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Ringo Starr has assembled his usual impressive roster of collaborators for his next album – including Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings and St. Vincent. “Long Long Road” will be released on April 24th.
The former Beatles drummer announced the album on Tuesday, March 3, while also releasing the first single, “It’s Been Too Long,” featuring backing vocals from Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz. The track references some of Starr’s recent country influences – the deep, resonant guitar riffs, Tuttle and Jarosz’s yearning harmonies – and combines them with atmospheric elements of psychedelia and early rock & roll.
“Long Long Road” is released a good year after Starr’s last album “Look Up,” which also featured Strings, Tuttle, Lucius and Larkin Poe. Both “Look Up” and “Long Long Road” were produced by T Bone Burnett.
Starr about T Bone Burnett
“I am blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and to be working with him on these records,” Starr said in a statement. “After we made the last album – which I love listening to, by the way – this one just happened. I say sometimes, I make the right decisions. You can turn left or right at any point, and one of the right decisions was teaming up with T Bone for ‘Look Up’ – and now this one, which I call ‘Long Long Road’ because I’ve been on the road for a long time.”
Starr recorded “Long Long Road” in Nashville, working with many of the musicians who were on “Look Up”: Paul Franklin, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Daniel Tashian, Rory Hoffman, Patrick Warren and Colin Linden. Burnett named the group the Texans – in keeping with the music, but also a nod to a real band Starr played with in Liverpool in the late ’50s before joining the Beatles.
Look Up was a significant album for Starr: Not only was it his first new release since 2019’s What’s My Name, it also made the Top 40 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums and peaked at No. 12 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart.
North American tour starting in May
Following the release of “Long Long Road,” Starr will embark on a short North American tour. The trek begins May 28th in Temecula, California and ends June 14th in Los Angeles.
