Look Up" album

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The Stetson is in: Beatles legend Ringo Starr delights his fans with a pure country album.

(Bild: Scott Robert Richie)

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has always had a love of country music. More than 50 years after his last country work, he released the new album "Look Up" shortly before his 85th birthday. A dignified work for his old age that focuses on his love of music.

At the beginning of 2025, Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards' funny memes are still successfully circulating the internet. For example, as the leader of Noah's Ark or holding two babies, who are referred to as Cain and Abel. Beatles drummer legend Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr is even older - and still plays the most physically demanding instrument in the rock universe. In July, the Briton often referred to as the "weakest Beatle" celebrates his 85th birthday, fortunately he is in excellent health. The mixture of vegetarianism, daily meditation, his practiced Buddhism and his irrepressible love of music is undoubtedly doing him good. Six years after the first-class album "What's My Name" and a truckload of EPs, Ringo was in the mood for a proper album again.

Fateful encounter
"Look Up" not only sweetens the usually rather dry start to the year for Beatles fans. On his 21st solo album, Starr goes way back into his own past and gives free rein to his love of earthy country music. Beatles experts know of course - there was something. Songs by the "Fab Four" sung by Starr such as "Act Naturally", "What Goes On" or "Don't Pass Me By" already had a strong country flavor, and his second solo work "Beaucoups Of Blues" from 1970 was entirely dedicated to this musical direction. In this year, Star also met T Bone Burnett, who not only made a name for himself as Bob Dylan's guitarist for many years, but also as an all-round country producer and musical "partner in crime" for the Coen Brothers in Hollywood (including "The Big Lebowski"). In 2022, the two met again in Los Angeles and Starr asked Burnett for a song for a planned EP.

The producer obviously felt inspired and motivated by the legend's request and went all out. By the next meeting, he had no less than nine songs in his pocket, which ultimately led to this album, which originally wasn't supposed to be an album at all. "I've always loved country music," Starr said in a statement, "so when I asked T Bone for a song, I wasn't necessarily thinking of a country number. I already had a country EP in the back of my mind, but it wasn't a rigid, clearly defined idea. When I heard the nine songs, I knew I had to make an album out of them. Recording and producing the album was a lot of fun and I hope it's just as much fun to listen to."

Old love never rusts
Starr has - of course - recorded all the drum tracks and is responsible for the male vocals. As one of the two surviving Beatles, guests lay devotedly at his feet. You can hear Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, who are playing in Vienna again this year, and country singer Alison Krauss in various guises on "Look Up". Billy Swan then wrote the song "You Want Some", Starr himself worked with co-producer Bruce Sugar on the closer "Thankful", where the artist shows his gratitude towards life and its many beautiful facets in the best hippie style. The American by choice was born with a love of country music in his home country. In interviews at the end of 2024, Starr revealed that the Beatles' home city of Liverpool was also very fond of the sound, as country was synonymous with a working-class mentality.

You shouldn't expect any musical miracles from "Look Up". There were reasons why Ringo Starr did not pursue a career as a singer in his early years. Songs such as the single "Time On My Hands", "I Live For Your Love" or "Rosetta" mostly ripple along at a leisurely pace, without the big bite for genre-internal revolutions. Of course, you don't measure a Ringo Starr work in 2025 by conventional standards, but put it in relation to his own legend, the influence on global pop culture and the simple factor that the man, at an age when others are feeding pigeons in the park, still likes to go on tour with fellow musicians and peers to musically carry the message of "Love And Peace" across the world.

A creatively driven
"Look Up" will not be able to earn an entry in the later best of the year lists, but it reflects the unbridled passion for the creative of a creatively driven person in a gentle way. The work accompanies you as you listen to it like a cozy fruit tea in the evening. Unagitated, but soothing and somehow cozy. Much more important is the information that Starr will be presenting the album live at least twice in Nashville in mid-January and may also go on tour with it again. Just recently, shortly before Christmas, he accompanied his old partner Paul McCartney live on drums for his last tour show with the Beatles songs "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Helter Skelter". And you never know with the greats of pop history - maybe Paul will put on a Stetson one day when he supports Ringo on "Look Up" songs ...