Ringo Starr - Look Up
by Kevin Wierzbicki
After releasing only four-song EPs over the last few years, Ringo Starr is back with a full-length album and it is his highly-anticipated country effort. No one should be surprised that Ringo has "gone country" for this album, especially considering that when he was with the Beatles he famously sang lead on a cover of the Buck Owens hit "Act Naturally" and he put out a country album as a solo artist,
Beaucoups of Blues, way back in 1970. No one should be surprised that the album is a great listen either since Americana maven T Bone Burnett is on hand as primary songwriter and producer and he does an excellent job of bringing out Ringo's instantly-recognizable dulcet tones as well as providing him with songs with great hooks. A perfect example is "Time on My Hands," a Burnett co-write with Paul Kennerly and Daniel Tashian where Ringo delivers the song about lost love in a melancholy mood that's appropriate for the subject matter and where pedal steel from Dennis Crouch adds a serious dose of weepiness to the melody. The cut's overall sound is a throwback to '60s country and like many of the best songs from that era it has a subtle hook in the vocals and will instill itself as an earworm even on first listen. Starr gives some of country music's hottest artists a chance to co-Starr with him here; the extremely popular Billy Strings does some fancy acoustic guitar picking and sings harmony on album opener "Breathless," a fast-paced cut with pop leanings and hooks galore and that fits seamlessly into Ringo's oeuvre. Strings also features on "Never Let Me Go" where he plays electric guitar along with Burnett; the cut also features harmonica playing from the celebrated Mickey Raphael as it lopes along to a bluesy country beat with hints of swamp rock lurking in the background. Other guests include Molly Tuttle who features on title cut "Look Up," "I Live for Your Love" and most notably on the folksy "Can You Hear Me Call" where her duet with Starr recalls the style of one of the greatest country music duos of all time, Johnny Cash and June Carter. Larkin Poe guest on "Rosetta" with Rebecca Lovell playing mandolin and joining her sister and Larkin Poe bandmate Megan Lovell on haunting background vocals, and that's Joe Walsh playing slide guitar on the cut. The album ends with the Starr co-write "Thankful" where Alison Krauss guests on harmony vocals; this time the duet recalls something that Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris might have done. Ringo plays drums on every cut, Burnett plays on almost every song and the stellar group of sidemen play with crispness and confidence throughout. This effort showcasing Starr's longstanding fondness for country music is definitely his best release in a long time and some may say his best album ever.
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