Ringo Starr will benefit LA fires with CBS country performance

The country music renaissance continues with Ringo Starr, who recently released a country record Look Up, produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett. In honor of the occasion, they’re putting on Ringo & Friends At The Ryman, a two-night show at Nashville’s legendary music venue that will air on CBS later this spring. The special tapes January 14 and 15, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, “proceeds from the all-star performance of ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ will benefit the American Red Cross and those impacted by the California wildfires.”

“It is always a thrill to play the Ryman, and this time we are going country!” Starr said in a statement (via THR). “T Bone has put together a great show. I’m excited to hear my songs done in a country vein and to play with this incredible group of musicians. It will be two nights of peace, love and country music.”

Burnett, who declares that “There is not a single person in the world who has generated more goodwill than Ringo Starr,” is of course one of the Friends in Ringo & Friends. Other guests include Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle (both of whom collaborated on Look Up), as well as Jack White, Sheryl Crow, Brenda Lee, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Mickey Guyton, Sarah Jarosz, Jamey Johnson, The War and Treaty, and Larkin Poe, with more guests to be announced later.

According to Billboard, in addition to “With A Little Help From My Friends” and tracks from his new record, Starr will perform “Boys,” “Act Naturally,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Don’t Pass Me By,” and “It Don’t Come Easy” with a country twist. In between songs, Starr will reflect on his life and career (as a Beatle and a solo artist), and his guests will share memories of his influence on their own lives. 

These days it seems like everybody is going country—from Beyoncé to The Wiggles—but as Burnett points out, Starr was a country music guy before he was even a Beatle. In fact, he recently told Billboard that the former home of the Grand Ole Opry “means a lot to my soul, because most of the acts that I was following [growing up] were at the Ryman.” In his statement about the show, Burnett observes that “many, if not most” of the songs Starr sang or penned for The Beatles were country songs: “‘Matchbox,’ ‘Honey Don’t,’ ‘Act Naturally,’ ‘What Goes On?,’ ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ — and even ‘Octopus’s Garden’ is a country song. We don’t know which country, but a country song, nevertheless,” Burnett said (via THR). “Nashville is a town full of extraordinary musicians, and a killer band of some of Nashville’s most extraordinary musicians will accompany Ringo and the rest of the artists.”