Ringo Starr returns to country music on next album

Ringo Starr will release a new album in the country genre on January 10 titled Look Up. The 11 original songs were recorded this year in Nashville and Los Angeles, produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett. 

PRE-ORDER LOOK UP | HERE

LISTEN TO “TIME ON MY HANDS” | HERE

Nine of the 11 songs on Look Up were written or co-written by Burnett, one by Billy Swan and the other 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 Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle to contribute. The album’s debut track, “Time On My Hands,” written by Paul Kennerly, Daniel Tashian (who is a co-producer on the album along with Sugar) and Burnett, is available now. 

Starr has performed and written other country or country-tinged songs throughout his years with The Beatles (“Act Naturally,” “What Goes On,” “Don’t Pass Me By”) as well as with his  earlier group Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. He recorded the country album, Beaucoups of Blues, in 1970. Starr's admiration of country and blues led him to try and emigrate from London to Texas while still a teen, after reading that Lightnin’ Hopkins lived in Houston.

The artist’s new album comes after a chance meeting with Burnett at an event in Los Angeles in 2022 (the two had first met in the 1970s), where Starr asked Burnett to write a song for an EP he was recording. Burnett returned with nine songs, all in a country vein, which put Starr on a path to record Look Up: his first country album in more than 50 years and his first full-length album 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 says in a statement. “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 have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can (or care to) remember,” adds Burnett. “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.”

Starr will be bringing this new music to Nashville when he headlines the famed Ryman Auditorium on January 14 and 15, 2025. 

Track List (writers):

Breathless (featuring Billy Strings) (T Bone Burnett)
Look Up (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Time On My Hands (Paul Kennerly, Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Never Let Me Go (featuring Billy Strings) (T Bone Burnett)
I Live For Your Love (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Billy Swan, T Bone Burnett)
Come Back (featuring Lucius) (T Bone Burnett)
Can You Hear Me Call (featuring Molly Tuttle) (T Bone Burnett)
Rosetta (featuring Billy Strings and Larkin Poe) (T Bone Burnett)
You Want Some (Billy Swan)
String Theory (featuring Molly Tuttle) (Daniel Tashian, T Bone Burnett)
Thankful (featuring Alison Krauss) (Richard Starkey, Bruce Sugar)*