Its constants? He keeps up the tempo, holds up. He’s rock’n’roll, like his Beatles brothers, but personally, he’s country first and foremost. As a child, he idolized Gene Autry, the singing cowboy of the movies. As a teenager, he took a western artist name: Ringo. With the Beatles, he sings Buck Owens. His first composition is country: Don’t Pass Me By. Shortly after the Beatles, he offered himself Beaucoups of Blues (his second solo album, 1970) with Nashville pros, including Elvis’ backing vocalists. Nothing could be more natural, that being said, that we find him in 2025, a faithful and vivacious nonagenarian, in the dreamy meadows of his bombed childhood. It’s come full circle Look Up pure and hard country, a ride carried out as a great team, with the formidable T-Bone Burnett and Billy Strings as guitarist accomplices, and Molly Tuttle and Alison Krauss as companions of gentle microphone and never-wearying lasso. Duly sad love songs (Time on My Hands) or resolutely in love (I Live for Your Love), lively gallops as it should be (Breathless), tender trots as desired (Can You Hear Me Call), it’s Ringo the way we like it. No spurs, but with the fanciest Stetson on the ranch.
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Look Up
★★★★
Ringo Starr, Universal
