Album Review of
Chuck

Written by Mark Gallo
August 5, 2017 - 12:00am EDT
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Chuck Berry died in March 2017 so he did not see the positive reception that his final album had. It certainly sounds like he had a blast making it. On board s Chuck Berry, Jr. and Charles Berry III on guitars and Ingrid Berry on harmonica and vocals, Gary Clark, Jr. plays guitar on one song, Tom Morello plays guitar on one song, Jimmy Marsala’s on bass and Robert Lohr plays piano. Drumming is by Keith Robinson or Jimmy Lotito. Debra Dobkin plays drums on one song, as well.  Chuck Berry plays guitar and sings with the instantly recognizable sound that has made him an icon since the 1950s. Some of the guitar riffs will sound familiar. The songwriting is classic Chuck, although he breaks with tradition and does a cover of “You Go to My Head,” a song popularized by Billie Holiday, although with the Chuck Berry stamp firmly on it. From “Wonderful Woman” (“Oh well look here now this just makes my day/There’s a wonderful woman she just walked by my way/Well I was standing there trembling like a leaf on a willow tree/Hoping them great big beautiful eyes would fall on me/Ah it was wishful thinking but I hope that it still might be) to the mostly recited “Eyes of a Man” (“A many a man has built his own temple/Bound to convey his grace and skill/He’ll build great domes and pillars and arches/All fashioned to fit his will”), this is classic Chuck Berry and a fitting swan song for the poet laureate of rock and roll.