Ringo Starr
& his NEW All Starr Band

Photograph
Act naturally
Logical song
No one is to blame
Yellow submarine
Give a little bit
You're sixteen
The no no song
Back off boogaloo
Glamorous life
I wanna be your man
Lucky man
Take the long way home
All the young dude
Don't go where the road don't go
With a little help from my friends

Here's our Drum Majesty again! And this time with a surprisingly strong All Starr Band. When first heard about this encarnation, I thought things were going to slow down a bit, because, despite the enormous talent of the members, there was no history heavy weight dudes like Billy Preston, Levon Helm or John Entwhistle. Still, once they got together, the magic worked with such a beauty that I already put this among my very favourite All Starr Bands.

Of the new members, I'd like to highlight Sheila E., who's so charismatic. Also, Roger Hodgson who I never thought could be on a Ringo band. His voice is so amazing, and it's nice to know he's not losing his touch.

An All Starr Band CD is a little contradictory. On one side, I'd really like if Ringo decided to try new material. Someone who's been on the road for over 40 years certainly has a lot more to show than the same tunes all the times. Even in the Beatles-era, Ringo is still owing All Starr versions of "What goes on" and "Octopus's garden". In his solo years, he did a big bunch of excellent tracks that I'd love to see him performing.

On the other hand, since the band changes everytime, the approach to every song changes a little bit too, and that's so nice to see, how the dynamics of a song can change depending on the musican team that's doing it. It's almost like if everytime we got the same old songs, but they're also totally new songs in way, and that's a surprise I love in the All Starrs.

Also, there's the musicians themselves. Most of them I'd never put to listen to by myself. Some of them don't even do music I prefer. But once we get all these really good muscians giving their contributions, the songs just grow a lot. It's really magic. Other times, Ringo will bring someone we'll come to love so much, and maybe we were just waiting for someone to introduce us to them.

So go get your CD and don't miss the respective DVD, which is breathtaking too, and brings "It don't come easy", which wasn't included on the CD.