Ringo Starr

Y Not
[Hip-O Records/UMe]

For most of his solo career, Ringo Starr got by with a little help from his friends—the strength or weakness of his albums tended to rise and fall depending on the caliber of guest songwriters and players on hand, most particularly his former Beatles bandmates. His partnership with producer Mark Hudson changed that beginning in the late 1990s, allowing Starr’s star to shine with or without the aid of his big-name pals. With the end of that relationship, Starr has for the first time taken on sole production duties on his latest, Y Not. One might expect a certain amount of self-indulgence from an artist who, at age 69, is finally set loose on the board alone, but Y Not is as modestly ebullient and straightforwardly charming as the man himself. Starr presides ably over a group of A-list musicians that includes Joe Walsh on guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboards and Don Was on bass, and the leader of the band himself sounds as sprightly as ever behind both the drum set and the microphone. Typically, the album’s highest and lowest points come on the only occasions when one of those famous friends happens by: Paul McCartney provides a gently supportive counterpoint on the strikingly poignant “Walk With You” (written by Starr and Van Dyke Parks), while Starr relegates himself to playing Joss Stone’s second banana on the truly unfortunate “Who’s Your Daddy.” For most of Y Not, Starr gets by just fine on his own. –Chris Neal