Track Listing

1. Beaucoups of Blues
2. Love Don't Last Long
3. Fastest Growing Heartache in the West
4. Without Her
5. Woman of the Night
6. I'd Be Talking All the Time
7. $15 Draw
8. Wine, Women and Loud Happy Songs
9. I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way
10. Loser's Lounge
11. Waiting
12. Silent Homecoming
13. Coochy Coochy
14. Nashville Jam

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81904 in Music
• Released on: 1995-08-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks

Amazon.com
Of all the ex-Beatles, it was drummer Ringo Starr who seemed to have the most fun with the period of artistic liberty inspired by the band's remarkable post-breakup afterglow. Initially covering an odd album of Tin Pan Alley standards (1970's Sentimental Journey), Starr next turned to his longtime love, country & western. Proving that those Buck Owens affectations on the Beatles' cover of "Act Naturally" were hardly tongue-in-cheek, Starr gathered a stellar group of Nashville musicians (including Jerry Reed, Pete Drake, and Charlie Daniels on guitar and Elvis Presley drummer D.J. Fontana) to cut an album of straightforward country ballads. While earnest and a bit laid-back, Starr's modest vocal efforts here sometimes can't match his obvious affection for the genre and material. Noble and obviously heartfelt, it's an album that might have benefited from a duet (or three) with some of country's more accomplished vocal stylists. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

It's worth the rain to have a little sunshine
I understand that some people may have certain predjudgements against Ringo Starr's solo carrer, and against this particular album. But this was my first Ringo CD purchase, and I wasn't dissapointed. I was waiting for the boring disaster some reviewers predicted, but instead, I found a country album (you can't review it like a pop album) extremely well-prepared, with some of the finest Ringo's vocal performances I've ever heard, and lyrics that can surprise you when you read them. Chuck Howard and Sorrells Pickard (two major country composers), wrote the majority of songs on this album, and their stories have always something to comment, or some phrases to rescue, hence the title of this review (from "Woman Of The Night").

You can never expect the genial lyrics of John Lennon, the perfectionist musical taste of Paul McCartney or even the solemnity and irony of George Harrison from a person like Ringo Starr, a man who always was in the shadows of the best band in the history of popular music. But you can enjoy, with tolerance and well-prepared ears, an effort like this. This not-pop-but-country experiment was prepared for Ringo by producer Pete Drake, recorded mainly in Nashville by other instrumentists, with Ringo only expected to go, pick up the songs he liked, and add the vocals and some drums and acoustic guitar parts. But the composers and musicians picked up by Drake make a wonderful job: the title track "Beacoups Of Blues" has lovely and sad lyrics, and there are some interesting stories behind "Love Don't Last Long", "Woman Of The Night" and "Loser's Lounge". Of course, there is some straight country music that can bore some people ("Fastest Growing Heartache In The West", "Wine, Women And Loud Happy Songs", "I'd Be Talking All The Time"), but there are also extraordinary love ballads ("Without Her" can easily make you cry, "Waiting" is lovely; and although the vocal duet "I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way" is a little dullish, it's also listenable) and some unusually good songs, with sparkling geniality and humour (enjoy the rhythm and story behind "$15 Draw"!) or social content (the haunting "Silent Homecoming", apart from fitting perfectly with Ringo's voice and featuring some lovely instrumental tricks and backing vocals by The Jordanaries, the well-known group of Elvis' vocalists, is a very emotional anti-war song, this time from the eyes of a mother who has lost her child). The bouns tracks are also worth noting: Ringo's first solo-released composition "Coochy Coochy" has an interesting rhythm built around one chord!, and "Nashville Jam" is a long instrumental with great quality. It shows Ringo really enjoyed this album. Some said "Nashville Jam" is well worth the price of the CD for itself.

Without defending Ringo too much, I don't think this album is a bad purchase. It can bring you minutes of joyful songs and others full of thoughtful memories or remorseful wine-driven love laments, but you can really enjoy the listening. Sure, The Beatles were more much of this, and even Ringo himself did better songs and albums, but "it's worth the rain to have a little sunshine" and this CD is not one to reject. You may like it or not, but you have to recognize that there are some quality songs and production inside it.

Buy it if you're a fan. If you're not, know and love The Beatles first. Then you'll love Ringo, just like everyone else does.

COOCHY-COOCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two words: COOCHY-COOCHY!!!!

That rare Ringo gem is worth the (lowered) price of the album alone, what with it being a Ringo-written, Ringo-sung piece of music that rolls along extremely well! Especially if you're a die-hard Beatles fan who mixes and matches solo Beatle songs into pseudo-new Beatles albums like I do.

Other things going for this album are the fact that Ringo sounds a lot more comfortable on these songs than John or Paul did on their early solo albums; and the fact that all of these songs are fully-realized SONGS, and not just snippets or drawn out pieces of songs like those from Paul(on McCartney) and John(on Plastic Ono Band) make this a nice addition to your Beatles solo collection(notice I said "Addition"; this is most definitely something to pad out an already existing collection, and not a "must-have" piece of music history).

All in all, you won't be disappointed with this purchase.

When you're hot, you're hot
Ringo's second album was a country album. Unlike every other country album recorded by a rock star, this album doesn't feature any cover versions of classic country songs. Instead, a batch of original songs were written for Ringo by some top country songwriters. Ringo traveled to Nashville and recorded the album with top Nashville session musicians. The album ended up sounding pretty much like a typical country album from 1970. Except sung by Ringo Starr. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's a decent enough album, if you are into this sort of thing. The CD features two bonus tracks. "Coochy Coochy" was the b-side of "Beaucoups of Blues". I guess it was left off the album because it's not really a country song. "Nashville Jam" is a jam session, obviously. This album isn't for everybody, but if you are a Beatles fan that also enjoys country music, you will probably like it.