Tag Archives: Ringo Starr

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 27th April 2026

Michael Stipe – The Rest Of Ever

This week’s half dozen new music recommendations seems to have settled around a theme of historically much-loved artists stepping back into the spotlight. I think it was sometime around 1991 when I first read Michael Stipe in an interview talking about how he was planning a solo album. Now, fifteen years on from R.E.M.s split he is still building up to releasing that solo debut. This might suggest to some he is not too worried about it or, equally, may point to his compiling a work of such high quality that there is no intention of putting it out until it is perfect. Luckily, the evidence available on this new TV performance speaks to a slow paced creation being more likely thanks to the latter. There is still no release date available other than Michael’s prediction it would come out before the end of 2026 and sharing that he is now in the “final stages” of the recording and writing process.

Graham Coxon – Billy Says

When not tied up with Blur reunions Graham has spent a large part of his music life focusing on The Waeve with partner Rose in recent years. This forthcoming solo release does not indicate a shift back to working under his own name, it is actually from a previously unissued record recorded in 2011 and set for full release on 19 June, 2026; part of a comprehensive reissue of Coxon’s complete solo catalogue, spanning 9 studio albums and 3 original soundtracks, across the next 12 months. ‘Castle Park’ was recorded in 2011 as part of the ‘A+E’ (2012) sessions. Originally intended as a follow up to ‘A+E,’ the release was postponed due to Blur activity in 2012, before Coxon moved on to other projects. The album is a collection of 10 songs that lean into Graham’s classic mod sound, with lead single ‘Billy Says’ – a longtime feature of Coxon’s live set – already familiar to fans and now finally available for the first time. Get yourself on the pre-order list here: https://amzn.to/4eLro1H

Tift Merritt – Someone To Watch The Band With Me

Here is another falling firmly into the long overdue category. Back in the early years of the 21st century Tift was one of the most exhilarating, engaging and deliriously infectious performers on the Americana circuit. Then she put out world weary records like ‘Travelling Alone’ proving she was not limited to the rhythm and the sawdust but was also capable of writing in the country style with real emotional clout and authenticity. Put simply, she has long been one of the most dependably brilliant artists to come out of America in modern times and so with ‘Someone To Watch The Band With Me’ showing no loss of cutting edge, taken from the album ‘Sugar’ due out June 26th via One Riot Records, it already sounds like one of the releases of the summer is on the horizon. Pre-order here: https://amzn.to/4d8WNd6

Ringo Starr – Long Long Road

That Beatles magic still holds me under a spell in 2026, I make no apologies for that. Ringo Starr’s new album, from which this is the title track, is already out and it feeds into his long declared love of country music. I think the thing that I enjoy best is simply that this comes out because Ringo still has the hunger to make a great album. There is enough care and attention on display, an incredible array of modern Americana talent contributing and the whole affair is coated with that unmistakable Ringo, peace and love, personality that remains impossible to get cynical about. And for Beatles trainspotters this video, and indeed the album cover, has a real improbable gem of a detail. That purple ruffled shirt Ringo wears is the very same shirt that he is pictured wearing in the inner photos of ‘The White Album’ in 1968. This is a garment older than me that means. Altogether now, Ringo Starr is making Ringo sounding music and there are fresh Paul McCartney sounds just around the corner too. The dream may have been over yesterday, but with fading sunshine like this still pushing through the cracks in the concrete, perhaps there is something to be said for still treasuring a fantastic thing while we can. The album is available here: https://amzn.to/3R42ccT

Beth Orton – The Ground Above

This is the lead title track from a new album that is due to arrive in July. It should come as no surprise to anyone following Beth’s career over the past thirty years that she continues pushing boundaries with her sound and craft. From the beginning she was so much more than an acoustic troubadour, Beth was an alchemist fusing the rougher textures of organic sounds with forward reaching loops, electronics with an ear for the DJ wizardry of dance music. Beth has never been overly earnest or a muso and she instinctively avoids a comfort zone like the plague. And so it is right here, where we find her making music that is immediately of another plane. Not quite Scott Walker in the latter part of his career but this is a step towards it, the form is free and the singing a ghostly echo, the textures shift and it is hard to tell if we are moving towards a diffident dance motion or free jazz. But Beth always had soul too and in among the unsettling audio movements the human touch of her vulnerable voice cuts through. Should be an interesting album so get yourself a pre-order here: https://amzn.to/421arc7

Beck – Ride Lonesome

And so we wind things up this week with one more legend still proving they have the quality in their work to stay relevant. This is a taste of the mellow, introspective Beck that arguably has overshadowed his hip-hop tendencies this century, at least in terms of reception. Still, it is very exciting to hear that he can still do this so well and the man himself has described to DIY Magazine that it as the “first indication of a different yet familiar direction” for his music in the year ahead. The standalone new single is available via this link: https://amzn.to/4tBuOIU

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 23rd June 2025

Bruce Springsteen – Repo Man

If there is anyone doubtful that Bruce Springsteen deserves to be mentioned alongside the great writers of the Rock ‘n’ Roll era then this coming week might just press a few of the doubters into submission. He is about to release seven completed albums of previously unreleased, mostly unheard, material at the end of this week and if nothing else, they go a long way to re-writing what now looks like the misconception that Bruce ever really went off the boil or had a quiet patch. His 1990s alone are about to be plunged into a wholesale revision as from what I have heard and judging by the initial reactions he was as inspired and creatively engaged then as at any point in his fifty+ year career. The unreleased albums cover electronic ambience, film soundtrack work as well as out-and-out rockers but the selection I offer up here is upbeat killer country from the record entitled ‘Somewhere North Of Nashville’. I cannot wait for this latest Bruce deep dive on the horizon.

Margo Price – Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down

I will keep it country with the exciting news that Margo Price, one of the most authentic voices on the US scene these days, has a new album ‘Hard Headed Woman’ out on August 29th. Of this top new tune Margo says “with all that’s going on in the world, I hope this song will be a battle cry for the downtrodden and create unity and action for those facing oppression and hardship”.

James McMurtry – The Black Dog And The Wandering Boy

This is the stand out title track from the new James McMurty album ‘The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy’, which is out now on New West Records. James is widely considered, by those in the know, to be one of the most under-rated songwriters playing in the country-rock scene and that is an opinion that his quietly floating around since the 1980s. Well if he is new to you or this new music prompts a return, this is a fine album to get into so check it out but meantime, the clip featured here is a recent (lo-fi audio quality) live outing.

Kristina Murray – Watchin’ The World Pass Me By

This new laid back, care free and real world baiting cracker is a proper country lament taken from Kristina’s latest album ‘Little Blue’ out now on Normaltown Records. The video leans into some cheesy literal interpretation and is all the better for it, showing an artist not taking herself too seriously whilst delivering a song that under that lush veneer packs a bit of a punch, reflecting as it does on the tough reality of those creatives who have to fight to reach their potential in an industry that can kick down on those less fortunate unable to buy their way in with looks, wealth and the right contacts. Luckily for us, there are still a wealth of artists, like Kristina, who do it for the love of music and creative expression.

Wednesday – Elderberry Wine

The alternative pockets of US country are also alive with promise and talent in 2025. This is especially true of North Carolina rockers Wednesday, led by Karly Hartzman with guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Ethan Baechtold, drummer Alan Miller, and pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis, who I was raving about on these pages a couple of years ago after they released the still superb ‘Chosen To Deserve’. Here they are recently making their national television debut in the US and their first airing of new 2025 music.

Ringo Starr – Time On My Hands

And in the end… the best new country album of 2025 might still have been made by Ringo!!!

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 28th April 2025

Echolalia – In The Pub

To mark the regular return of this sites Fresh Juice feature, I would ideally have liked to follow the tradition of sourcing the best video clips to represent the song choice but for this, I also wanted to return with something that has a bit of punch and this certainly has that. Echolalia are Spencer Cullum, Andrew Combs, Dominic Billet, Jason Lehning, Eli Beaird, Jordan Lehning and Juan Solorzano and their debut album is a thing of pastoral beauty and strong songwriting, with each of the four writers among the collective getting an equal portion of the album track space. But tucked away right at the close of the record is this hilariously sparky hidden treasure. Quite out of sync with the remainder of the album, this is reminiscent of a mockney Britpop classic, all boozed up geezerish chat that brilliantly captures the alcoholic fog of an afternoon in a spit and sawdust old English ale house. Maybe its best explained by Spencer Cullum, who for all his current residential status as a Tennessean was actually born and raised in Romford. If that is his voice to the forefront of this track, that kind of explains it all really. Let’s get emotional.l.l.l Terry!!!!

Pulp – Spike Island

Talking of Britpop, this a welcome return from some veterans of the era. Pulp have reformed and are set to release their first new album in 24 years and there is something that feels rather good about this one. It could be that the vast majority of nineties indie band resurrections rarely bring anything to enhance their legacy, more often merely adding fuel to the detractors argument that Britpop was a musically backward looking, conservative misstep. But for all that I can see their point, that is not how I remember it thirty years ago. I was rather swept up in the waves of optimism splashing in from the likes of Blur, Supergrass and the Charlatans. That unfiltered ambition Oasis spouted I got right behind, I wanted all that bland generic boyband shit shoulder barged out of the pop charts by acts writing great pop songs. I remember a time when the radio was reliably peppered with a drip feed of memorable tunes; I am inclined to think Pulp have revived just that on ‘Spike Island’. This is a song on regular radio rotation right now and every play grows on me a little more, just as a killer pop song should. It makes me feel Britpop is ripe for a reassessment, if people think its legacy is merely laying a platform for a band like Coldplay to exist then think again, the industry built the Coldplay monstrosity, Britpop’s incubation was from a far more musically inspired place as we are brilliantly reminded here with Pulp

The Pale White – Final Exit

The Pale White are set to release their ‘The Big Sad’ album, a record that the band themselves say looked like it might not come out for a time. We should be gratified they did find a way to set sail on this ship. Their sound may be out of step with that of a new rock band in 2025 but the feeling of being outsiders they project, something which is heavily emphasized in both this song and video, is offset by some wonderfully inviting and invigorating music. They are not quite a repro of the past even though those late sixties reference points are audible, neither are they a one dimensional rockist assault despite a tendency to grab hold of you and wrestle your senses to the floor until they submit to The Pale White energy. There’s something happening here…

Ty Segall – Another California Song

An artist like Ty Segall makes the others all look like also-rans, especially in terms of his creative work ethic. He has yet another new album coming out on the 30th May called ‘Possession’ and is just about to complete a series of solo acoustic dates which have kept him occupied for most of the past three months, but he won’t be out of view for long as from 5th July he’s off on a full electric band tour that will take care of the largest chunk of the summer. As can be heard here, even when he’s playing with just an acoustic guitar, there is still a kind of liquid energy pumping through every second of his playing and he continues to knock out good songs too. Could he be a little too prolific perhaps? I am as guilty as anyone of paying less attention to an artist who is always producing over one making a rarer, occasional appearance. But ignore Ty Segall and it’s you, the listener, who misses out. You have been warned…

Villagers – I Want What I Don’t Need

Taken from the most recent Villagers album ‘That Golden Time’ which has been out for a while but is being toured right now and well worth investigating by anyone with an ear for acoustic singer-songwriting played by a genuine craftsman. Villagers are the performing name for Conor O’Brien who has been playing under this banner, following the break up of his first band The Immediate, for fifteen years now. In that time he has deservedly won acclaim for the economical poetic flare in his lyric writing in addition to the delicate, refined touch and tone of his guitar playing. Both are on full display here in a song that is a potent reflection on the impulses that drive an individual to passionately achieve the gratification of desires that will ultimately be rendered meaningless whilst acknowledging he will go after them all the same. This is song composing as a very real art form.

Ringo Starr – Look Up

We will end this return edition of Fresh Juice with one more welcome return to the saddle from a much loved pop cowboy with the title track from his latest record. Obviously I have a massive Beatles bias which runs through all my music writing but I have never really had the blinkers on, especially where the solo albums of Ringo are concerned. But this one, with the production muscle and co-writing chops of T-Bone Burnette in its arsenal as well as a cast of top drawer country and bluegrass names like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Alison Krauss among the credits, is credibly being hailed as Ringo’s best ever solo album. Even on the gushing vinyl liner notes written by Elvis Costello, the suggestion is put forth that the ‘Look Up’ album is the natural follow up to ‘Beatles For Sale’. Well that particular claim might not stick but this is as strong a selection of songs that Ringo has ever sung as a solo artist and how great is it that we can still hear a Beatle in this fine a voice in 2025? Did the Beatles era every really end? This one argues persuasively the magic is still alive in ’25….

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