The sorrowful blues of Naptown's Brooks Berry

October 19, 2025

Explore the music of Brooks Berry, an important Naptown blues vocalist and guitarist. Though she left behind just a handful of recordings, the artistry and emotional depth of her music have ensured that her legacy lives on. Brooks worked extensively, with the Naptown guitar master Scrapper Blackwell and all of her recordings feature Blackwell on guitar or piano. 

Brooks Berry was born in April of 1900 in the small Kentucky town of Sturgis. As a teenager, Brooks left Kentucky and moved north to Indianapolis, joining a wave of Black southerners seeking better opportunities in the Midwest. At the time she arrived in Naptown, the city was developing a thriving blues scene centered around the Indiana Avenue neighborhood. Musicians like Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell made Naptown an important hub for blues music. Brooks quickly found a place in this scene, and after the death of Leroy Carr in 1935, she formed an enduring creative partnership with Scrapper Blackwell. 

During the 1920s and ‘30s, Brooks lived in the Avenue area, including addresses at 724 Torbett Street, and 802 West 11th Street. She spent her final years living at the Barton Tower at 555 Massachusetts Avenue.