Ringo Starr released “Thankful,” the second track off his forthcoming country music album, Look Up. The song features Alison Krauss and is the only track on the album which was co-written by Starr, along with Bruce Sugar. The album comes out on January 10, 2025 and was produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett. “Thankful” is available to stream today.
“I love this track. I wrote it with my producer and engineer Bruce Sugar and I feel we put an LA country sound to it. For the lyrics, I always like to focus on the positive, and for this song in particular, about what we can be thankful for,” Ringo reflected. “I hope it brings you some joy and peace and love.”
PRE-ORDER LOOK UP | HERE
LISTEN TO “THANKFUL” | HERE
Recorded this year in Nashville and Los Angeles, Look Up features 11 songs and nine were written or co-written by Burnett, one by Billy Swan and the other, as previously mentioned, co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar. Starr sang and played drums on all the songs and co-wrote the album’s closer, “Thankful,” featuring Alison Krauss. Burnett enlisted some of Nashville’s finest and hottest talent for the record, including Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius, Molly Tuttle and the aforementioned Krauss. The album’s debut track, “Time On My Hands,” written by Paul Kennerly, Daniel Tashian (who is a co-producer on the album along with Sugar) and Burnett, is currently available to stream.
Starr’s lifelong love of country music has been apparent and celebrated throughout his illustrious career. He performed and wrote numerous country and country-tinged songs throughout his years with The Beatles (i.e. “Act Naturally,” “What Goes On,” “Don’t Pass Me By”) as well as with the earlier Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, and recorded a country album, Beaucoups of Blues, in 1970 as his second solo album. His love of Country and the Blues led him to try and emigrate from London to Texas while still a teen, after reading that Lightnin’ Hopkins lived in Houston.
The artist’s new album comes after a chance meeting with Burnett at an event in Los Angeles in 2022 (the two had first met in the 1970s), where Starr asked Burnett to write a song for an EP he was recording. Taking the task to heart, Burnett returned with nine songs, all in a country vain, which happily put Starr on a path to record Look Up: his first country album in more than 50 years and his first full-length album since 2019.
Starr will be bringing this new music to Nashville when he headlines the famed Ryman Auditorium on January 14 and 15, 2025. Tickets are currently on sale.
