It's never a bad time to be Ringo Starr

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Ringo Starr and T Bone Burnett were sitting around the other day at the Sunset Marquis when the former Beatle suddenly turned a dining table into a drum kit and belted out a bit of “Rock Island Line.”“It was Lonnie Donegan who gave us all a great break,” Starr, 85, said of the late British singer whose so-called skiffle music — a scrappy blend of folk, blues and country from the moment just before rock ’n’ roll — captivated kids in England (including the future Fab Four) in the mid- to late 1950s.“Everything followed him,” Starr added as he tapped out Donegan’s signature rhythm and Burnett looked on with a smile.“Did you see just then, when Ringo hit the table, how a whole vibe came alive?” asked the veteran record producer.“There was a feel there — that’s Ringo’s magic.

How does it happen? Nobody knows.”Whatever the secret, the two capture that indelible feel on Starr’s charming new album, “Long Long Road,” which Burnett produced and which comes just 15 months after the duo’s first collaboration, 2025’s “Look Up.”Like the earlier record, “Long Long Road” blends country-leaning originals by Starr and by Burnett — the latter known for his work with Los Lobos and Counting Crows and on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — and features guest appearances by Nashvillians like Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings and Paul Franklin.Yet the new LP, which also has Sheryl Crow and St.Vincent and a cover of an oldie once recorded by Carl Perkins, is an improvement on “Look Up,” with catchier songs, deeper grooves and more emotional singing by Starr, as in the very tender “You and I (Wave of Love).”“Ringo’s spirit is so open and loving — he lives inside my mind and heart,” says Tuttle, who joined Starr and a bevy of other players last year for a pair of concerts at Nashville�...