THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ringo Starr’s new country album Look Up is a star-studded collaboration between the iconic Beatles drummer and Americana legend / studio master T Bone Burnett, who co-wrote most of the album and produced the 11-song disc in Nashville and Los Angeles.
Nine of the songs on Look Up were written or co-written by Burnett. Another was penned by Billy Swan and the other was co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar. Starr sang and played drums on all the songs and co-wrote the album’s closer, Thankful, featuring Alison Krauss. Burnett enlisted some of Nashville’s finest and hottest talent for the record, including Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius, Molly Tuttle and the aforementioned Krauss.
Starr’s lifelong love of country music has been apparent and celebrated throughout his illustrious career. And even before — the young Richard Starkey tried to emigrate from London to Texas while still a teen, after reading that Lightnin’ Hopkins lived in Houston. He went on to perform country tunes with Liverpool show band Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, and continued during his years with The Beatles (Act Naturally, What Goes On, Don’t Pass Me By). After their breakup, Starr cut the country album Beaucoups of Blues in 1970 as his second solo release.
Look Up is the result of Starr’s chance meeting with Burnett at an event in Los Angeles in 2022 (though the two had first met in the 1970s). Starr asked Burnett to write a song for an EP he was recording. Taking the task to heart, Burnett returned with nine songs, all in a country vain, which happily put Starr on a path to record his first country album in more than 50 years and his first full-length since 2019.
“I’ve always loved country music. And when I asked T Bone to write me a song, I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song — but of course it was, and it was so beautiful,” Ringo recalls. “I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do a country EP — but when he brought me nine songs I knew we had to make an album! And I am so glad we did. I want to thank, and send peace and love to T Bone and all the great musicians who helped make this record. It was a joy making it and I hope it is a joy to listen to.”
Adds Burnett: “I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can (or care to) remember. He changed the way every drummer after him played, with his inventive approach to the instrument. And, he has always sung killer rockabilly, as well as being a heartbreaking ballad singer. To get to make this music with him was something like the realization of a 60-year dream I’ve been living. None of the work that I have done through a long life in music would have happened if not for him and his band. Among other things, this album is a way I can say thank you for all he has given me and us.”
