As the final day of the 12th annual Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival came to an end at Stephens Lake Park on Sept. 30, festival attendees witnessed Chuck Berry becoming the first nominee of the Missouri Roots Songbook posthumously honored for his career in music and his influence on music in the state of Missouri.

“The Missouri Roots Songbook will be a new tradition at the Roots N Blues festival to celebrate the musical achievements of Missouri-based musicians who have made a significant impact on music history,” festival director Tracy Lane said. “No one could be a better honoree than the father of rock and roll himself, Chuck Berry.”

The late rock and roll legend’s son, Charles Berry Jr., was grateful as he accepted the award representing his father and the rest of the Berry family who was also onstage.

“My dad was the best person one could ever know,” Berry said at the ceremony. “He loved music so much and he always had a special place in his heart for Columbia.”

Berry then reminisced on the fact that his father always drove to The Blue Note to perform in front of die-hard fans and how he would visit local schools in the Columbia area, encouraging kids to play and appreciate music.

After the induction ceremony, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats took to the stage to perform an hour and a half show of pure roots and alternative music. Guitar and bass players Joseph Pope III and Luke Mossman started the evening with a catchy riff that was then picked up by brass players Andy Wild and Scott Frock. The quartet then played to the beat of drummer Patrick Meese. All five members played spectacularly within their parts all to be climatically joined by Nathaniel Rateliff as he began to sing “Shoe Boot,” a song on the band’s second studio album titled “Tearing at the Seams.”

For the rest of the evening, Rateliff and the Night Sweats performed their hits such as “You Worry Me,” to the ever-popular crowd-inducing “S.O.B.”Audience members swung and bobbed their heads along to the melodies of each song. The song that had the most uproarious applause was the band’s single “I Need Never Get Old,” which started with the Night Sweats’ keyboardist Mark Shusterman as he explored and produced notes that made the audience go wild.

Among the show-goers were Justin and Emily Doherty from Hermann, Missouri. Justin was currently back home from tour and reserved the weekend of the show months in advance. Both he and his wife expressed their sincere appreciation of what Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats bring to the table of music.

“Not only are they fun to listen to, but they have a great stage presence,” said Justin Doherty. “Nathaniel and the Night Sweats takes the best of both their mix of r&b into their roots music and they make it their own thing. I think that’s what makes them so unique,” added Emily Doherty. “Their sound doesn’t really change music as a whole, but it definitely makes them influential to their listeners.”

Another reason why the Doherty’s were so keen on seeing Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats is because are the neighbors of Sandy Rateliff, Nathaniel Rateliff’s mother.

“Nathaniel is just super nice as a whole,” said Justin Doherty. “When he really began to take off after his first studio album with the Night Sweats, he bought his mother the Victorian home which sits right next door to us.”

In appreciation of mothers who were out in the crowd, Rateliff played “Hey Mama.”

“We just have to be so grateful for what so many women and mothers have done for us,” said Rateliff. “It’s a shame they don’t get enough credit as they should, especially with all that’s going on in Washington.”

Rateliff’s remarks on the national front were limited. His criticization of the state legislature on current agricultural issues hit a mark with many audience members. Rateliff then expressed his frustrations with the song “Say It Louder” as he walked across the stage.

The rest of the evening was filled with an utmost zeal and dancing throughout the park, ending with a crescendo of the last song of the night, “Tearing at the Seams,” which left festival attendees begging for more.

_Edited by Siena DeBolt | sdebolt@themaneater.com_