You don’t get to where Ringo Starr is without making a few friends, and on Tuesday they came out in droves to help him celebrate his new country album, Look Up. The first of two Ringo Starr concerts at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium this week featured guest appearances by Billy Strings, Jack White, Molly Tuttle, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Jamey Johnson, and more. Hours before the sold-out show began, CBS also announced it would air a TV special of the concert later this year as a benefit for victims of the L.A. wildfires.
Released on Friday, Look Up arrives as the famed Beatles drummer’s latest homage to country. In addition to the country-tinged songs he sang with the Fab Four—”Act Naturally”, “What Goes On”, and “Don’t Pass Me By”, all of which appeared at Tuesday’s show—in 1970 he cut a full country album, Beaucoups of Blues. This latest homage to the American tradition spurred from a chance encounter with famed producer T Bone Burnett who wrote/co-wrote nine songs on the album. When it came time to record, the guests came pouring in with contributions from Strings, Tuttle, Larkin Poe, Alison Krauss, and Lucius. Once the album hit shelves, there was only one place to celebrate the release: the Mother Church of Country Music (and it didn’t hurt that so many of the guests were Nashville locals).
The 84-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer came out of the gate swinging on Tuesday night, opening with Carl Perkins‘ “Matchbox” featuring rockabilly devotee Jack White. As opposed to Ringo’s long-running tours with his All Starr Band where he sticks to his most well-known songs, Tuesday’s show allowed Starr to take a deep dive into his catalog. Surprisingly, only three of the show’s 19 songs came from Look Up.
Starr previewed his moderation in including the new songs during a recent interview with The Sunday Times, saying “In the late Nineties, I would put in, like, two or three from the new album, and you could feel the room empty. It happens to everybody.” Ringo even recalled leaving Elton John‘s famed 1975 concert at Wembley Stadium early after the Rocket Man went heavy on his then-new album, Captain Fantastic.
“He came on and said, ‘I’m only going to do the new album,’” Ringo recalled. “Me and his mother left after three tracks because we didn’t know them.”
Instead, Starr revisited his 1973 self-titled solo album, 1976’s Ringo’s Rotogravure, his other country record Beaucoups of Blues, and a fair share of Beatles deep cuts. Along the way, he got a little help from his friends as Molly Tuttle joined him for “Octopous’ Garden”, Billy Strings guested on Beatles for Sale‘s “Honey Don’t”, The War and Treaty helped out on 1970 throwback “Without Her”, Sheryl Crow and Tuttle joined together for Beatles For Sale‘s “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party”, and Strings and Tuttle teamed up for Rubber Soul‘s “What Goes On”.
In addition to being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform with a Beatle, Strings also owed Starr a favor. As Billy was readying to kick off his Renewal festival in Colorado last summer, he got the call that his wife was about to go into labor across the country. In order to make it home in time for the birth of his first child, Strings borrowed a jet from Starr—not long before the Look Up tracklist was made public. White, however, was the MVP special guest of the evening, helping open and close the show plus playing several songs in between, joining the ensemble cast of Strings, Harris, Crow, and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” singer Brenda Lee for the closing “With A Little Help From My Friends”.
Check out some videos of Ringo Starr, Billy Strings, Jack White, Molly Tuttle, and more at Ryman Auditorium. Ringo returns for another sold-out show tonight, January 15th. The broadcast version of the concert will air this spring on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
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Setlist: Ringo Starr | Ryman Auditorium | Nashville, TN | 1/14/25
Set One: Matchbox (Carl Perkins) [1], It Don’t Come Easy, Time on My Hands [2], Octopus’ Garden [3], Don’t Pass Me By [1], Thankful, Honey Don’t (Carl Perkins) [4], Without Her [5], I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party [6], Boys (The Shirelles)
Set Two: Have You Seen My Baby [7], You Don’t Know Me At All [8], Act Naturally (Johnny Russell) [9], I Wanna Be Your Man [10], What Goes On [11], Look Up [12], Photograph, Yellow Submarine [13], With A Little Help From My Friends [14]
[1] w/ Jack White
[2] FTP
[3] w/ Molly Tuttle
[4] w/ Billy Strings
[5] w/ The War and Treaty
[6] w/ Sheryl Crow and Molly Tuttle
[7] w/ Jamey Johnson
[8] w/ Mickey Guyton
[9] w/ Rodney Crowell, Sarah Jarosz
[10] w/ Larkin Poe
[11] w/ Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle
[12] Stopped because of technical difficulties, restarted
[13] w/ Jack White and Jim Keltner
[14] w/ Billy Strings, Jack White, Emmylou Harris, Sherly Crow, Brenda Lee