2000s Chuck Berry concerts comprise archival album due in December

Dualtone Records announces the December 17 release of Live From Blueberry Hill, a document of the rock & roll icon’s hometown shows at St. Louis’ Blueberry Hill.

Taken from performances recorded between July 2005 and January 2006, Live From Blueberry Hill features Berry tearing through classics like “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” and “Johnny B. Goode” on the stage that he played more than any other in the latter decades of his life.

Listen to the raucous “Carol / Little Queenie” from Live From Blueberry Hill here.

By 1996, Chuck Berry had conquered the world and, after his seminal “Johnny B. Goode” was included on the Voyager Gold Record and sent into space, the stars. But one evening, in a conversation with Joe Edwards - longtime confidante and owner of the beloved St. Louis restaurant Blueberry Hill - Berry commented “You know, Joe, I’d like to play a place the size of the ones I played when I first started out.”

A lightbulb went off and a scheme was hatched. “Let’s do it at Blueberry Hill,” they decided. On a new stage that Edwards had christened The Duck Room after Chuck’s signature onstage move, Berry would give 209 performances over seventeen years. Chuck Berry shows at Blueberry Hill became a rock & roll talisman, inspiring pilgrimages from all sorts of luminaries: the Band’s Robbie Robertson, Motorhead’s Lemmy, Lorde, fellow St. Louisans Nelly and Bob Costas, to name just a few.

Berry’s hand-picked backing group for the Duck Room shows evolved over time, but eventually became codified as the “Blueberry Hill Band,” a combination of family members, longtime Berry collaborators, and stars of the St. Louis scene, including daughter Ingrid Berry on harmonica, son Charles Berry, Jr. on guitar, bassist and band leader Jimmy Marsala, pianist Robert Lohr, and drummer Keith Robinson. Together they formed the longest-running band of Berry’s 60+ year career.

It’s this lineup that crystallizes the free and spontaneous atmosphere of The Duck Room on Live From Blueberry Hill. Whether Chuck and the Blueberry Hill Band are retracing his musical lineage on his cover of the slow-burning blues “Mean Old World,” spinning an origin myth on “Bio,” or reaffirming the vitality of the singular “Johnny B. Goode,” Live From Blueberry Hill is an exhilarating opportunity to hear one of the true giants of 20th century music onstage and unfiltered.

Pre-order Live From Blueberry Hill here.

In related news, Gibson has announced the release of the limited-edition Chuck Berry 1970s ES-355 in Wine Red. It’s a meticulous re-creation of Chuck’s favorite go-to guitar, a 1978 Gibson ES-355. The Chuck Berry 1970s ES-355 is now available worldwide at www.gibson.com.

Track List:

Roll Over Beethoven

Rock And Roll Music
Let It Rock
Carol / Little Queenie
Sweet Little Sixteen
Around And Around
Nadine
Bio
Mean Old World
Johnny B. Goode