Ringo Starr heads to country on upcoming ‘Look Up’ album

Ringo Starr’s first new full-length album in six years, look upwill find the former Beatles drummer and solo star heading to country again. The 11-track album, produced and co-written by T-Bone Burnett, will be released on January 10, and is prefaced by the tear-jerking tea song “Time On My Hands” on Friday (October 18).

“For as long as I can remember (or would like to) remember, I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing, singing and His aesthetic. “He changed the way every drummer after him played with his creative approach to the instrument. And, he’s always been a killer rocker and a heartbreaking ballad singer. And writing with him This music is like the realization of a dream I’ve had for 60 years. None of the work I’ve done in my long career would have happened without him and his band. Beyond that, this album is my way of saying thank you. A way of doing everything he has done for me and us.

Burnett wrote or co-wrote nine songs on Starr’s 21st solo album, on which the peace and love advocate sang and played drums; one was written by Billy Swan, The other was co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar. According to news announcing the project, Starr co-wrote the album’s closer “Thankful,” which features one of Burnett’s previous collaborators, bluegrass singer/fiddler Alison Krauss ) participate in it.

Burnett also brought in other Nashville sensations for the project, including Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle. While pop and R&B stars branching out into country music has become the norm over the past year, with Beyoncé, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, MGK and Lana De Lana Del Rey has also turned to country music, but the press release noted that Starr’s appreciation for all things twang goes back more than half a century.

“I’ve always loved country music. When I asked T Bone to write a song for me, I had no idea it was going to be a country song – but of course it is, and it’s so beautiful,” Starr said he said while working with friends. In 2022, a chance meeting in Los Angeles invited Burnett to write a song for an EP he was working on at the time, sparking Burnett’s forty-year creative career.

“I had been making EPs at the time, so I thought we would do a country EP – but when he brought me nine songs, I knew we had to make an album!” Starr said of Burnett’s writing All of the songs have a country vibe. “I’m so glad we did it. I want to say thank you to T Bone and all the great musicians who helped make this record and send ‘Peace and Love’ to them. It was a joy to make it and I hope listening to it is too A joy.

On “Time on My Hands,” Starr mourns the loss of a true love over pedal steel and lightly strummed acoustic guitar, his signature stripped-down vocals taking center stage in this ballad about a lost person. Location. “I once had a true love/Everything was fine/But now she’s found a new love/She’s not mine anymore,” he sings.

From the Beatles country-style songs he performed and wrote, including “Act Naturally,” “What Goes On” and “Don’t Pass Me By,” to his 1970 second solo album beauty of bluesStarr has been involved in the genre since his early days playing in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes before The Beatles. In fact, the press release adds that Starr became obsessed with country music and blues as a teenager. , so much so that he attempted to emigrate from London to Texas after learning as a young man that blues great Lightening Hopkins lived there.

Starr’s first new full-length album since 2019 what is my namewill be a country hit when the singer/drummer headlines the legendary Ryman Auditorium on January 14-15, 2025; tickets for the show go on sale October 25.

View full track listing and cover art look up the following.