BY DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF

 

One might assume a former Beatle would have accomplished every imaginable goal in music.  But as it turns out, Ringo Starr is still checking accomplishments off his list, as the drummer/singer has scored his first U.K. number one album after 55 years as a solo artist.

 

The musician is no stranger to chart success, as his very first solo offering – 1970’s Sentimental Journey, an album of  pre-1950s standards, reached number seven on the UK Album charts. Starr would see his greatest commercial solo success with 1973’s Ringo, which managed to claim the top spot on the Spanish and Swedish album charts, as well as those for the Canadian publication, RPM Magazine.

 

Nonetheless, chart-topping success has always eluded the Starr in the key markets of America and the United Kingdom. While this continues to be the case with regard to the American charts, the recently released Look Up has claimed the number one position on the top position on the Americana Album and  Country Album charts in Starr’s homeland of the United Kingdom.

“It’s just been a great experience for me to make this record,” Starr said of the album’s success in a clip shared to social media. “The experience of it actually doing great just fills my heart.”

 

The accomplishment comes in the wake of a (minor) stylistic left turn for the rock & roll legend, who embraced all things Nashville for the recording of his 21st studio album, Look Up. At eleven tracks, the album finds the emissary of peace and love mingling musically with a myriad of like minded collaborators. These include Billy Strings, Alison Krauss, Molly Tuttle, Larkin Poe, Billy Strings, and Joe Walsh Eagles, James Gang, and solo fame.

 

 

Of course one would be remiss in failing to mention producer and songwriter T Bone Burnett, who had a hand in the writing of every track featured as part of Look Up. Burnett also manned the producer’s chair for the sessions, and by all accounts was largely responsible for the idea of the album having even come together  to begin with.

 

As Ringo himself tells it, many of the musical collaborators for Look Up wound up appearing due to their association with features tunes prior to Starr’s having heard them. This includes guitar wizard and critical darling of the present day Billy Strings, with whom Starr states he is familiar but has not officially met – Starr’s contributions were reportedly recorded on the west coast while much of the instrumentation was laid down by session players in Nashville.

 

Look Up follows the path laid by Starr’s own 1970 album Beaucoups of Blues, which features a similar embrace of the country music genre. It’s a genre with Ringo has been widely associated since before the bust-up of The Beatles, and one whose palpable emotion impact he cites as the result of the genre’s history of strong narrative storytelling.

 

While Beaucoups of Blues was released to a relatively muted commercial responsive given the context of the period in which it was released, Ringo is back on the country music scene with a vengeance with the number-one charting Look Up, available now to purchase and stream.