Ringo Starr announces new T Bone Burnett collaboration, Long Long Road

Ringo Starr has announced that his new album Long Long Road – the follow-up to last year’s Look Up, again co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett – will be released by UMe on April 24.

The 10-song album also includes collaborations with Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow and St Vincent. Listen to lead single “It’s Been Too Long”, featuring the vocals of Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz, below:

“I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records,” says Starr. “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.”

Six of the songs were written or co-written by T Bone Burnett, two were co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar, one by Starr, Mark Hudson, and Gary Burr – and one by Bernie Benjamin and George David Weiss, originally recorded by Carl Perkins. “I recorded two Carl Perkins songs with The Beatles, and both T Bone and I wanted one on this record,” Starr explains, “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 album sees the return of many of the Look Up musicians, including the core band 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,” says Burnett. “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.”

Pre-order the album here and check out the tracklisting below:

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

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