{"id":194564461,"date":"2026-04-25T14:42:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/?p=194564461"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:45:40","slug":"long-long-road-ringo-starr-at-85-still-finding-new-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/2026\/04\/25\/long-long-road-ringo-starr-at-85-still-finding-new-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Long Road: Ringo Starr at 85, Still Finding New Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\">Long Long Road: Ringo Starr at 85, Still Finding New Ground<\/h1>\n<p>There\u2019s something improbable about the best chapter of\u00a0<strong>Ringo Starr\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0solo career arriving when he\u2019s 85 years old. And yet here we are.\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>, released April 24th, 2026, is Ringo\u2019s 22nd studio album\u2014and by almost any measure, it\u2019s among the finest work he\u2019s ever put his name to outside the<strong>\u00a0Beatles.<\/strong>\u00a0The drummer the world spent decades underestimating has, in the final innings of an extraordinary life, found his truest musical home. &#x1f3b8;<\/p>\n<div id=\"youtube2-sG-9JxYvwoo\" class=\"youtube-wrap\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;sG-9JxYvwoo&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}\" data-component-name=\"Youtube2ToDOM\">\n<div class=\"youtube-inner\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/sG-9JxYvwoo?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0\" width=\"728\" height=\"409\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"header-anchor-post\">How It Happened<\/h2>\n<p>The story of\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>\u00a0begins with a poetry reading. That\u2019s where\u00a0<strong>T Bone Burnett<\/strong>\u2014one of the most celebrated producers in American music, the man behind the\u00a0<em>O Brother, Where Art Thou?<\/em>\u00a0soundtrack and HBO\u2019s\u00a0<em>Nashville<\/em>\u2014connected with Ringo in a way that would change his late-career trajectory entirely. \u201cI always heard Ringo as a Texas artist,\u201d Burnett has explained. \u201cThe way he played felt just like Texas music to me.\u201d So he wrote Ringo a Gene Autry-style song, because that\u2019s where his instincts pointed.<\/p>\n<p>The result was\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>, Ringo\u2019s first country record in more than 50 years, his first since\u00a0<em>Beaucoups of Blues<\/em>\u00a0in 1970. It was an unexpected critical and commercial triumph, earning him his first Top 10 on Billboard\u2019s all-genre Top Album Sales chart and, in the UK, his first solo #1 album, overtaking Taylor Swift at the top of the Official Country Chart. Nobody saw that coming. Not even Ringo.<\/p>\n<p>He has been characteristically straightforward about how the follow-up happened: \u201cAfter we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened. I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>, and now for this one, which I\u2019m calling\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>, because I\u2019ve been on a long long road.\u201d &#x2728;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"header-anchor-post\">What It Sounds Like<\/h2>\n<p>Recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles,\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>\u00a0is a ten-song set rooted in country and Americana but reaching wider\u2014what Ringo\u2019s camp describes as an aural mosaic of his musical legacy and influences. The core band, which T Bone affectionately calls \u201cThe Texans\u201d after a 1959 Liverpool band Ringo played with before the Beatles, returns from\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>: Paul Franklin, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Daniel Tashian, Rory Hoffman, Patrick Warren, and Colin Linden. Burnett would send Ringo tracks with some meat on them, and Ringo would send back his drum and singing parts. Then Burnett would complete the deal\u2014a process Ringo describes as \u201ca great way of working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Molly Tuttle returns, duetting with Starr on three of the ten tracks, including the Robert Plant\/Alison Krauss-styled opener \u201cReturning Without Tears.\u201d Billy Strings appears for Everly Brothers-fashioned harmonies on \u201cMy Baby Don\u2019t Want Nothing.\u201d Sheryl Crow pops up on the title track, which features Ringo\u2019s meditation-informed spoken-word section: \u201cDon\u2019t be attacked by your thoughts\u2026 let them come in, let them go.\u201d St. Vincent cameos on \u201cChoose Love,\u201d a reworking of a 2005 Ringo song now given a mid-60s R&amp;B swing and a psychedelic edge.<\/p>\n<p>The Carl Perkins connection is particularly meaningful. \u201cI recorded two Carl Perkins songs with The Beatles, and both T Bone and I wanted one on this record,\u201d Ringo explained. \u201cHe found this beautiful track I\u2019d never heard before, \u2018I Don\u2019t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore\u2019.\u201d The choice is both a personal tribute and a musical statement about where Ringo\u2019s deepest roots actually lie\u2014not in Merseybeat or psychedelia, but in the American roots music that first captivated a young Richard Starkey in Liverpool. &#x1f3b5;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"header-anchor-post\">The Long Road That Got Him Here<\/h2>\n<p>Richard Starkey was born July 7, 1940, making him 85 years old\u2014the oldest living Beatle. What\u2019s less well known is how deep his country roots go, and how early. In the late 1950s, Ringo was the busiest drummer in Liverpool, largely because he owned his own kit. His heart lay in country music so completely that he actually applied to the American Embassy for factory work in Texas, simply so he could be nearer to the music he loved. The embassy paperwork proved too much of a drag, so he never completed it. It was a Sliding Doors moment\u2014had it gone through, there would have been no Ringo Starr in the Beatles.<\/p>\n<p>His solo career has been long and varied across more than five decades\u2014stretching from the orchestrated pop of\u00a0<em>Sentimental Journey<\/em>\u00a0and the country soul of\u00a0<em>Beaucoups of Blues<\/em>\u00a0in 1970, through the glam rock hit \u201cBack Off Boogaloo,\u201d the sentimental classic \u201cIt Don\u2019t Come Easy,\u201d and years of well-received if commercially modest pop-rock albums. For a period he stepped back from full album releases, releasing EPs instead. The T Bone Burnett collaboration has rejuvenated everything. &#x1f3b6;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"header-anchor-post\">What the Critics Are Saying<\/h2>\n<p>The reviews have been strong.\u00a0<em>Mojo<\/em>\u00a0gave it four stars, writing that while Ringo may indeed have travelled a long long road, here he sounds 85 years young.<\/p>\n<p><em>Clash Magazine<\/em>\u00a0noted that country and western has been embedded in Richard Starkey\u2019s bones for decades, since before his debut as a lyricist and vocalist in the Beatles with \u201cDon\u2019t Pass Me By,\u201d right up to last year\u2019s\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>. Love is the undercurrent of the album, with most lyrics carrying Ringo\u2019s well-renowned peace and love message, heard loudest in \u201cChoose Love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>New Statesman<\/em>\u2018s Kate Mossman offered one of the more distinctive takes, writing that Ringo was never a genius, so as time has gone by his solo records have taken on a value proportional to his age\u2014which cannot be said of Paul McCartney. She described the album as classic country in the Fifties mode, with the feel of what they\u2019d call Western swing, bringing to mind boot-lace ties and black-and-white TV studios loaded with hay bales.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cult Following<\/em>\u00a0gave it four out of five, observing that only now does it feel like Starr is finding a sound he is comfortable with, and that he has pieced together a fine late-stage career album. The reviewer singled out \u201cChoose Love\u201d as a smart track\u2014a nod not just to Ringo\u2019s peace and love rhetoric but to\u00a0<em>Tomorrow Never Knows<\/em>\u00a0and the Ringoisms that propelled the Beatles into naming some of their very best songs.<\/p>\n<p>Album of the Year\u2019s aggregated critic score currently sits at 80 out of 100 based on six reviews\u2014solid, consistent praise rather than rapture, which feels about right for a record that is excellent at being exactly what it sets out to be. &#x1f4ca;Where This Fits<\/p>\n<p>Ringo has always been an easier figure to underestimate than to properly see. The drummer jokes are evergreen. His voice has never been mistaken for a great instrument. His solo career produced plenty of pleasant, lightweight work alongside the genuine gems\u2014\u201dIt Don\u2019t Come Easy,\u201d \u201cPhotograph,\u201d\u00a0<em>Beaucoups of Blues<\/em>\u2014and the consensus around him calcified decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>What the T Bone Burnett collaboration has done is find the truest version of Ringo\u2019s musical identity and surround it with the space and craft it deserves. This isn\u2019t Ringo performing country music as a novelty or a nostalgia exercise. It\u2019s a man returning, at the end of a long road, to the place his heart has always been. &#x1f31f;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long Long Road: Ringo Starr at 85, Still Finding New Ground There\u2019s something improbable about the best chapter of\u00a0Ringo Starr\u2019s\u00a0solo career arriving when he\u2019s 85 years old. And yet here we are.\u00a0Long Long Road, released April 24th, 2026, is Ringo\u2019s 22nd studio album\u2014and by almost any measure, it\u2019s among the finest work he\u2019s ever put [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"1","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"3","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"2","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"default","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2x2Mt-dan6t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194564461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194564461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194564461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194564465,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194564461\/revisions\/194564465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194564461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194564461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194564461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}