The album, to be simply called Chuck, will drop in 2017
Rock n’ Roll legend Chuck Berry, who celebrated his 90th birthday on Tuesday, has announced his first LP in 38 years.
The rock pioneer, whose sound and style influenced generations of musicians, will release his the LP Chuck sometime in 2017.
“This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy,” said Berry, in a statement on his website, referring to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry.
“My darlin’ I’m growing old! I’ve worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!”
The LP will also feature Berry’s longtime backing band which includes his son and daughter, Charles Berry Jr. (guitar) and Ingrid Berry (harmonica), alongside bassist Jimmy Marsala, who has played with Berry for forty years, and Robert Lohr (piano), and Keith Robinson (drums).
Berry’s band has supported him for over two decades in residency shows at the Blueberry Hill club in St. Louis.
“What an honor to be part of this new music,” Charles Berry Jr. said in a statement “The St. Louis band, or as dad called us ‘The Blueberry Hill Band,’ fell right into the groove and followed his lead. These songs cover the spectrum from hard driving rockers to soulful thought provoking time capsules of a life’s work.”
Chuck Berry’s new LP comes nearly 40 years since the Voyager’s Golden Record launched the iconic “Johnny B. Goode” into space alongside works like Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “Melancholy Blues.”
Berry received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
He is mentioned in the top five of Rolling Stone “100 Greatest Artists of All-Time” and is the recipient of the first ever PEN Award for literary excellence in lyric writing.
More details about Chuck are to be announced in the coming weeks.