Pick up a banjo, play it: Ringo Starr released a country album
On Friday, January 10, Look Up, Ringo Starr's 21st solo studio album, his first major release in six years and at the same time the second country record in the famous drummer's career, was released. "Izvestia" familiarized with the album and came to the conclusion that the American genre suits the symbol of British music Ringo even more than his usual cheerful rock.
Beatle as a curse
Paul McCartney, a musician with a million solo awards, dozens of albums, hits and countless regalia, including a knighthood, still goes by The Beatles brand for decades. And imagine what it's like for Ringo Starr, the second living member of the band? The oldest of the Beatles but consistently fourth in the public's perception, Starr has never been able to step out of the shadow of the team that made him part of the musical pantheon. That's not to say he didn't try, though.
Ringo Starr performs with his All Starr Band
In the 1970s, Starr tried his hand at movies, acting extensively and sometimes quite successfully. His solo music career was also productive: it gave the world at least four major hits of its time - It Don't Come Easy, Photograph, You're Sixteen and No No Song. Thirty-five years ago Ringo made a bet on concert activity, creating Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band - an ensemble that does not record albums, but actively tours. The programs of their concerts include the main hits of the band members, and in different years the All-Starr Band included such stars as Joe Walsh from The Eagles, Roger Hodgson from Supertramp, John Entwistle from The Who, and many others.
However, Starr abandoned his movie career long ago, and if you take any live album of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Ringo's solo songs, except perhaps Photograph, are very rare. At his concerts he more often performs The Beatles' compositions.
A man without qualities
It is worth remembering that The Beatles broke up because their members became too far apart in interests and outlook. They were bright and strong individualists for whom, as was often the case in the Western world of that time, the collective turned out to be cramped.
John Lennon went avant-garde with Yoko Ono, and without her, dropped to the bottom of New York bohemia in the 1970s, while releasing solo albums, mostly about himself and his childhood traumas. Paul McCartney set out to conquer the pop charts and be solely in charge of his own band, Wings. George Harrison got into Buddhism, Indian music and started recording songs about the frailty of all things and how he was underestimated. For the three key figures in The Beatles, their own ambitions and projects became more important than their shared history, so a reunion in the 1970s was simply impossible.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Against this backdrop, Ringo Starr remained aloof. Despite his attempts to find his popularity, public opinion long perceived him as a man without qualities - just a former drummer of The Beatles. His personality seemed dim in comparison to the expressive psychological portraits of his former colleagues.
The movies he appeared in and the albums he released didn't help Ringo find a unique style with which to stay in the big leagues of 1970s music. Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that Starr was never a professional songwriter. But it was his ability to write his own songs, not just perform other people's songs, that made The Beatles stand out among the majority of pop groups of the time, becoming one of the key features of the ensemble.
On the other hand, the emergence of a strong and independent Ringo Starr was hampered by personal problems. In the 1970s and 1980s he was a loyal drinking buddy of John Lennon, cheated on his wife Maureen and regularly found himself at the center of various scandals. No wonder that in perhaps his most memorable solo song of those years, No No Song, Starr declares with a great deal of self-irony that he will no longer drink, smoke or snort.
Overcoming an identity crisis
But all that changed in the 1980s. Starr quit his bad habits, took up sports, began practicing meditation and formed, as mentioned above, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 1992, he returned with Time Takes Time, a comeback album that introduced a new Ringo to the public, imbued with the desire for peace, love and positivity. This image of Starr was appropriate in the 1990s, the era of the "end of history", when the Western world was gripped by guarded optimism about the future.
The musician retained his positivity and cheerfulness in the noughties, marred by the war in Iraq, September 11 and the global financial crisis, and in the turbulent tenths. He has not abandoned his trademark outlook to this day. In recent years, Ringo has released mostly mini-albums, citing the comfort of working in a short format - and these compositions remain as invigorating as ever. Even if at first glance it seems that he suddenly starts singing about sadness and hardship, as in February Skies, the first song from last year's mini-album Crooked Boy. But even there Ringo has a decisive answer for any sadness: "I'm sick of February Skies!"
His new record Look Up is claimed to be a country album. For those who are unfamiliar with The Beatles' work, this may seem surprising, but in fact such an artistic gesture for Starr is quite logical. He loved this very American genre from childhood, and songs like Act Naturally and Don't Pass Me By are pure country. Back in 1970, just searching for himself, Starr recorded in Nashville a country album Beaucoups of Blues, which was absolutely standard for those years - by the way, it stood the test of time, smooth, a bit melancholic and charming.
Now country music is back in vogue. Morgan Wallen's albums are topping the Billboard charts, singer Shaboozy's Tipsy stayed at the top of the singles chart for 20 consecutive weeks, and even Beyoncé released what is believed to be her own country album. Against that backdrop, Starr's decision to record with producer T-Bone Burnett, a master of aesthetically pleasing country music who worked on the soundtrack to the movie "Oh, Where Are You, Brother?", Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' collaborative albums, and Brandi Carlile's best-known record, seems very sensible.
Country on the positive
But it begs the question: how does a country album fit with the positive outlook that Ringo has been extolling for years? Surprisingly, it fits perfectly.
Country is a multifaceted genre, where there is room for both light melancholy (as on Beaucoups of Blues) and joy. There is indeed a lot of fun and vivacity in Look Up. But unlike, for example, What's My Name (2019), Starr's last full-length album, these feelings are expressed more restrained here. A good example is the light and optimistic String Theory, whose mood is impossible not to be imbued with.
Melancholy is also present, but rather in the form of barely noticeable accents: "It's a long way down / And there's no bottom at the bottom, / You're filled with longing, / But you've forgotten / That you can look up" or "You left me, and now I have a lot of free time".
As Robert Altman clearly demonstrated in his "Nashville," country music is first and foremost a genre of musicians. Here the beauty of a song depends on the performers' ability to capture the mood of even the simplest melodic material.
Ringo and Burnett managed to do it: for example, each shimmer of the slide guitar subtly emphasizes the atmosphere of the music without drowning out its natural simplicity. The rhythm section, in which Ringo himself is responsible for the drums, maintains the right tempo - unhurried, just the right tempo to which it is pleasant to admire a large desert expanse.
Almost every song on the album features young country music stars, and their presence is perfectly appropriate. Of particular note are vocalist Molly Tuttle, who adds a soft, high harmony to Ringo's husky voice, and guitarist Billy Strings, whose virtuoso parts adorn Breathless and Never Let Me Go, two of the best tracks on the record.
The result is sweet: 36 minutes of music where Starr sounds younger than his 84 years, but at the same time fully in keeping with his years. What's more: it is precisely because of the restraint, fine taste in the selection of material and quality sound design of the songs, as well as the absence of excessive eccentricity that Look Up can be called Starr's best solo album in many years. Still, Ringo's unselfishly cheerfulness has already bored many people, which was once again reminded by the "last" Beatles' song Now & Then, released in 2023. Full of nostalgia and tenderness, it showed very well that sometimes a slight sadness says slightly truer things than endless youthfulness.
Bring on the water
It would be a mistake to say that Look Up is an outstanding album. Rather - just a good, confident work that doesn't even try to claim genius. Listening to this modest record, as well as Ringo's solo works in general, it's easy to notice that he always realized his limits. Perhaps this is his main superpower: Ringo knows that he can't jump over his head, and he accepts it without drama or trying to prove anything to anyone. And, of course, that's why he will always be remembered not so much as a solo artist, but as a member of The Beatles. Agreed, it's still an enviable fate.
And one more detail. Look Up comes out the week that the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades and the city of Malibu are engulfed in fires destroying everything around them. Beverly Hills, where Starr, who just last year put his homes in England and Colorado up for sale, lives, is a short drive away. Ringo, of course, has a lot of money - that may be a major factor in his long-lived inner vigor, and if anything, he can handle any trouble. But I wish him that it would be all right. Optimism is a fragile thing.
