I’m jumping the gun into 2025.
On January 25th, Lost Highway Records (one of my favorite labels) is releasing Look Up by Ringo Starr (on LP and CD). Produced by T Bone Burnett, Ringo receives accompaniment from the likes of Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, and Molly Tuttle, the last two being rising stars in the Bluegrass genre.
Ringo exposed his love of Country & Western music while still a member of The Beatles, which was the introduction into C & W for a lot of boomers (though not myself. I already had Johnny Horton’s greatest hits album, and my mom had Johnny Cashes Ring Of Fire album). Ringo’s second solo album was 1970’s Beaucoups Of Blues, recorded in Nashville with Pete Drake (heard playing pedal steel guitar on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album, as well as a few Dylan albums) producing, employing the talents of the the Nashville A-Team musicians.
So this album is a welcome return to his first love by Ringo. He is of course not a very good singer, but then neither is T Bone Burnett. It’s all about the songs, right? And then the musicianship.