He kept dabbling – he recorded an Act Naturally duet with Owens in 1989 – but he didn’t make a full country album again for decades.
Enter Burnett, the culture’s chief curator of classic country for the last 25 years, the man behind the soundtracks to O Brother Where Art Thou and Inside Llewyn Davis, and the unlikely pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
Starr had known Burnett for decades, but had never collaborated on an entire project with him.
“In the 70s I used to throw a lot of parties and, and he was always there and I never invited him once,” Starr said. “We often laugh about that.”
The two were both at the Sunset Marquis last year for a poetry reading from Olivia Harrison, daughter of Starr’s former bandmate George Harrison.
Starr had been doing a series of EPs with different writers and producers, including a recent release with Linda Perry, and suggested Burnett give him a song for the next one.
Burnett quickly came back with a country tune.
“It was beautiful. The most beautiful song I’ve heard in a long time,” Starr said. He began to think, “I’m going to do a country piece.”
An inspired Burnett would write nine songs that along with two more, one of them written by Starr with his friend Bruce Sugar, turning the EP into an LP.
Starr played the drums and sang in Los Angeles, while Burnett recorded parts of the record in Nashville, bringing on young neo-classical country artists Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle for several tracks apiece.
And Krauss sings with Starr on the song he co-wrote, Thankful, released Friday as the album’s second single, in which he managed to smuggle his catchphrase, “peace and love” into a genre that’s usually about anything but.
“Yeah, I put it in the song,” he said with a smile.
