Chuck Berry – Blues – MCA Records 80000530-02

The iconic American guitarist, singer, and songwriter was a blues fan long before he almost single-handedly fashioned the master plan for rock-n-roll that would have legions of young teens rockin’ and boppin’ to his new interpretation of what popular music could be. 

One of his admitted musical heroes was Chicago blues giant Muddy Waters, and in due time Berry took the blues and gave it a frontward view that forever defined a seismic shift in music.  But before that, Berry was blues at his core.

Berry cast himself aboard the Chess Records ship in the mid-1950s, and initially he plied his formidable guitar sensibilities and vocal might into producing some astonishing blues sides while yet still harnessing his tremendous later-galloping upside.

When considering this dynamic 2003 16-cut collection, it is reasonable to hypothesize what may have transpired had Berry stayed the course inside the blues and not flown highly into the upper reaches of rock-n-roll history, so appealing is the music found across the panorama of this CD.

Berry’s takes on Don Raye’s “Down The Road Apiece” and “The Things I Used To Do,” the Guitar Slim classic, present a man whose soul obviously deeply felt his underlying blues influences.

But as solid and exceptional as Berry’s blues tunes are, we all know how the horse leapt out of the gate and ran headfirst toward rock-n-roll triumph.  But before all that, there was Berry the bluesman, and these tremendous works remind us of his fundamental blues core.

Welcomed to the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Berry knew the blues early on and paid it high reverence with these timeless readings.  They should be more well-known and discussed when Berry and his music are the subjects at hand.

Highly recommended!