The late Chuck Berry had been working on an album of new material for several years, and it was announced at the end of last year that it would be released in 2017. Sadly Chuck died earlier this year before this plan came to fruition, but the new album – called Chuck – consisting of ten new songs, eight of them by Chuck Berry himself, will be released on Dualtone/Decca Records on the 9th of June. As a teaser the track Wonderful Woman has been premiered by The New Yorker here. It is distinctively Chuck Berry and harkens back to the roots of Rock and Roll music. When John Lennon said that another name for Rock’n’Roll could be Chuck Berry this was what he was thinking of.
Chuck is Berry’s first new album since 1979’s Rock It, and was recorded and produced by Berry in various studios around St. Louis and features his longtime hometown backing group – including his children Charles Berry Jr. (guitar) and Ingrid Berry (harmonica, vocals), plus Jimmy Marsala (Berry’s bassist for forty years), Robert Lohr (piano), and Keith Robinson (drums) – which supported him for nearly two decades on over two hundred residency shows at the famed Blueberry Hill club. The album also includes guest performances from Gary Clark Jr., Tom Morello, Nathaniel Rateliff and Chuck’s grandson Charles Berry III.
Track Listing for Chuck
‘Wonderful Woman’
‘Big Boys’
‘You Go To My Head’
‘3/4 Time (Enchiladas)’
‘Darlin’’
‘Lady B. Goode’
‘She Still Loves You’
‘Jamaica Moon’
‘Dutchman’
‘Eyes Of Man’
