theblues and being able to perform
(23:39):
for people, that's reallyspecial.
Jay Franze (23:42):
So you mentioned earlier that you're actually
writing stuff, so can you tellus about your writing process?
Christopher Wyze (23:50):
Well, this whole adventure started with
Ralph saying you should bewriting music.
And then I saw an article inthe Wall Street Journal about a
recording studio in MuscleShoals and I snapped a photo of
it.
I'm a business guy, I'm readingthe Wall Street Journal and I
sent it to Ralph.
I said, hey, here's, we'regoing to make our album.
And I was really just kidding.
(24:10):
And he said, yeah, when are wegoing to do it?
So I was like whoa, I thinkhe's serious.
And then it kind of occurred tome.
I've been a journalist, wrotefor a daily newspaper and
magazine advertising.
There's always a deadline, youknow.
And the thing is I learned thatas a writer, all I need is a
deadline and a subject and I'llget it done.
(24:33):
I will get it done.
And it was almost like whenRalph said, yeah, let's do it,
I'm like, well, of course let'sdo it.
This guy thinks I can do this.
I'm not about to let him downand, plus, all I need is
Pavlov's dog.
You give me a deadline andsomething to do and I write, man
, I write 50,000 word books.
I know how to crank out a lotof copies, we say in the
(24:54):
business.
But what Ralph and I did.
We said, ok, our deal was thisI'll get started writing lyrics,
we'll meet in Clarksdale in afew months I think it was like
three months and I'll bring mypile of lyrics with me.
And Ralph is, I mean, he's amaster musician, plays every
instrument, he scores things, hewrites music.
(25:15):
I mean he has a studio inventura, california.
I mean he knows this thingbackwards and forwards and I I
know that if I can get somelyrics, he'll turn them into
music and together we can makethese things work.
So I decide, okay, we're goingto meet in mississippi, because
he goes down for these harmonicacamps, he also does guitar
camps and he does songwritingcamps, so he spends a lot of
(25:36):
time in Clarksdale.
I said, hey, after your lastcamp's over, I'll meet you at
the airport.
Or he was flying in and I saidI'll pick you up at the airport
in Memphis, we'll drive down anhour and a half to Clarksdale
and I'll have my lyrics andwe'll sit there for three days
and let's just get this thingdone.
And then we'll be up in MuscleShoals, where we were scheduled
to record I don't know a coupleof months later.
(25:56):
We're like, okay, that soundslike a plan, let's do that, and
so we did.
I will tell you one of thecraziest things while I was on
my way down, I drove fromIndianapolis.
It's about eight hours.
You drive through six States toget to Clarksdale, which is
kind of fun.
But I remember looking down atthe map you know the GPS thing
(26:18):
in the car and I'm like where in?
Jay Franze (26:19):
the heck am.
Christopher Wyze (26:20):
I and I looked down and it said three hours
from Memphis.
And I said three hours fromMemphis.
I think I might have even saidit out loud and I'm like, holy
cow, that's a song.
I had this idea for this songjust pop into my head, I don't
know how.
I wrote a song called ThreeHours from Memphis about a guy
(26:40):
who's on his way to Memphis tosee a music man because he
thinks he's going to be a star,he's going to make it.
He's been paying his dues for15 years.
I write this song.
The idea for the song pops intomy head.
I'm driving and I'm like I'mtoo scared to pull off the road.
I'm afraid I'm going to forgetthe idea.
So I got out some paper and Iset it on the armrest over here
(27:03):
and I wrote the lyrics to thesong as I'm driving with one
hand I'm used to playingharmonica and driving, so I'm OK
with this.
I literally I mean it's real,this really happened.
This is not.
It didn't happen.
He's just making this up.
I can't believe why he's.
He's a fabulous, but that's nottrue.
This really happened.
And so I remember when I wasdone, kind of scribbling, I
(27:23):
looked down and it was like onehour of Memphis.
It's like I can't account forthose two hours.
I can't account for how thatidea came to me.
Now, here's the crazy thing.
So I meet him in Memphis, blah,blah, blah.
We do this.
We then go to Muscle Shoals afew months later we record this
album for God knows what reason.
We don't know what we're goingto do with it.
(27:44):
Later I sign a record deal witha record label in Memphis and I
had no clue.
And so later I'm looking at thelyrics to this song after I
recorded it.
I'm like wait a minute, this isautobiographical.
This is about you, you bigknucklehead.
You're on your way to Memphisto meet a music guy and you're
going to be a star.
(28:05):
And it's the spookiest thing.
And I, you know I.
I talked to other songwritersand you, you listen to other
songwriters about their craftand how they do it, and they're
like I don't get it.
I don't know.
I don't know where it came from.
It came through me.
I don't feel like I did it andI'll tell you what that, that
song right there.
I don't know what happened, butit was my life story before it
(28:27):
happened and so it implies whenyou're having fun.
Yeah, it's kind of weird, I'msorry.
I'm sorry to weird you out, Idon't know.
So my process is I just need astory idea, I need a deadline
and I kind of, you know, get theblues a little bit.
And then I have some greatco-writers Ralph and I wrote
eight songs together on ourfirst album Eric Deaton, a guy
(28:49):
that plays with the Black Keys,and Hank Williams Jr, and he
played with Tony Joe White, anincredible musician.
He and I wrote a song on thealbum.
Me and my bass player wrote acouple, and me and Kerry Hudson,
who's a great Americana artist,who I met at a songwriting camp
and asked him to help me with acouple of songs that I had
lyrics for, and so he and I putthose together in Clarksdale,
(29:12):
mississippi.
So my process is to have astory, an idea, and then to tell
the story in a few hundredwords.
You know, that's all I've got,which isn't really terribly
challenging.
I'm used to, you know, writinga story and having it be done in
a couple hours.
I mean, that's the way Ilearned to write, and I don't,
(29:32):
you know, I just I write.
That's what I do, that's what Iknow how to do.
Jay Franze (29:37):
What studio did you record in?
Christopher Wyze (29:40):
We recorded it in Ivy Manor at the Shoals, and
it was new at the time and whatI liked about it that caught my
attention is you go there andyou live there.
It's in an old mansion thatthis guy, michael Wright, kind
of refurbed and made into astudio, and so we stayed there.
On Monday morning I met theband.
We didn't have a band, so Ralphwrote charts and he auditioned
(30:05):
the studio musicians.
He brought Eric Deaton to thesessions, our guitar player, and
you know I picked up Ralph inClarksdale.
We drove up to Muscle Shoalsand I met everybody who was in
our band on Monday morning andThursday afternoon we cut
everybody loose and we stuckaround and did some vocal stuff
(30:26):
on Friday and pretty much walkedout of there Saturday with a
with a finished record from agroup of guys I'd never played
with.
These songs didn't exist.
Being in a cover band, I hadrecorded several CDs of, of just
covers.
You know that we would.
You know, hey, we're a goodband.
Listen to our covers here youknow and and the thing is, and
(30:46):
they were good, I liked them,good old blues, to our covers
here, you know.
And.
And the thing is, and they weregood, I liked them, good old
blues songs and so forth.
But you know, the thing withthat is, by the time I recorded
them I probably performed them,you know, a hundred times.
And so we go in the studio andit's just like turn the thing on
, man, let's go.
We know this song.
We went in the studio on MuscleShoals and no one had ever heard
these songs, including me.
We didn't know what theysounded like.
(31:06):
We had me and Ralph on myiPhone sitting at a picnic table
going it kind of sounds likethis, and so that's all we had.
So it wasn't that we were goingto record these songs that we
had created.
It was that we went there tocreate these songs that we sort
(31:27):
of intended.
We had the words, we had theideas for the songs.
It's kind of like saying, well,I got an idea for a painting
and here's the paints and here'sthe brushes and I know how to
operate them, but you stillgotta make a painting.
And that's what ralph carterdid as, uh, as the producer,
producer, which I didn't knowwhat a producer did, and now I
(31:50):
know that what he does is he canplay all those instruments.
He would say, hey, I'm hearinga little hand and organ here, or
I want that Wurlitzer piano, orJustin, I don't like the timber
of that snare, but what elseyou got, Michael, and you pull a
different snare drum off therack and you put it out there
and he listens to it and sayshmm, hmm, hmm, let me think
(32:14):
about that.
You know stuff like that.
The great thing about having aproducer you know, I'm still a
rookie to this, I've only made acouple records is that he's got
the pressure to deliver thesong.
He's calling on us to do whatwe do.
Chris, can you sing that?
You know how to do that.
Play the harp, play theharmonica, you know, justin, you
(32:34):
play the drums, and Eric, youplay this on the guitar and et
cetera.
And you guys do your thing,because it's an improvisational
sort of a genre anyway that youknow, we're kind of making it up
as we go and that's what I likeabout it.
I don't really read music and Idon't know if anybody in the
(32:55):
band did, but they get it, andso, yeah, and we just lived
there for the week with theseguys.
You know several of them livedthere in Muscle Shoals.
The rest of us came into townand stayed there.
We ate there, we hung Shoals.
The rest of us came into townand stayed there.
We ate there, we hung out there.
We never left.
We left one day and went out tograb a sandwich, but we stayed
there for five days and we justbecame this band and recording
(33:18):
artists and the whole thing waskind of magical being in a
studio setting like that wherewe could be away from the world
and just make this music andthen get out of there.
Jay Franze (33:29):
So your background in the corporate world was in
marketing and advertising, sowere you able to tie that in to,
say, the graphic design andthen the promotion of this
product?
No, question.
Christopher Wyze (33:41):
So if you went to my website, pretty much
every word there I've written.
I also design and produce thewebsite.
So you know I have some designskills.
But you know, having anadvertising agency, I had art
directors, I had designers, Ihad illustrators.
You know I understandphotography, I understand I used
to own a printing company, Iunderstand the graphic arts, I
understand design and so one ofthe first things I did you know
(34:05):
I didn't even have a band namewhen we went to that studio.
When we got done, I had toinvent a band name and even a
name for myself.
That's my stage name.
I have a different name in thereal world, so I invented that.
I've been a marketing guy and apromotion guy.
And then I enlisted a guy I'dworked with.
He's from Spain, his name'sColdo Barrasso.
So you know I directed Koldo todo this illustration and it's
(34:29):
so funny.
Koldo's never seen the land inMississippi.
He kept making mountains backthere.
I'm like Koldo, it's flat andhe would make it kind of rolling
, and then he'd make it a littlebit rolling.
I'd say, koldo, can you draw astraight line?
That is the Mississippi Deltaright there, a straight line,
that is the Mississippi Deltaright there.
And you know, I'd give him apicture of a shack and a picture
(34:50):
of a tractor and then see thatpicture of me with that shovel.
So I had this idea for the songStuck in the Mud and the
graphic idea here for this coverand I said, hey, sally, grab
the iPhone here.
We got to shoot some referencephotos for Coldo.
So you know, I know, fromgraphic arts, most, most
illustrators can't makesomething up.
They need some reference art.
(35:10):
So I'm over here behind thiswall in my basement.
I said, sally, grab the camera.
I said I'm gonna do some poses,so I do a couple.
She goes okay, I got them.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
We shot 3 000, I 3,000photographs to get that pose
right there of me.
And then of course we gave itto Koldo and he made it into an
(35:31):
illustration.
So you know, I understand thatthat's what it takes to do
quality sort of graphic work andgraphic design.
That's his hand lettering.
You know, I found the shack, aphotograph of the shack I liked.
I found a tree I liked.
I found the tractor I liked.
A photograph of the shack Iliked.
I found a tree I liked.
I found the tractor I liked.
And you know, I know how towork with creative people and
(35:53):
designers to end up with aproduct like this.
And then I produced the thingand put some of my photography
in there.
I used to be a photo editor ata magazine and then I wrote a
booklet.
We got a 20-page booklet that'sinside of there that tells the
story of how this thing came tobe.
I put the lyrics to the songs.
I want people to be able to seewhat, what, what these stories
are about, and I put somephotographs of us having fun
(36:13):
making records.
We recorded three songs actuallyin clarkstown, mississippi.
After I signed the record dealand I figured out I couldn't be
a country star, I said, oh, Igot to take this record and we
even had a couple songs thatdidn't make it onto the final
record.
They were they were not bluesoriented and so, uh, working
with big radio records andjohnny phillips, we said, hey,
(36:35):
let's really go all in on theblues.
So I wrote some new songs andwe went down to, uh, clarksdale,
mississippi, and recorded themin clarksdale because there were
some guys there with that Ralphknew and he was there and I'm
like let's just go do it there.
And we did, and we were going torecord two songs and then the
night before I always do thiskind of stuff to myself I'm like
(36:55):
, ralph, hey, we got the guyshere, say what if we did a third
song?
And he's like, well, what doyou mean?
I said, maybe, maybe a cover.
And I'm like I don't want to doa cover.
And and he's like, well, I'lltell you what this is.
Late at night he goes well, whydon't you write a new song?
And we'll do that tomorrow.
I'm like, okay, that soundsgood.
Tiffany Mason (37:14):
I mean, he gave you a deadline, he did.
Christopher Wyze (37:16):
And so I remember staying up late with
Jerry Murphy, our bass player,Murph, and Murph and I had this
song that we'd done in our coverband.
We kind of took this song andwe put kind of new music to it.
But I used somebody else'slyrics and Ralph knows that song
.
He said what about that song?
You wrote that, didn't you?
I said, well, Ralph, I didn'thave the heart to tell you we
(37:37):
really didn't write that song.
Those aren't my words, he'slike those are covered.
I said the lyrics, the lyricsare, covers Me, and Murph kind
of did the music.
He goes why don't you writesome new lyrics for that?
This is 10 o'clock at night.
We're going to record the nextmorning at like nine.
And I'm like, okay, okay, sure,that sounds good, I'll do that,
I'll have that.
(37:57):
So I remember going to bed andI took a little notebook.
I'm in my shack, literally.
You stay, have the blues.
If you don't know how to writethe blues, you will learn how to
write the blues, just hang inthere.
So I start writing this and Idon't have anything going.
(38:19):
I'm like, nah, I don't have it,I don't know what this song's
about.
So I go to bed.
I don't have the song, I said.
But before I went to bed andthis sounds like another crazy
story I said you know what, whenI wake up, I'm going to have
this song.
I know, and and I did.
I woke up and I had this ideafor this song called Hard Work,
don't Pay.
It's a great blues song.
It's like I'm tired of workingfor the man.
(38:40):
This hard work crap doesn't pay.
And so we wrote and recorded orI wrote that morning and
recorded that day Hard work,don't pay.
We had the band there.
It's like Murph, let's teachhim hard work, don't pay.
And then I had the lyrics infront of me.
We did it, we did a music videoand of course I've got the.
I've got the music stand infront of me because I don't even
(39:01):
know the words.
They're not even you know.
The ink's not even dry on thepaper and we're recording the
darn thing.
So we really did do that, andKerry Hudson's such an amazing
guitar player and performer heperforms all over the South.
He's an incredible singer,songwriter, guitar player and he
just added so much amazing workto several songs that I wrote
(39:26):
and a couple of them I wrotewith him like stuck in the mud,
which was the name of the of the, the album we had.
We had actually intended torecord that muscle shoals and
Ralph and I were in the studioworking with it's like this
isn't working.
So I met Carrie and said, hey,I got a song I can't quite seem
to make work.
Would you be willing to workwith me on this?
And he did.
We quite seem to make work.
Would you be willing to workwith me on this?
(39:48):
And he did.
We sat at a picnic table at theshack up in and probably in 15
or 20 minutes he's like whydon't you do this?
And, hey, you got too manywords in this thing and let's
move this over here, and here'skind of how it sounds.
And he's like I gotta go.
And I'm like, okay, and so, uh,then we recorded it a few weeks
later.
So we did a demo that day which, uh, which we almost.
We almost kept on the album.
(40:08):
It was good.
We went and did it inside theJuke Joint Chapel They've got
recording equipment there.
But we actually ended up doingit in Muscle Shoals.
In one take I was in a vocalbooth on one floor of the studio
and Eric Deaton, the guitarplayer, was in the basement.
I couldn't see him.
We had, you know, headphones oncans and this song was called
(40:31):
life behind bars.
We did one take and, uh, ralph,who's the producer?
He said, look, eric, justfollow him.
And Eric was like, yeah, I gotit.
And I think we did part of thesong and he said, well, let's
just try one.
So we did it and done.
I said I'm never, I'm not doingthat again, eric, how about you
?
He goes, I can't do any better.
I said I for certain can't doany better.
(40:52):
So that was a one take, charlieon the chemistry yeah, it's
called life behind bars about aguy who, uh, well, he's, he
lives his life behind the 12bars.
He's kind of a prisoner to 12bars of the blues and he, his
life is behind bars because hepasses out in the alley and he,
(41:12):
his life is behind bars and soforth.
Tiffany Mason (41:14):
So it's a little bit of story.
I love a dual meaning like that.
Christopher Wyze (41:18):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's life behind bars.
Tiffany Mason (41:20):
What was it like to?
What is the difference inexperience?
So you have the songs and thenyou're going to go record them,
but you guys put them togetherwith the lyrics, you and Ralph
and then three months later yourecord.
Now in this situation you'relike I don't know.
The songs are coming to me inthe morning.
I have to imagine that's likesuper awesome to have this song
(41:41):
come to you, be able to cut itthat same day, and you're like
holy crap's, it's, it's living,it's breathing, compared to the
the other time where you knowyou had three months to kind of
sit on it and noodle and thinkabout it and what was that like?
Christopher Wyze (41:55):
but I've got to imagine that's like super
cool feeling well, as I said, meand Murph kind of knew the
music, so it was pretty easy.
I mean, that groove was wasinside me, I'd done it a hundred
times, and so then it it's justlike well, hey, this is like
paint by numbers, man, justwrite some new words to the
music that we already had but itwas really fun and I kind of
(42:17):
liked the the pressure of havingto get it done when I woke up
and having about 90 minutes toget it done.
Tiffany Mason (42:24):
It's gotta be super gratifying.
Christopher Wyze (42:27):
It was cool and to have it kind of work.
You know it's basically takethis job and shove it man.
That's what that song is, whichhas been done a thousand times
in a thousand ways.
But that was our interpretationof that, so it was very fun.
It was very fun.
Tiffany Mason (42:42):
Yeah, that's super cool.
I love that creative process.
I'm also curious how difficultwas it to learn the harmonica?
(43:10):
It seems very simple to me justslide back and forth, but
there's got to be a breathingtechnique or something like.
If we can go back to that alittle bit, I was just kind of
curious.
You know all these people arethere.
Christopher Wyze (43:12):
They're maybe not as serious as you, but
you're really trying to figureout you know.
What do I not know?
What did you learn?
How do you learn to play theharmonica?
Well, it helped to understandthe blues, the pattern of the
blues.
You know the one, four, fivepattern and the harmonica is
kind of a chord thing.
You can blow and youautomatically make a decent
thing On a piano.
You got to have your hands inthe right place here.
You just kind of blow and drawand it makes the right sound.
So I had already been playingon stage and had a few like
(43:33):
instructional CDs that I couldget by just in, uh, just kind of
making sure I was in the onechord when we're on the one
chord, and the four chord andthe five chord, and I kind of
got that.
So I mean, within a couple ofweeks I was playing it with the
band, not in any kind of hey,and now we'll turn the solo over
to that guy.
I mean I wasn't ready for that,but I could, I could play along.
(43:55):
So, uh, I think it's a very uhat least if you have some
musical kind of I get it.
Um it pretty simple thing.
To get up to kind of somewhatcompetent very, very quickly and
then to get really good is alifetime pursuit.
And I'm you know, I'm an okayharmonica player.
(44:16):
There's guys who I just meltbecause they're so amazing, like
RJ Michaud, who is a teacher ofmine, and Jason Ritchie, who's
an unbelievable harmonica playerwho I've taken lessons from,
and things like that.
So the next mountain is quitetall and it goes up in the
clouds and you don't know wherethe top is and you'll never get
(44:37):
there.
But the little foothills arekind of fun and peppy.
Tiffany Mason (44:42):
Yeah.
Christopher Wyze (44:44):
You can do it, tiffany, come on.
Jay Franze (44:48):
Don't give her hope.
We've got to have hope.
She's going to show up on thenext episode with a harp and
it's going to wear me out.
Christopher Wyze (44:57):
My wife won't let me play it at home.
Seriously, I never play it athome.
I only play it in the car or atband rehearsal or practice.
That's it.
Who wants to hear a harmonica?
I don't know Without the wholeband.
Tiffany Mason (45:09):
And it causes the dog to go nuts.
Jay Franze (45:13):
All right, going back to your marketing a little
bit here, are you now takingthat, that knowledge and
applying it to social media togrow a following in that world?
Christopher Wyze (45:23):
Yeah, no question.
I bet I spend 30 to 40 hours aweek on promotion and social
media.
That's what I do.
You know I'm getting a kick outof it.
We've them, we recorded andreleased as a live album and a
video that goes with it, andalso a 50 minute documentary
(45:52):
that I filmed in Clarksdale,mississippi, about the blues,
because I wanted to do that andhave people see Clarksdale, and
people told me you can't do this.
I'm going to do it this way.
I'm going to be a marketingdude and I'm going to apply what
I know here and I advertiseevery day of the year on
Facebook, every day, every day.
And you know I make videos, Imake posts.
(46:14):
I mean, we're active with itbecause I got to build a
following, because I have otherdreams for where we're going
with this music and we need weneed people to get on the old
Christopher Wise and the Tellersjunk wagon.
Jay Franze (46:29):
And it wouldn't be a bandwagon, that'd be too
sophisticated.
Christopher Wyze (46:32):
Ours has to be kind of a junk wagon.
So jump on the dang junk wagonor that tractor back there and I
do it through marketing.
So I spend a lot of time on themarketing and I get that.
And when it was my job and Iran an advertising agency, it
was work, but you know what itis now.
It's like joy.
I was like I have fun with this.
I get to write the copy andapprove the copy.
(46:54):
I don't have to send it to aclient, I am the client.
Of course I work for a jerk nowthat I'm the client, but
whatever, all right, sir.
Jay Franze (47:08):
Well, we do this thing here.
We call Unsung Heroes, where wetake a moment to shine the
light on somebody who may haveworked behind the scenes or
supported you in some sort ofway.
Is there anybody that you wouldlike to shine a little light on
?
Christopher Wyze (47:16):
Yeah, I'll say Jerry Murphy, who plays bass in
my band, and he was at theguy's house who said, hey, come
over next week and we're goingto have man practice and you're
going to be the front man.
Well, there was this guy there,jerry Murphy, who was playing
bass, and I'm sure he wasrolling his eyes.
It's like, oh dear God, rick'shad a bunch of wine and now he's
(47:38):
invited this guy over to be inthe band.
But from the day I met him hehas been like my wingman,
supporter, teacher, mentor.
He really has taught me theblues and music and performing.
He's quite an accomplishedmusician.
He wrote two of the songs onour album Stuck in the Mud.
He went down to Muscle Shoalswith me a couple of weeks ago.
(48:03):
We had a couple of TVappearances in Nashville and
Huntsville.
I said, murph, how would youlike to go on a road trip?
And he's like heck, yes, cw,I'll go with you.
And I mean, he's just mywingman man.
And he's just always there withme and I couldn't do it without
him and for me to be able tolook across in the studio or on
stage and to see Jerry Murphythere, it's like things are
(48:25):
going to be all right.
I get it.
Murph Murphy there, it's likethings gonna be alright, I get
it.
Tiffany Mason (48:30):
Murphy's in the house, you know Very cool,
that's cool, alright.
Jay Franze (48:32):
Well, we have done it.
We have reached the top of thehour, which does mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed the show,please tell a friend and Miss
Tiffany if you have not.
Tiffany Mason (48:41):
Tell two.
Jay Franze (48:41):
Tell two.
You can also reach out to thetwo of us.
Hell, you can reach out to allthree of us over at jayfranze.
com, and we will be happy tokeep this conversation going.
Christopher sir, we cannotthank you enough for joining us
tonight.
It has been an absolutepleasure.
Christopher Wyze (48:56):
You will have to come back and share some of
the other stories, includingthis documentary, that we were
not prepared for tonight, so Iwould like to get into that a
little bit with you as well, butfor tonight, we would like to
leave the final words to youwell, one of the great things
about this little journey I'vebeen on it's really kind of
(49:17):
corny, but is making friendsalong the way, and I think if
I'd have been a young man I'dhave probably not been nice to
people and, you know, I'd havethought I was kind of important
and so forth.
But what's been fun to do this,after having gone through all
that and and maybe grown up alittle bit, is to sit back and
go.
I met jay and I met tiffanytoday and every day I get one of
(49:40):
those or two of those or threeof those and and it's like like
wow, I like is cool, I met youguys.
I really want to know where youlive, so to speak, tiffany.
Where do you live?
You said Florida.
Jay Franze (49:54):
She lives at 924 West 2nd Street.
Tiffany Mason (49:57):
I got directions to your place, Christopher.
It's cool.
Christopher Wyze (50:00):
I know you're going to stop me, no, but I
guess that's the last thing Iwould say is I wouldn't be here
with all these wonderful peoplelike you.
You know you're helping ourmusic.
This is like amazing.
We've never met before and Iwant to help you too.
But it's just really amazingwhen people you know help you,
and what nice people there arein the world.
(50:22):
So I mean it sounds corny butit's dang true.
I mean that's the way I want itto be.
I mean it sounds corny but it'sdang true.
I mean that's the way I want itto be.
It's just about having fun andmaking friends and spreading
some music.
That makes people kind of enjoythemselves.
Jay Franze (50:35):
On that note, folks have a good night.
Tony Scott (50:38):
Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com.
Follow, connect and say hello.
Welcome to The Jay Franzi Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Jay Franze (00:34):
Now here's your host , Jay Franze, and with me
tonight the Sandy to my Danny,my beautiful co-host, Miss
Tiffany Mason.
Tiffany Mason (00:44):
Well, good evening everyone.
Jay Franze (00:46):
If you are new to the show, this is your source
for the latest news, reviews andinterviews.
So if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any
questions, please head over tojfranzycom.
Well, tonight we have a veryspecial guest, miss Tiffany.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest, miss Tiffany.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest.
We have a recording artist withus.
(01:08):
But you get this as a twist toit.
Tonight, miss Tiffany Hold on Ilike a twist we will get there.
Hailing from the great state ofIndiana, we have Mr Christopher
Wyze.
Christopher sir, how are you?
Christopher Wyze (01:22):
Glad to be with you, jay, and Tiffany
especially.
I thought you were the surpriseTiffany.
But are you Glad to be with you, jay and Tiffany especially?
I thought you were the surpriseTiffany, but I guess I'll be
the surprise tonight.
She's a surprise to everybody.
Jay Franze (01:33):
She is definitely a surprise, mr Christopher.
Sir, how did you develop apassion for blues, being from
Indiana?
Christopher Wyze (01:44):
Well, it's funny, my brother came home from
college, you know, and that'll,like, you know, corrupt you or
something.
He came home with an albumcalled BB King and Bobby Blue
Bland live together for thefirst time and he put those
vinyls on.
I remember when he came homefrom college and it was like
(02:05):
whoa, that is super cool.
Now my mom listened to peoplelike Sam Cooke and Sinatra, so
there was a little bit of thatin there, you know.
But it was like cooler thanthat.
It was kind of like mixed upwith Elvis and all that.
So I kind of stuck that in theback of my head and then we had
the Mills brothers playing inthe house and so forth.
(02:25):
So I had a little bit of bluesgoing on there and that's kind
of where it first came in.
But eventually I kind of made apilgrimage to Clarksdale,
mississippi, and then it justgot off the rails, man for me
and I just got steeped in theblues, but we'll get into that
if we need to.
But that's kind of where it allstarted.
Jay Franze (02:46):
Were you already performing at that time?
Christopher Wyze (02:48):
Well, you know , I performed and sang, you know
, musicals and in a choir andthings as a kid and in high
school and so I kind of came tomusic as a performer and we had
a real good music program.
We would like sing the messiahwith an orchestra and things
like that so I mean it was.
(03:10):
It was super cool and you know,I got to, uh, I got to
understand, uh, really, all theparts of music.
I was a freshman in high schooland I was a first tenor, so I
could have been in the viennaboys choir and then a sophomore.
I was a second tenor and then abaritone and then a bass.
So I kind of matured my waythrough the treble clef into the
bass clef but along the way itwas like oh, I get it, there's
(03:33):
kind of a melody and there'ssome harmony, and then there's
the bass and that's kind of therhythm and even if it handles
Messiah, you get a sense for howit all fits together.
So I sang and then I went toschool, went to college, I was a
writer and a journalist and anadvertising guy and I really
(03:56):
went away from music for a long,long time and, kind of 20 years
or so ago, started singing in acover band as a front man and
uh, the guys were into the blues, the guys who were in that
cover band who asked me to bethe front man and I of course
had to say, wait a minute,what's a front man?
I actually said that.
I remember I was like, I waslike this kind of uptight
(04:18):
business guy.
I'm like, oh, hold on here,what are you talking about?
But I, uh, I eventually didthat.
And then these guys were justcrazy about the blues and it's
like whoa, I remember that stuff.
So I kind of jumped back intoit and I decided to learn the
harmonica, which sent me on anodyssey to the Mississippi Delta
(04:38):
, and I learned a heck of a lotmore there and met a lot of
folks who helped me really makerecords and really get into this
business in a crazy kind of waythat I never imagined.
Jay Franze (04:50):
Now you say you were brought back into the blues
when you joined this band.
So what music were youinterested in at that time?
Christopher Wyze (05:01):
I listened to, you know, classic rock man.
I mean that's what I liked.
I liked Supertramp and I likedEddie Money and I liked Kansas
and Boston and Elton John.
I liked I mean just all thegreat kind of stuff.
I grew up in the 70s.
My sisters were quite a fewyears older, you know they don't
(05:23):
want to admit that, but theylistened to the Beatles and God
I love the Beatles.
They didn't listen to theStones, they listened to Beatles
, the Beach Boys, john Sebastian, just stuff like that.
The Monkees, I mean I love theMonkees.
So there was kind of musicflowing all around.
But you know, just, hey, man,rock and roll, baby, this is the
(05:43):
70s.
And it was kind of like youknow, garth and whatever his
name is in the movie.
I mean that was kind of the wayit was.
I had terrible hair at the time.
It was really bad, you know.
Tiffany Mason (06:00):
And we thought we were cool, but we were not cool
.
I have a podcast where I talkto people about music and it's
pretty common that an oldersibling will expose them to.
You know a certain type ofgenre.
So what was that like?
Like he comes home and he'slike hey, christopher, you got
to check out this final or how?
How does the conversation godown?
Where are you guys end upswapping music?
Christopher Wyze (06:20):
It was more like hey, what are you doing in
my room?
I mean, just because I'm likethat's what.
I was expecting, like, have mystuff and, by the way, I'm going
to put on some tunes and getout.
You know it's kind of like that.
But I think I must have had myear up against the door or
something.
And you know he's a college kidso he's playing it really loud
so I could hear it.
(06:41):
We get along famously now, butit wasn't quite that way when we
were growing up.
You know not, when it's yourkid brother, yeah, and I was the
younger brother, so it's like,oh, leave me.
You know, get out of here, kid,you know you bother me.
So it was more like that.
And my sister, you know, listento the, the Beach Boys and stuff
(07:02):
like that.
So you know, I heard that kindof coming under the door kind of
way as well.
So that's that's kind of whereit was.
But we, you know, we got into,well, like fog hat man, I
remember, and the doobiebrothers and uh, yeah, it was
just so cool.
And we, we actually, you know,I remember going to see the
doobie brothers and fog hat inin evansville, indiana where I
(07:23):
grew up big, big stadium showsand we just thought that was,
you know, that was just amazing,it was just super cool.
So you know, we kind of had ourown music that we got into,
that probably everybody did, butwe thought it was ours right.
Jay Franze (07:37):
You mentioned the Beatles and the Stones and bands
like that growing up.
Do you make that connectionbetween blues and that style of
music?
Because the stones and thosetype of bands incorporated blues
into their music?
Christopher Wyze (07:52):
no question, 100 now not, you know, I
certainly didn't recognize it atthe time.
But when really try to studyand learn about the blues and
when you do you go, oh, I get itthere about the blues.
And when you do you go, oh, Iget it, there was the blues.
And then there was rock androll.
And you know, I didn't knowthat.
And now that I make music andwrite music and things like that
(08:14):
I didn't know how importantsort of the pattern of the blues
the one, four, five and the 12bars and all that kind of stuff
was to popular music, rock androll music and rockabilly music,
country music, I mean the bluesflows through every bit of it.
So you know, I've got a bit of adifferent perspective now that
(08:35):
I that I kind of see everythingthrough the lens of the blues,
which is super cool and and justkind of a side note, our
music's on big radio records.
It's part of a company that wasfounded by Sam Phillips in 1960
.
So it's called Selecto Hits andSam Phillips, you know who
recorded Elvis and Howlin' Wolfand a lot of great blues men
(08:56):
there in Memphis.
His nephew and his son run thecompany today and that's the
guys I work with there at BigRadio Records out of Memphis, so
it ties right into the bluestoo, which is kind of you got to
pinch me.
It's just like so cool to bethat close to you know something
really important and historicand uniquely American about what
(09:20):
goes on with the music that wemake here.
Jay Franze (09:22):
We grew up roughly at the same time.
What goes on with the musicthat we make here?
We grew up roughly at the sametime and if I were thinking of
making it in music these days,it would be tough because of the
age of the typical artist thatmakes it these days.
But you've chosen a genre thatactually benefits the more
seasoned people, so do you feellike being in that genre is
(09:45):
what's going to lead you to alonger career?
Christopher Wyze (09:48):
Well, there's no question.
It's interesting.
When I first started writingmusic and recording music, which
was five years ago, for thefirst time, I wasn't really sure
what was going to happen.
All I wanted to do was makethis record.
I'll tell you how we made ithere in a minute and I had no
idea where it would go.
(10:09):
I had no idea if I would justlike play it for friends at
parties and make sure they hadplenty of adult beverages before
we put it on and that kind ofstuff.
But that's not the way thisthing went down.
In fact, I ended up joining theNashville Songwriters
Association Kind of out of theblue.
I took these recordings that Iwasn't sure what I was going to
(10:30):
do with, and through theirmentor program, some folks
listened to it and said, hey, welike that.
I had one guy say I would buythat stuff, and so then I went
to this event.
I got to looking around, jay.
I was looking for guys thatlooked like you and I that era,
but I was actually looking atfolks like Tiffany as well, if
(10:51):
you know what I mean.
Oh, I know what you mean.
I get it songwriting conferenceand I'm the oldest person here
and I might be older than anyonehere knows.
So I'm like you know, I'm amarketing guy, I was an
(11:12):
advertising guy forever and everand I'm like, whoa, wait a
minute, that's not your market,christopher Wise, your market is
something else.
And so, long story or shortstory, long Jay.
Yeah, it occurs to me thatthat's the only place I can fit.
You know I get it.
They're like you're not our guyman and you got to be smart
enough to know where your placeis.
I think, whatever you'remarketing or promoting or having
(11:35):
people that you want to beinterested in it.
So it just it all kind of cametogether, kind of curiously,
that oh yeah, I love the blues,I sing in a blues band and I
just got into the NationalSongwriters Association because
I didn't know really much aboutsongwriting.
So I thought I'd I don't knowjoin an association and see what
happened.
And that's what happened.
(11:56):
It led me to a good decision,which was to get after the blues
and to do it after I'd alreadyhad my career.
I owned a business, I I spentdecades being a writer, an
advertising guy, writing books,and you know I wrote all sorts
of advertising and videos andcommercials and technical things
(12:17):
, and five books I've got inprint and so forth.
So I've written a lot of stuff.
And so by the time I time I gotto the point where I needed to
write music.
I already knew how to write.
I've been doing it for decades.
I hired writers.
They worked for me.
I trained writers, I editedtheir stuff, and so then I got
to do that stuff for me.
(12:37):
When it came to writing songsand put it through the same sort
of process and hurdles that Iused to give to other people.
But I do it now with my music.
Wait a minute, that's aterrible verb.
Where'd you get that?
That doesn't make any sense.
No one understands that.
You're putting me to sleep, man.
I'm telling myself this.
It's like you've got to dobetter than that.
Jay Franze (12:55):
So in this genre.
This music doesn't happenwithout an experience, and I
think that's what makes theolder generations better at the
music than the youngergenerations.
Tiffany Mason (13:09):
Like piggybacking on this a little bit.
Yeah, you said you vieweverything through the lens of
blues.
So what is that lens?
Christopher Wyze (13:18):
Well, I guess a little backdrop.
You know, as I said, I kind ofhad a business career.
I ran a business and I got awayfrom music, so that's the first
thing.
I sort of put it away.
And then I was at a wine dinnerit was a church wine dinner,
but a wine dinner neverthelessand there's a guy up there on
(13:39):
stage and he's playing acousticguitar.
He's really good, he's about myage this was 20 years ago, and
I don't guitar.
He's really good, he's about myage, this was 20 years ago, and
I don't know he takes a break.
I go up and I say, hey, man,that was that was really good
stuff and I really enjoyedlistening to you.
And he says, well, are you amusician?
I don't know why he said that.
And then I said, well, yeah, Ising.
I was like I don't know why.
I said that I really hadn'tsung in 20 years.
(14:01):
But I was like, yeah, I mean, Ithink I was at the point in my
life where somebody needed toask me if I was a musician.
And then I needed to say, sure,I'm a singer.
And so he said, well, hey, whatdo you like?
And we talked about stuff likethe Beatles and the blues a
little bit.
And he goes well, tell you whatdo you know?
This one and this one.
(14:21):
I'm like oh yeah, yeah, I singin the shower all the time, man,
I'm pretty good at it.
He's like well, tell you what,let me, let me get a glass of
wine here and I'll run up onstage.
Why don't you join me?
I said that sounds great.
Yeah, let's do it.
So I always enjoy.
Yeah, this really happened.
And so we run through two orthree songs and people are like
(14:42):
more, you know, do more.
And I I'm like what else youknow here, rick?
And you know we must have gonefor an hour or so.
And I was like well, that wasfun, I'll see you later, buddy.
And he's like whoa, get backhere.
What's your name and what?
What's the deal here, dude?
And he says, hey, we need afront man in our band.
I think I said this and I didsay well, what do you front?
man what's that he's like whathe goes come over to my house
(15:04):
next week we're having a bandrehearsal and uh, let's do this
thing.
Man, and that was 20 some oddyears ago.
And uh, he was great bluesguitar player and you know, we
sang covers, a lot of rock androll but but really all kind of
blues based rock and roll.
And these guys talking to bluestoo and decided, hey, I'm just
(15:24):
a singer and I kind of had aninferiority complex although you
might be surprised by that, yes, because I did hop up on stage.
But you know, I thought, hey, Igot to contribute more than
just singing in this band.
I'm going to learn theharmonica.
I always love the harmonica inthe blues and so I started
playing it and I eventuallysigned up for a one week
(15:47):
workshop in Clarksdale,mississippi, where you learn the
blues harmonica.
And.
I was already playing it and I'mplaying it on stage and with
the band and so forth, but Iwanted to learn to get better.
So here I plopped down, kind oflike from outer space in Clark,
the marshdale, mississippi, atthe shack up in which is
literally a shack, and uh,there's a bunch of like the
(16:10):
greatest blues musicians I'veever seen who are really kind
and helpful and they want you tolearn the blues and some of
them are like amazing at guitarand harmonica.
And eventually I met at thatvery first time I went there
Ralph Carter, who became myco-writer on Stuck in the Mud,
(16:33):
that album back there andproduced both of those albums on
the wall back there.
Well, ralph didn't play theharmonica but he was one of the
instructors in the camp becausehe was kind of rock and roll
royalty.
He had played and wrote songsand was the tour musical
director for Eddie Money.
So here's Ralph Carter who'slike the kindest man in the
(16:53):
world.
He's kind of like Jesus, only alot nicer.
But he's one of these guys.
I mean, ralph is just a gentle,gentle man and we kind of hit
it off.
We're about the same era and youknow, I go down to this camp
and some people bought aharmonica on the way to the camp
.
I mean, it's kind of like bluesfantasy camp and that's okay
(17:14):
and they're going to teach themhow to play.
I was already playing in a bandand you know, I wanted to kind
of like how do you give me thesecrets of this thing?
I want to be a really cool guyon stage with this, and so there
were people there who couldteach me that too.
But I remember at the firstcamp it didn't take too long
where Ralph and I ended upsharing a beverage or two and
he's like I don't know, we endedup kind of jamming and singing.
(17:38):
He's like hey sort of like whatare?
You doing here you can do this.
I mean, it was kind of likethat.
I'm like, well, I hope so.
I, you know.
I went back several more timesand Ralph began to say, hey, you
need to start writing music.
I'm like, what do?
I know about writing music.
You know, we talk and all that,and then and then and then one
(17:58):
time he goes hey, we're going tomake a record together someday.
I said, man, I'd love to be onyour record.
And he goes we're going to doyour songs, you're going to
write the songs.
And it was like I mean, I'mlike I'm shaking, I'm like wait
a minute.
You're that guy up there onstage with Eddie Money and the
videos with Apollonia and stufflike that, and I'm this guy who
(18:22):
just sings in a cover band andyou're telling me I can do this.
It didn't add up.
Tiffany Mason (18:27):
There's nothing better than when somebody really
sees it in you and can give youthat boost of confidence before
you have it for yourself.
And that sounds like that'swhat Ralph did for you.
Christopher Wyze (18:38):
Well, I had a little bit of confidence.
No, it's because you knowbusiness was serious to me and
you know, feeding the family andhaving people work for me and
wanting them to get a paycheck,I mean that stuff's really
serious.
Making music that's just totaljoy and fun and ridiculously
(19:00):
cool, and so I never sweatedthat.
I just have no frets or worriesor anything about music, other
than I love it and it's fun.
And so you know I'm sort oflucky.
I said to Ralph a few years agoI'm like dang, I wish I would
have gotten into music when Iwas younger.
I mean, in a big way he goes.
You know what.
(19:21):
I think it worked out prettygood for you the way it ended up
.
Because when I got into it now,you know, does it matter
whether I have a hit song orthis album does?
Well, I'm not knotted up aboutthat, I'm just trying to do good
music and have people enjoy it,and I probably wouldn't have
approached it that way if I was20 or 25.
(19:42):
Right, I'd probably gotten allwrapped around the axle and I'd
have tried too hard and I'd haveworked too hard and you know
what else Too hard, who knowswhat.
Because I asked Ralph what wasthis really like?
What was it really like being arock and roller?
He said, well, imagine anythingyou can think of that.
You know rock and rollers wouldhave done back in that era and
that's exactly what we did.
(20:02):
So it was kind of like oh, Iget it.
So, oops, sorry, ralph.
I hope I'm, not selling you downthe river.
He has a lovely wife.
Jay Franze (20:13):
All right.
Well, you mentioned somethingin there.
I want to make sure that wetouch on before we get past it.
And that was performing andperforming live and the passion
you have for it.
But blues performing isdifferent than rock performing
and it's got a different feel toit and it also incorporates
humor.
So how do you approachperforming live?
Christopher Wyze (20:37):
humor.
So how do you approachperforming live?
Well, it's all about theaudience.
I see so many performers.
I saw I won't say his name at abig venue here in Indianapolis a
couple years ago and there wereparts of the show where this
guy who's selling zillions ofrecords or whatever they sell
nowadays, he's not even lookingat the audience.
I mean, he's kind of turnedaround, he's kind of sullen.
It's like really, really thatthat's what that's about.
And so I approach it like look,these people took time out of
(21:01):
their lives and their days andwhether I'm singing at a you
know a small little brewery orsomething in the beer garden or
something bigger than that, theydeserve the best that we can do
and sort of be taken away fromthe things they left to come and
do this.
And so I take that seriouslywith a big old smile on my face
(21:23):
because that's really what it'sabout.
So I like having fun.
You know the blues I'll haveguys.
You know we'll start a bluessong and it's.
You know they're kind ofvamping over there.
And a lot of times I'll justtell stories.
And what will I tell a storyabout?
Anything that occurs to me.
Tiffany Mason (21:39):
I'm like.
Christopher Wyze (21:40):
I just tell stories.
Sometimes they turn into songs,you know.
You know I might say, hey,how's everybody doing tonight?
You know you say that you go.
Is everybody being nice to you?
I said is there anybody outthere who had a bad day?
Seriously, raise your hand.
You have a bad day.
I'll tell you what, that's all.
I just might go into this riffand it might go five minutes
when we're all talking aboutwhat kind of day we had and how
(22:02):
it was bad, and by golly we'regoing to put some music at you,
and we're going to throw theblues in your face and this is
going to go away, and that'skind of our job.
Are you?
Tiffany Mason (22:14):
doing a song about this when we're finished.
It's like mer mer, mer, mer mer.
I was on the Jay Frenzy showMer mer, mer mer mer.
Christopher Wyze (22:24):
Yeah, I've got it.
I've got the song man.
Tiffany Mason (22:27):
Okay, we're looking forward to it.
Christopher Wyze (22:29):
I like that.
That's the ringer on my phone.
You can have that ringer onyour phone.
That riff is my ringer, ofcourse.
So how do you get theperformance and the humor and
that kind of stuff?
And that's what the blues guysdid.
You know, I would listen toHowlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters and
they would tell stories.
(22:50):
Junior Wells oh my goodness, hemight go on for five minutes
about stuff, and it was like.
I'm not trying to mimic it, Ijust kind of feel it.
I know what, I know whatthere's, I know what they're
feeling well.
Jay Franze (23:04):
Blues is about hard times, and you can't get through
hard times without having humoryeah, right, yeah, and it's
just so cool that it goes backso far.
Christopher Wyze (23:16):
I mean, the blues is old man and people
figured out that kind of has agospel tradition too, that when
you sing about having hard timesand you bring everybody
together, that feels better, andso I think that's where the
humor is.
You can see thelight-heartedness in it.
I don't know, man, it's special.
Singing the blues, playing theblues and being able to perform
(23:39):
for people, that's reallyspecial.
Jay Franze (23:42):
So you mentioned earlier that you're actually
writing stuff, so can you tellus about your writing process?
Christopher Wyze (23:50):
Well, this whole adventure started with
Ralph saying you should bewriting music.
And then I saw an article inthe Wall Street Journal about a
recording studio in MuscleShoals and I snapped a photo of
it.
I'm a business guy, I'm readingthe Wall Street Journal and I
sent it to Ralph.
I said, hey, here's, we'regoing to make our album.
And I was really just kidding.
(24:10):
And he said, yeah, when are wegoing to do it?
So I was like whoa, I thinkhe's serious.
And then it kind of occurred tome.
I've been a journalist, wrotefor a daily newspaper and
magazine advertising.
There's always a deadline, youknow.
And the thing is I learned thatas a writer, all I need is a
deadline and a subject and I'llget it done.
(24:33):
I will get it done.
And it was almost like whenRalph said, yeah, let's do it,
I'm like, well, of course let'sdo it.
This guy thinks I can do this.
I'm not about to let him downand, plus, all I need is
Pavlov's dog.
You give me a deadline andsomething to do and I write, man
, I write 50,000 word books.
I know how to crank out a lotof copies, we say in the
(24:54):
business.
But what Ralph and I did.
We said, ok, our deal was thisI'll get started writing lyrics,
we'll meet in Clarksdale in afew months I think it was like
three months and I'll bring mypile of lyrics with me.
And Ralph is, I mean, he's amaster musician, plays every
instrument, he scores things, hewrites music.
(25:15):
I mean he has a studio inventura, california.
I mean he knows this thingbackwards and forwards and I I
know that if I can get somelyrics, he'll turn them into
music and together we can makethese things work.
So I decide, okay, we're goingto meet in mississippi, because
he goes down for these harmonicacamps, he also does guitar
camps and he does songwritingcamps, so he spends a lot of
(25:36):
time in Clarksdale.
I said, hey, after your lastcamp's over, I'll meet you at
the airport.
Or he was flying in and I saidI'll pick you up at the airport
in Memphis, we'll drive down anhour and a half to Clarksdale
and I'll have my lyrics andwe'll sit there for three days
and let's just get this thingdone.
And then we'll be up in MuscleShoals, where we were scheduled
to record I don't know a coupleof months later.
(25:56):
We're like, okay, that soundslike a plan, let's do that, and
so we did.
I will tell you one of thecraziest things while I was on
my way down, I drove fromIndianapolis.
It's about eight hours.
You drive through six States toget to Clarksdale, which is
kind of fun.
But I remember looking down atthe map you know the GPS thing
(26:18):
in the car and I'm like where in?
Jay Franze (26:19):
the heck am.
Christopher Wyze (26:20):
I and I looked down and it said three hours
from Memphis.
And I said three hours fromMemphis.
I think I might have even saidit out loud and I'm like, holy
cow, that's a song.
I had this idea for this songjust pop into my head, I don't
know how.
I wrote a song called ThreeHours from Memphis about a guy
(26:40):
who's on his way to Memphis tosee a music man because he
thinks he's going to be a star,he's going to make it.
He's been paying his dues for15 years.
I write this song.
The idea for the song pops intomy head.
I'm driving and I'm like I'mtoo scared to pull off the road.
I'm afraid I'm going to forgetthe idea.
So I got out some paper and Iset it on the armrest over here
(27:03):
and I wrote the lyrics to thesong as I'm driving with one
hand I'm used to playingharmonica and driving, so I'm OK
with this.
I literally I mean it's real,this really happened.
This is not.
It didn't happen.
He's just making this up.
I can't believe why he's.
He's a fabulous, but that's nottrue.
This really happened.
And so I remember when I wasdone, kind of scribbling, I
(27:23):
looked down and it was like onehour of Memphis.
It's like I can't account forthose two hours.
I can't account for how thatidea came to me.
Now, here's the crazy thing.
So I meet him in Memphis, blah,blah, blah.
We do this.
We then go to Muscle Shoals afew months later we record this
album for God knows what reason.
We don't know what we're goingto do with it.
(27:44):
Later I sign a record deal witha record label in Memphis and I
had no clue.
And so later I'm looking at thelyrics to this song after I
recorded it.
I'm like wait a minute, this isautobiographical.
This is about you, you bigknucklehead.
You're on your way to Memphisto meet a music guy and you're
going to be a star.
(28:05):
And it's the spookiest thing.
And I, you know I.
I talked to other songwritersand you, you listen to other
songwriters about their craftand how they do it, and they're
like I don't get it.
I don't know.
I don't know where it came from.
It came through me.
I don't feel like I did it andI'll tell you what that, that
song right there.
I don't know what happened, butit was my life story before it
(28:27):
happened and so it implies whenyou're having fun.
Yeah, it's kind of weird, I'msorry.
I'm sorry to weird you out, Idon't know.
So my process is I just need astory idea, I need a deadline
and I kind of, you know, get theblues a little bit.
And then I have some greatco-writers Ralph and I wrote
eight songs together on ourfirst album Eric Deaton, a guy
(28:49):
that plays with the Black Keys,and Hank Williams Jr, and he
played with Tony Joe White, anincredible musician.
He and I wrote a song on thealbum.
Me and my bass player wrote acouple, and me and Kerry Hudson,
who's a great Americana artist,who I met at a songwriting camp
and asked him to help me with acouple of songs that I had
lyrics for, and so he and I putthose together in Clarksdale,
(29:12):
mississippi.
So my process is to have astory, an idea, and then to tell
the story in a few hundredwords.
You know, that's all I've got,which isn't really terribly
challenging.
I'm used to, you know, writinga story and having it be done in
a couple hours.
I mean, that's the way Ilearned to write, and I don't,
(29:32):
you know, I just I write.
That's what I do, that's what Iknow how to do.
Jay Franze (29:37):
What studio did you record in?
Christopher Wyze (29:40):
We recorded it in Ivy Manor at the Shoals, and
it was new at the time and whatI liked about it that caught my
attention is you go there andyou live there.
It's in an old mansion thatthis guy, michael Wright, kind
of refurbed and made into astudio, and so we stayed there.
On Monday morning I met theband.
We didn't have a band, so Ralphwrote charts and he auditioned
(30:05):
the studio musicians.
He brought Eric Deaton to thesessions, our guitar player, and
you know I picked up Ralph inClarksdale.
We drove up to Muscle Shoalsand I met everybody who was in
our band on Monday morning andThursday afternoon we cut
everybody loose and we stuckaround and did some vocal stuff
(30:26):
on Friday and pretty much walkedout of there Saturday with a
with a finished record from agroup of guys I'd never played
with.
These songs didn't exist.
Being in a cover band, I hadrecorded several CDs of, of just
covers.
You know that we would.
You know, hey, we're a goodband.
Listen to our covers here youknow and and the thing is, and
(30:46):
they were good, I liked them,good old blues, to our covers
here, you know.
And.
And the thing is, and they weregood, I liked them, good old
blues songs and so forth.
But you know, the thing withthat is, by the time I recorded
them I probably performed them,you know, a hundred times.
And so we go in the studio andit's just like turn the thing on
, man, let's go.
We know this song.
We went in the studio on MuscleShoals and no one had ever heard
these songs, including me.
We didn't know what theysounded like.
(31:06):
We had me and Ralph on myiPhone sitting at a picnic table
going it kind of sounds likethis, and so that's all we had.
So it wasn't that we were goingto record these songs that we
had created.
It was that we went there tocreate these songs that we sort
(31:27):
of intended.
We had the words, we had theideas for the songs.
It's kind of like saying, well,I got an idea for a painting
and here's the paints and here'sthe brushes and I know how to
operate them, but you stillgotta make a painting.
And that's what ralph carterdid as, uh, as the producer,
producer, which I didn't knowwhat a producer did, and now I
(31:50):
know that what he does is he canplay all those instruments.
He would say, hey, I'm hearinga little hand and organ here, or
I want that Wurlitzer piano, orJustin, I don't like the timber
of that snare, but what elseyou got, Michael, and you pull a
different snare drum off therack and you put it out there
and he listens to it and sayshmm, hmm, hmm, let me think
(32:14):
about that.
You know stuff like that.
The great thing about having aproducer you know, I'm still a
rookie to this, I've only made acouple records is that he's got
the pressure to deliver thesong.
He's calling on us to do whatwe do.
Chris, can you sing that?
You know how to do that.
Play the harp, play theharmonica, you know, justin, you
(32:34):
play the drums, and Eric, youplay this on the guitar and et
cetera.
And you guys do your thing,because it's an improvisational
sort of a genre anyway that youknow, we're kind of making it up
as we go and that's what I likeabout it.
I don't really read music and Idon't know if anybody in the
(32:55):
band did, but they get it, andso, yeah, and we just lived
there for the week with theseguys.
You know several of them livedthere in Muscle Shoals.
The rest of us came into townand stayed there.
We ate there, we hung Shoals.
The rest of us came into townand stayed there.
We ate there, we hung out there.
We never left.
We left one day and went out tograb a sandwich, but we stayed
there for five days and we justbecame this band and recording
(33:18):
artists and the whole thing waskind of magical being in a
studio setting like that wherewe could be away from the world
and just make this music andthen get out of there.
Jay Franze (33:29):
So your background in the corporate world was in
marketing and advertising, sowere you able to tie that in to,
say, the graphic design andthen the promotion of this
product?
No, question.
Christopher Wyze (33:41):
So if you went to my website, pretty much
every word there I've written.
I also design and produce thewebsite.
So you know I have some designskills.
But you know, having anadvertising agency, I had art
directors, I had designers, Ihad illustrators.
You know I understandphotography, I understand I used
to own a printing company, Iunderstand the graphic arts, I
understand design and so one ofthe first things I did you know
(34:05):
I didn't even have a band namewhen we went to that studio.
When we got done, I had toinvent a band name and even a
name for myself.
That's my stage name.
I have a different name in thereal world, so I invented that.
I've been a marketing guy and apromotion guy.
And then I enlisted a guy I'dworked with.
He's from Spain, his name'sColdo Barrasso.
So you know I directed Koldo todo this illustration and it's
(34:29):
so funny.
Koldo's never seen the land inMississippi.
He kept making mountains backthere.
I'm like Koldo, it's flat andhe would make it kind of rolling
, and then he'd make it a littlebit rolling.
I'd say, koldo, can you draw astraight line?
That is the Mississippi Deltaright there, a straight line,
that is the Mississippi Deltaright there.
And you know, I'd give him apicture of a shack and a picture
(34:50):
of a tractor and then see thatpicture of me with that shovel.
So I had this idea for the songStuck in the Mud and the
graphic idea here for this coverand I said, hey, sally, grab
the iPhone here.
We got to shoot some referencephotos for Coldo.
So you know, I know, fromgraphic arts, most, most
illustrators can't makesomething up.
They need some reference art.
(35:10):
So I'm over here behind thiswall in my basement.
I said, sally, grab the camera.
I said I'm gonna do some poses,so I do a couple.
She goes okay, I got them.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
We shot 3 000, I 3,000photographs to get that pose
right there of me.
And then of course we gave itto Koldo and he made it into an
(35:31):
illustration.
So you know, I understand thatthat's what it takes to do
quality sort of graphic work andgraphic design.
That's his hand lettering.
You know, I found the shack, aphotograph of the shack I liked.
I found a tree I liked.
I found the tractor I liked.
A photograph of the shack Iliked.
I found a tree I liked.
I found the tractor I liked.
And you know, I know how towork with creative people and
(35:53):
designers to end up with aproduct like this.
And then I produced the thingand put some of my photography
in there.
I used to be a photo editor ata magazine and then I wrote a
booklet.
We got a 20-page booklet that'sinside of there that tells the
story of how this thing came tobe.
I put the lyrics to the songs.
I want people to be able to seewhat, what, what these stories
are about, and I put somephotographs of us having fun
(36:13):
making records.
We recorded three songs actuallyin clarkstown, mississippi.
After I signed the record dealand I figured out I couldn't be
a country star, I said, oh, Igot to take this record and we
even had a couple songs thatdidn't make it onto the final
record.
They were they were not bluesoriented and so, uh, working
with big radio records andjohnny phillips, we said, hey,
(36:35):
let's really go all in on theblues.
So I wrote some new songs andwe went down to, uh, clarksdale,
mississippi, and recorded themin clarksdale because there were
some guys there with that Ralphknew and he was there and I'm
like let's just go do it there.
And we did, and we were going torecord two songs and then the
night before I always do thiskind of stuff to myself I'm like
(36:55):
, ralph, hey, we got the guyshere, say what if we did a third
song?
And he's like, well, what doyou mean?
I said, maybe, maybe a cover.
And I'm like I don't want to doa cover.
And and he's like, well, I'lltell you what this is.
Late at night he goes well, whydon't you write a new song?
And we'll do that tomorrow.
I'm like, okay, that soundsgood.
Tiffany Mason (37:14):
I mean, he gave you a deadline, he did.
Christopher Wyze (37:16):
And so I remember staying up late with
Jerry Murphy, our bass player,Murph, and Murph and I had this
song that we'd done in our coverband.
We kind of took this song andwe put kind of new music to it.
But I used somebody else'slyrics and Ralph knows that song
.
He said what about that song?
You wrote that, didn't you?
I said, well, Ralph, I didn'thave the heart to tell you we
(37:37):
really didn't write that song.
Those aren't my words, he'slike those are covered.
I said the lyrics, the lyricsare, covers Me, and Murph kind
of did the music.
He goes why don't you writesome new lyrics for that?
This is 10 o'clock at night.
We're going to record the nextmorning at like nine.
And I'm like, okay, okay, sure,that sounds good, I'll do that,
I'll have that.
(37:57):
So I remember going to bed andI took a little notebook.
I'm in my shack, literally.
You stay, have the blues.
If you don't know how to writethe blues, you will learn how to
write the blues, just hang inthere.
So I start writing this and Idon't have anything going.
(38:19):
I'm like, nah, I don't have it,I don't know what this song's
about.
So I go to bed.
I don't have the song, I said.
But before I went to bed andthis sounds like another crazy
story I said you know what, whenI wake up, I'm going to have
this song.
I know, and and I did.
I woke up and I had this ideafor this song called Hard Work,
don't Pay.
It's a great blues song.
It's like I'm tired of workingfor the man.
(38:40):
This hard work crap doesn't pay.
And so we wrote and recorded orI wrote that morning and
recorded that day Hard work,don't pay.
We had the band there.
It's like Murph, let's teachhim hard work, don't pay.
And then I had the lyrics infront of me.
We did it, we did a music videoand of course I've got the.
I've got the music stand infront of me because I don't even
(39:01):
know the words.
They're not even you know.
The ink's not even dry on thepaper and we're recording the
darn thing.
So we really did do that, andKerry Hudson's such an amazing
guitar player and performer heperforms all over the South.
He's an incredible singer,songwriter, guitar player and he
just added so much amazing workto several songs that I wrote
(39:26):
and a couple of them I wrotewith him like stuck in the mud,
which was the name of the of the, the album we had.
We had actually intended torecord that muscle shoals and
Ralph and I were in the studioworking with it's like this
isn't working.
So I met Carrie and said, hey,I got a song I can't quite seem
to make work.
Would you be willing to workwith me on this?
And he did.
We quite seem to make work.
Would you be willing to workwith me on this?
(39:48):
And he did.
We sat at a picnic table at theshack up in and probably in 15
or 20 minutes he's like whydon't you do this?
And, hey, you got too manywords in this thing and let's
move this over here, and here'skind of how it sounds.
And he's like I gotta go.
And I'm like, okay, and so, uh,then we recorded it a few weeks
later.
So we did a demo that day which, uh, which we almost.
We almost kept on the album.
(40:08):
It was good.
We went and did it inside theJuke Joint Chapel They've got
recording equipment there.
But we actually ended up doingit in Muscle Shoals.
In one take I was in a vocalbooth on one floor of the studio
and Eric Deaton, the guitarplayer, was in the basement.
I couldn't see him.
We had, you know, headphones oncans and this song was called
(40:31):
life behind bars.
We did one take and, uh, ralph,who's the producer?
He said, look, eric, justfollow him.
And Eric was like, yeah, I gotit.
And I think we did part of thesong and he said, well, let's
just try one.
So we did it and done.
I said I'm never, I'm not doingthat again, eric, how about you
?
He goes, I can't do any better.
I said I for certain can't doany better.
(40:52):
So that was a one take, charlieon the chemistry yeah, it's
called life behind bars about aguy who, uh, well, he's, he
lives his life behind the 12bars.
He's kind of a prisoner to 12bars of the blues and he, his
life is behind bars because hepasses out in the alley and he,
(41:12):
his life is behind bars and soforth.
Tiffany Mason (41:14):
So it's a little bit of story.
I love a dual meaning like that.
Christopher Wyze (41:18):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's life behind bars.
Tiffany Mason (41:20):
What was it like to?
What is the difference inexperience?
So you have the songs and thenyou're going to go record them,
but you guys put them togetherwith the lyrics, you and Ralph
and then three months later yourecord.
Now in this situation you'relike I don't know.
The songs are coming to me inthe morning.
I have to imagine that's likesuper awesome to have this song
(41:41):
come to you, be able to cut itthat same day, and you're like
holy crap's, it's, it's living,it's breathing, compared to the
the other time where you knowyou had three months to kind of
sit on it and noodle and thinkabout it and what was that like?
Christopher Wyze (41:55):
but I've got to imagine that's like super
cool feeling well, as I said, meand Murph kind of knew the
music, so it was pretty easy.
I mean, that groove was wasinside me, I'd done it a hundred
times, and so then it it's justlike well, hey, this is like
paint by numbers, man, justwrite some new words to the
music that we already had but itwas really fun and I kind of
(42:17):
liked the the pressure of havingto get it done when I woke up
and having about 90 minutes toget it done.
Tiffany Mason (42:24):
It's gotta be super gratifying.
Christopher Wyze (42:27):
It was cool and to have it kind of work.
You know it's basically takethis job and shove it man.
That's what that song is, whichhas been done a thousand times
in a thousand ways.
But that was our interpretationof that, so it was very fun.
It was very fun.
Tiffany Mason (42:42):
Yeah, that's super cool.
I love that creative process.
I'm also curious how difficultwas it to learn the harmonica?
(43:10):
It seems very simple to me justslide back and forth, but
there's got to be a breathingtechnique or something like.
If we can go back to that alittle bit, I was just kind of
curious.
You know all these people arethere.
Christopher Wyze (43:12):
They're maybe not as serious as you, but
you're really trying to figureout you know.
What do I not know?
What did you learn?
How do you learn to play theharmonica?
Well, it helped to understandthe blues, the pattern of the
blues.
You know the one, four, fivepattern and the harmonica is
kind of a chord thing.
You can blow and youautomatically make a decent
thing On a piano.
You got to have your hands inthe right place here.
You just kind of blow and drawand it makes the right sound.
So I had already been playingon stage and had a few like
(43:33):
instructional CDs that I couldget by just in, uh, just kind of
making sure I was in the onechord when we're on the one
chord, and the four chord andthe five chord, and I kind of
got that.
So I mean, within a couple ofweeks I was playing it with the
band, not in any kind of hey,and now we'll turn the solo over
to that guy.
I mean I wasn't ready for that,but I could, I could play along.
(43:55):
So, uh, I think it's a very uhat least if you have some
musical kind of I get it.
Um it pretty simple thing.
To get up to kind of somewhatcompetent very, very quickly and
then to get really good is alifetime pursuit.
And I'm you know, I'm an okayharmonica player.
(44:16):
There's guys who I just meltbecause they're so amazing, like
RJ Michaud, who is a teacher ofmine, and Jason Ritchie, who's
an unbelievable harmonica playerwho I've taken lessons from,
and things like that.
So the next mountain is quitetall and it goes up in the
clouds and you don't know wherethe top is and you'll never get
(44:37):
there.
But the little foothills arekind of fun and peppy.
Tiffany Mason (44:42):
Yeah.
Christopher Wyze (44:44):
You can do it, tiffany, come on.
Jay Franze (44:48):
Don't give her hope.
We've got to have hope.
She's going to show up on thenext episode with a harp and
it's going to wear me out.
Christopher Wyze (44:57):
My wife won't let me play it at home.
Seriously, I never play it athome.
I only play it in the car or atband rehearsal or practice.
That's it.
Who wants to hear a harmonica?
I don't know Without the wholeband.
Tiffany Mason (45:09):
And it causes the dog to go nuts.
Jay Franze (45:13):
All right, going back to your marketing a little
bit here, are you now takingthat, that knowledge and
applying it to social media togrow a following in that world?
Christopher Wyze (45:23):
Yeah, no question.
I bet I spend 30 to 40 hours aweek on promotion and social
media.
That's what I do.
You know I'm getting a kick outof it.
We've them, we recorded andreleased as a live album and a
video that goes with it, andalso a 50 minute documentary
(45:52):
that I filmed in Clarksdale,mississippi, about the blues,
because I wanted to do that andhave people see Clarksdale, and
people told me you can't do this.
I'm going to do it this way.
I'm going to be a marketingdude and I'm going to apply what
I know here and I advertiseevery day of the year on
Facebook, every day, every day.
And you know I make videos, Imake posts.
(46:14):
I mean, we're active with itbecause I got to build a
following, because I have otherdreams for where we're going
with this music and we need weneed people to get on the old
Christopher Wise and the Tellersjunk wagon.
Jay Franze (46:29):
And it wouldn't be a bandwagon, that'd be too
sophisticated.
Christopher Wyze (46:32):
Ours has to be kind of a junk wagon.
So jump on the dang junk wagonor that tractor back there and I
do it through marketing.
So I spend a lot of time on themarketing and I get that.
And when it was my job and Iran an advertising agency, it
was work, but you know what itis now.
It's like joy.
I was like I have fun with this.
I get to write the copy andapprove the copy.
(46:54):
I don't have to send it to aclient, I am the client.
Of course I work for a jerk nowthat I'm the client, but
whatever, all right, sir.
Jay Franze (47:08):
Well, we do this thing here.
We call Unsung Heroes, where wetake a moment to shine the
light on somebody who may haveworked behind the scenes or
supported you in some sort ofway.
Is there anybody that you wouldlike to shine a little light on
?
Christopher Wyze (47:16):
Yeah, I'll say Jerry Murphy, who plays bass in
my band, and he was at theguy's house who said, hey, come
over next week and we're goingto have man practice and you're
going to be the front man.
Well, there was this guy there,jerry Murphy, who was playing
bass, and I'm sure he wasrolling his eyes.
It's like, oh dear God, rick'shad a bunch of wine and now he's
(47:38):
invited this guy over to be inthe band.
But from the day I met him hehas been like my wingman,
supporter, teacher, mentor.
He really has taught me theblues and music and performing.
He's quite an accomplishedmusician.
He wrote two of the songs onour album Stuck in the Mud.
He went down to Muscle Shoalswith me a couple of weeks ago.
(48:03):
We had a couple of TVappearances in Nashville and
Huntsville.
I said, murph, how would youlike to go on a road trip?
And he's like heck, yes, cw,I'll go with you.
And I mean, he's just mywingman man.
And he's just always there withme and I couldn't do it without
him and for me to be able tolook across in the studio or on
stage and to see Jerry Murphythere, it's like things are
(48:25):
going to be all right.
I get it.
Murph Murphy there, it's likethings gonna be alright, I get
it.
Tiffany Mason (48:30):
Murphy's in the house, you know Very cool,
that's cool, alright.
Jay Franze (48:32):
Well, we have done it.
We have reached the top of thehour, which does mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed the show,please tell a friend and Miss
Tiffany if you have not.
Tiffany Mason (48:41):
Tell two.
Jay Franze (48:41):
Tell two.
You can also reach out to thetwo of us.
Hell, you can reach out to allthree of us over at jayfranze.
com, and we will be happy tokeep this conversation going.
Christopher sir, we cannotthank you enough for joining us
tonight.
It has been an absolutepleasure.
Christopher Wyze (48:56):
You will have to come back and share some of
the other stories, includingthis documentary, that we were
not prepared for tonight, so Iwould like to get into that a
little bit with you as well, butfor tonight, we would like to
leave the final words to youwell, one of the great things
about this little journey I'vebeen on it's really kind of
(49:17):
corny, but is making friendsalong the way, and I think if
I'd have been a young man I'dhave probably not been nice to
people and, you know, I'd havethought I was kind of important
and so forth.
But what's been fun to do this,after having gone through all
that and and maybe grown up alittle bit, is to sit back and
go.
I met jay and I met tiffanytoday and every day I get one of
(49:40):
those or two of those or threeof those and and it's like like
wow, I like is cool, I met youguys.
I really want to know where youlive, so to speak, tiffany.
Where do you live?
You said Florida.
Jay Franze (49:54):
She lives at 924 West 2nd Street.
Tiffany Mason (49:57):
I got directions to your place, Christopher.
It's cool.
Christopher Wyze (50:00):
I know you're going to stop me, no, but I
guess that's the last thing Iwould say is I wouldn't be here
with all these wonderful peoplelike you.
You know you're helping ourmusic.
This is like amazing.
We've never met before and Iwant to help you too.
But it's just really amazingwhen people you know help you,
and what nice people there arein the world.
(50:22):
So I mean it sounds corny butit's dang true.
I mean that's the way I want itto be.
I mean it sounds corny but it'sdang true.
I mean that's the way I want itto be.
It's just about having fun andmaking friends and spreading
some music.
That makes people kind of enjoythemselves.
Jay Franze (50:35):
On that note, folks have a good night.
Tony Scott (50:38):
Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com.
Follow, connect and say hello.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com