A TRIBUTE TO CHUCK BERRY

Disc One: 1. Opening-Roll Over Beethoven, 2. Nadine, 3. Instrumental, 4. Introduction and Entrance Ronnie Wood, 5. Little Queenie, 6. Down The Road Apiece, 7. Talking About You, 8. Blue Feeling, 9. Route 66, 10. Wee Wee Hours, 11. Around And Around, 12. Almost Grown, 13. Back In The U.S.A.

Disc Two: 1. Mad Lad, 2. No Particular Place To Go, 3. Worried Life Blues, 4. Hey Santa Clause, 5. Rock And Roll Music, 6. Johnny B. Goode, 7. Bye Bye Johnny.

The disappearance of one of the fathers of Rock n Roll did not seem to prompt any remarkable tribute so far, so the 3 nights Ron Wood and Ben Waters arranged in mid November of 2018 have been more than welcome although due to the fact that the main promoter of the even is a piano player these days have been more a celebration of the man s great writing abilities than of his guitar playing ( a couple of guitar player names come to mind who should have been involved).

Anyway on the 13^th of November 2018 Ben Waters & Ron Wood played in Wimborne s Tivoli Theatre their first tribute to Chuck Berry, this was in fact a small rehearsal gig for the 2 nights later played at London s Ronnie Scott, amazingly a recording already surfaced. Sound wise the recording is quite good with all the instruments that can be easily heard and not too many audience interferences; unfortunately the guitars are a bit too low in the mix, maybe due to a noise reduction option on to avoid saturation . Obviously the songs are all well known Berry hits with the exclusion of a boogie woogie instrumental that Ben Waters plays at the piano after having acknowledged the great importance that Johnnie Johnson had for Chuck Berry s sound development; Ben Water s son Tom plays good saxophone licks in here. The other players are Dion Edtved (Disse) from Denmark on bass, Dexter Hercules on drums and Imelda May on vocals on Wee Wee Hours, Hey Santa Clause and Rock And Roll Music. There are some obscure tracks in this selection as well, apart from some less known blues tunes, like Mad Lad, an instrumental where Berry experimented with the pedal steel guitar, nicely played here by Ron Wood. The final songs are some of classic uptempo rock and roll tracks that have defined Berry s style and will always remain his most consistent legacy.

Packaging is minimal but has pictures from the event on the front and on the back is clear enough to allow clear identification of song titles.