One of the two surviving ex-Beatles, Ringo Starr, has just released his 21st studio album as a solo artist. The record is titled Look Up, and it’s being marketed as Ringo’s country album.
Upon hearing this, my first thought was that this was Ringo’s second country album. The first was Beaucoups of Blues, released way back in 1970 after the breakup of the Beatles. That album was recorded in Nashville, with pedal steel guitar legend Pete Drake producing, and many fine Nashville studio musicians of that era backed Ringo.
According to Ringo, his new album came together when he ran into producer T Bone Burnett at an event, the two talked about working together, and the next thing he knew, T Bone had written nearly an album’s worth of new country songs and was offering to produce the new record. Burnett and the session musicians he hired recorded the basic tracks in Nashville. It’s telling that this time Ringo stayed home in Los Angeles to record his vocals and drum parts.
Of course, Ringo is 84 years old, and he long ago earned the right to do what he wants. As expected, Look Up is an amiable and pleasant listen, with the spotlight hardly ever leaving the album’s star. There are some impressive names featured on the record - Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Alison Krauss, Lucius and Larkin Poe. However, they're almost entirely background singers (and players) here.
Molly Tuttle does get to sing a few lines of her own on “Can You Hear Me Call.” The record would have benefited from more of this kind of vocal interplay with Ringo.
Look Up is a very laid-back record, although it does have some lively moments. The title track moves along nicely, and interestingly, it’s the one song that doesn’t really come across as “country.” I also liked “Rosetta” which stands out because it has an honest-to-goodness guitar solo in it. “Rosetta” features guitarists Billy Strings and the Nashville duo Larkin Poe, and yet it’s Ringo’s old friend Joe Walsh who gets to play that solo for a few bars.
As I mentioned, T Bone Burnett wrote nearly all the songs on the album, and for the most part they simply function as serviceable songs for Ringo to sing. One song I’m fond of is “Never Let Me Go,” because there’s a fun verse where songwriter Burnett rhymes “sturm and drang” with “yin and yang.”
The final song on the album is the only one that Ringo co-wrote. It’s “Thankful,” which includes the line “Hoping for more peace and love.” That’s been Ringo’s consistent message to the world for years now, and it’s a sentiment we can all get behind.