Ringo Starr will release his second album, recorded with T Bone Burnett, on April 24th this year. The single It’s Been Too Long, featuring the vocals of Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz, is out today. This is the first single from Long Long Road, which has been co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett. The 10-song album also includes collaborations with Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow, and St Vincent and is the follow-up to last year’s chart-topping Look Up. The album can be preordered here.
“I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records,” Ringo, the eternal Scouser, despite his Country leanings, states. “After 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 Look Up, and now for this one, which I’m calling Long Long Road, because I’ve been on a long long road.”
The album has solid roots in country and americana, creating a mosaic of Starr’s musical legacy and influences, including artists such as Carl Perkins. “I recorded two Carl Perkins songs with The Beatles, and both T Bone and I wanted one on this record,” Ringo explained, “and he found this beautiful track I’d never heard before, ‘I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore’.”
Recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles, this record sees the return of many of the Look Up musicians, including the core band (that Burnett dubbed The Texans after the 1959 band Ringo played with in Liverpool) featuring Paul Franklin, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Daniel Tashian, Rory Hoffman, Patrick Warren, and Colin Linden.
“I’ve loved Ringo’s playing and his singing for my whole life,” T Bone stated. “And then one night we were at a poetry reading together, and he said, why don’t you write a song for me? So I wrote him a Gene Autry-type song because I always heard Ringo as a Texas artist; the way he played felt just like Texas music to me. Ringo Starr is a recording artist of the highest calibre, and I wanted to surround him with these young masters, bringing in some of this extraordinary young energy that’s happening around Nashville for both of these records.”
Here are the 10 songs, 6 written or co-written by T Bone Burnett, two co-written by Ringo and Bruce Sugar, one written by Ringo Starr, Mark Hudson, and Gary Burr, and one by Bernie Benjamin and George David Weiss, and recorded by Carl Perkins:
“Long Long Road” Side One:
1. Returning Without Tears
2. Baby Don’t Go
3. I don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore
4. It’s been Too Long
5. Why
“Long Long Road” Side Two:
1. You And I (Wave Of Love)
2. My Baby Don’t Want Nothing
3. Choose Love
4. She’s Gone
5. Long Long Road
