Chuck Berry - Live from Blueberry Hill - explained

Around Christmas 2021 Dualtone Music released a "new" Chuck Berry album containing live recordings from 2005 and 2006.
Since 1996 Berry had played regular shows at Joe Edwards "Blueberry Hill" in St. Louis, more than 200 of them. In contrast to the huge concert halls typically used for Berry concerts, the 300-seat "Duck Room" brought back the club atmosphere from the 1950 when Berry started to perform in St. Louis.
Also in contrast to his other concerts world-wide, the Blueberry Hill shows always had the same line-up for almost twenty years. The "Blueberry Hill Band" consisted of Berry's children Charles, Jr. and Ingrid, his band leader and bass player for 40+ years Jim Marsala, plus Robert Lohr on piano and Keith Robinson on drums.
As we already know from Dualtone Music, "Live from Blueberry Hill" is sold in many different ways: on CD, as a digital download, and in various Vinyl variants. The music is always the same, and this is what this site is about.
The liner notes to the CD tell a bit about the shows, but very little about the music. There's not even a recording date given, just "All songs recorded live at Blueberry Hill, St. Louis, MO from July 2005 - January 2006". I therefore contacted Bob Lohr, who played piano on all tracks, to find out more about how the recordings were created. Here's what I learned.


Bob Lohr (to the right) and the band (Jim Marsala, Charles, Ingrid, and Chuck Berry) live at the Blueberry Hill 2009
photos courtesy of Doug Spaur, many thanks, Doug! Click to enlarge.

Bob, do you remember when you started playing with Chuck at the Blueberry Hill or at other venues?

1996…on Chuck’s 70th birthday. The first three shows were in a different club room at Blueberry Hill called the Elvis Room…could probably fit 100 people maximum…about the size of a basement recreation room w/ Elvis memorabilia in glass cases on the walls. Joe Edwards later built the Duck Room in 1997 after he took over an adjoining restaurant (Cicero’s) which moved up the street. Cicero’s had a music club in the basement which was very small…had a lot of local acts plus well known national acts occasionally (I played there in local blues bands…also saw the Doors’ Ray Manzarek live w/ poet Michael McClure once!). Joe Edwards expanded Cicero’s club space, including digging out the floor a couple of feet deeper…and the Duck Room was born!

Please tell our readers a bit about your musical work. How often did you perform with Chuck, with whom did you share stages?

With Chuck I played almost all the shows at Blueberry Hill (over 200) and at least 100 on the road/private gigs/local gigs outside of Blueberry Hill…an estimate would be some 350 shows in total.
Onstage, I’ve gigged w/ Willie “Big Eyes” Smith & Calvin “Fuzz” Jones (Muddy Waters rhythm section), Billy Boy Arnold, Jimmy Rogers, Sam Lay, Roy Gaines, Snooky Pryor, Hubert Sumlin, Albert Collins, Big Jack Johnson, Sam Carr, Mud Morganfield, Cyril Neville’s Royal Southern Brotherhood & many others. Lots of well-known blues artists over the years.
Here’s a partial discography on me: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-lohr-mn0000057405

Thinking back at the Blueberry Hill shows, what made them special in comparison to playing at large halls?

It was a 300-seat venue which made it a more intimate experience for the fans…the St. Louis version of Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Chuck always had a lot of interaction with audiences wherever he played…check out various YouTube clips. People flew in from all over the world to see Chuck at Blueberry Hill. After tickets became obtainable online, people would come up to me after the show from all over the world. Oftentimes I would take them to downtown St. Louis to either BB’s Jazz Blues & Soups or Beale on Broadway to hear some serious blues/r&b. A lot of these tourists were traveling through what I call “Blues/Rock Ground Zero”, or hitting all the music cities within a 300-mile radius of St. Louis: Chicago, Memphis/Clarksdale, Nashville etc…

The new CD presents a short show of just 30 minutes. Was this the standard length of the Blueberry Hill performances?

No, Chuck’s standard show was 1 hour wherever we played.

30 minutes seem to become the new standard for albums. Given that many people listen to music using digital streaming, 30 minutes seems to be "long enough" for the labels and for the listener's attention span.
As for the song selection, we only hear Chuck's greatest hits plus Walter Jacobs' "Mean Old World". Was this a typical tracklist?

No, we did at least two or three blues numbers per gig. “Wee Wee Hours” of course…also “It Hurts Me Too” and “Key To The Highway”, “Every Day I Have The Blues”, “Worried Life Blues”, “Beer Drinkin’ Woman” etc.

Do you remember Chuck playing more obscure and rare songs from his huge repertoire? On the CHUCK album for instance there's a Blueberry Hill recording of Tony White's "Enchiladas".

Not really…would usually play the well known songs.

What do you think is missing from new CD? Is there any special song you remember from Blueberry Hill which you wished to hear again?

We used to do “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and “Promised Land” on an occasional basis…also, “Worried Life Blues”…

Ingrid is heard only on two tracks, "Mean Old Word" and "Let It Rock". Was it typical that she only joined small segments of the show? Or has she been with you only sometimes and was absent when the other tracks were recorded?

She was at every show in St. Louis onstage. She did not go on every road trip.

The two songs Ingrid plays harmonica on as well as "Roll Over Beethoven" are also the only three songs on this album we hear you soloing. Have you been allowed to solo during the shows? Or was it just Chuck and the rhythm he needed?

As you can hear on the latest live CD, Chuck would throw us solos on almost every song…very generous in that regard.

A reviewer wrote that to his ears Charles Jr. is playing the lead of "Johnny B. Goode" on the new CD. Did father and son share and distribute the lead guitar solos?

No, that’s clearly Chuck on Johnny B. Goode here. Chuck did almost all the lead guitar on stage and threw Charles Jr. some solos during the set. Charles Jr. does a solo at approximately 1:57 of Roll Over Beethoven right after mine. Charles Jr.’s rhythm guitar can be heard throughout this CD on the left channel.

Chuck was close to eighty years when these recordings were made. We almost cannot notice when he sings and plays.

You cannot notice in these 2005 shows, but as his later show recordings sadly indicated, Chuck’s hearing was seriously degraded. He had some expensive hearing aids but he didn’t like wearing them onstage…one actually fell out on the stage and could not be found later!

Bob, what is your favorite recollection from Blueberry Hill?

One of the coolest things I remember about the Blueberry Hill shows was hearing and watching Chuck warm up with his guitar backstage before the show. Chuck would warm up with his guitar while not plugged into an amplifier. It was amazing to hear…all the classic Chuck Berry licks played perfectly by the man himself…often did some amazing things which I never heard him do onstage. It was like all the years and age were stripped away and he was back again playing in the 50’s…I’m so sorry that I never asked Chuck whether he would allow me to record him on my iPhone…absolutely amazing. You could also hear him warming up when he was changing clothes in the bathroom. Once he opened the door and I watched him playing guitar in the mirror…Chuck told me he liked playing in the bathroom because the reverb reminded him of the Chess studio!

Many thanks for your explanations, Bob! We appreciate to hear from "the sources".