Ringo Starr recently released the new country album Look Up, co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett. It features 11 songs, with special guest appearances by Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Lucius, Larkin Poe and Alison Krauss.
This isn’t Ringo’s first foray into country music, and he recently told reporters that he loves the genre because it’s “emotional music.”
“I'm quite an emotional person myself,” he said, joking that “in the '50s, every country song was either the wife left, the dog's dead or I need some money for the jukebox.”
And it seems for Ringo, one of the emotions he hopes to convey with the record is joy, especially with all the turmoil in the world.
“I think there's always a need for music and there's always a need for joy,” he said, noting music has a wide reach because it “translates into every language. It's just peace and love.”
And for Burnett, there’s no better person to bring that joy than Ringo.
“I'm fond of saying that nobody in the world has generated more goodwill than Ringo Starr in my lifetime,” Burnett said, although he suggests that Ringo’s music is often thought of as “lighthearted” but it’s so much more.
“I've been spending the last couple of months listening to everything he's recorded ,or that’s out that he's recorded, and there's a lot of very deep, serious stuff in there,” he said. “I mean, Ringo has paid his dues.”