Decca and Universal Music Group Nashville have shared their plans for Ringo Starr's new country music album.
The iconic drummer's first country record since 1970's Beaucoups Of Blues, Look Up was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles and is a celebration of his lifelong love of the genre.
Ringo Starr features in the current edition of Music Week as part of an extensive interview covering his solo career, The Beatles, Grammy hopes for the band's final song Now And Then and the use of AI.
The LP, which sees Starr team up with Grammy Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett, has just been released in the UK (January 10) via Decca – the label that infamously turned down The Beatles at the start of their career – and the label's co-president Tom Lewis could not be happier to finally have the 84-year-old on board.
"Ringo and T-Bone have created something wonderful," said Lewis, speaking in the latest issue of Music Week. "One listen and we were in! There is something immediately evocative and nostalgic about it. You come away from listening feeling like the world is a better place. We hope that it can charm anyone who loves beautiful, heartfelt songs.
“Obvious Decca/Beatles things aside, it goes without saying that it is an honour to work with someone who has played such an extraordinary part in the history of recorded music over the past 60-plus years.”
Starr becomes the second Beatle to align with Decca, following in the footsteps of Paul McCartney who partnered with the company in 2011 to release his first ballet.
"Being a proud Liverpudlian myself – my dad worked a stone's throw from The Cavern – that adds an even greater thrill," continued Lewis.
It's really such a timely positive message in a sea of uncertainty, and you cannot help but smile and feel joy when you hear it
Cindy Mabe
Universal Music Group Nashville chair & CEO Cindy Mabe recalled first hearing Look Up at T Bone Burnett's home in Music City.
"You could feel joy pouring out of the sound waves," she told Music Week. "You feel a personal message of hope and light and positivity interwoven with steel pedal and guitar and Ringo's voice and ever-present drumbeat.
"It's really such a timely positive message in a sea of uncertainty, and you cannot help but smile and feel joy when you hear it. It feels like warm sunshine on a cold winter day. The music is infectious."
Mabe set out her hopes for what will be the living legend's first full-length LP since 2019's What's My Name and his 21st studio solo album in all.
"The number one goal is to put an incredible work of art into the world and let it land with the audience," she said. "Guest artists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Alison Krauss, and Larkin Poe will expose the music to their audiences too.
"Airplay, television, sync and media coverage will promote this record to numerous audiences, and we will take advantage of those moments. But most importantly, we just want the album to be heard and let it connect in every possible way it can."
It frames an incredible chapter of one of the greatest musical legacies of all time
Cindy Mabe
LA-based Starr will headline Nashville's storied Ryman Auditorium on January 14 and 15, days after the album's release. He has also confirmed a US tour for next June, stopping at venues including New York's Radio City Music Hall, Philadelphia's TD Pavilion At The Mann and Charlotte's Ovens Auditorium.
Mabe explained the Ryman shows will be filmed for a broadcast/streaming partner to air on a later date, with other performances also in the offing.
“He will make his Grand Ole Opry debut around release, and we’ll work the album at Americana radio," she added. "We’ll also be [dipping] into a few unannounced country-leaning shows to create special moments for the fans."
Starr, who has around 625,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with The Beatles in 1988 and again as a solo artist in 2015. His best-selling solo efforts in the UK are 1973’s Ringo, which went gold, and 1974’s silver-certified Goodnight Vienna.
"I want Look Up to be heard and felt in the way it was created," stressed Mabe. "It’s such a special album and it is truly needed right now in a chaotic world. I think it will be rewarded for the joy it brings, and I think it frames an incredible chapter of one of the greatest musical legacies of all time.”
Mabe went on to ponder where Starr fits into the modern country landscape.
“Country music is experiencing a wide range of artists coming into it, many because it feels like the growing popular genre of the moment,” she said. “Ringo’s reverence, understanding and respect of country music is a breath of fresh air. He respects the artists that he listened to who came before him, citing Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, and Hank Williams as major influences.
"He’s not jumping on a trend. This album reflects his love and respect for an art form – it’s not doing anything to take from the genre but rather to give back to it. It’s a love letter to country music by Ringo.”
The full interview with Ringo Starr, T Bone Burnett, Decca and UMG Nashville features in the new issue of Music Week – subscribers can read it in full here.
