Paul McCartney rocks in the studio, on the road

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Paul McCartney hasn't had an idle year since The Beatles formed in 1960, and 2011 is no exception.

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  By Brian Jones, AP

  Paul McCartney has a new love, too: He announced his engagement to Nancy Shevell last month.

By Brian Jones, AP

Paul McCartney has a new love, too: He announced his engagement to Nancy Shevell last month.

He supervised reissues of his first two solo records, 1970's McCartney and 1980's McCartney II, each in special and deluxe editions with multiple extras. Both are out this week.

"It's a lot of fun revisiting the past," McCartney says. "It's like looking at old snapshot albums."

He's not just excavating archives. Two days shy of his 69th birthday, McCartney is rolling out U.S. dates, recording pop standards and plotting a hard-rock record.

McCartney closed his Up and Coming world tour with last Friday's show in Las Vegas (Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon sat in the first row). He'll launch his On the Run tour July 15 and 16 at Yankee Stadium. Also confirmed: July 24 in Detroit, July 31 in Chicago and Aug. 4 in Cincinnati.

"We have a few dates lined up over the summer and autumn, some real nice ones that haven't been announced yet," McCartney says. "We always love playing in America."

Being on and off the road since March 2010 hasn't kept McCartney out of the studio. His twisted, shambolic version of It's So Easy, punctuated by his raps, is the runaway standout on Rave On Buddy Holly, an all-star tribute out June 28. Rolling Stone notes, "He yowls ? like he popped some Viagra, then set his pants on fire."

Holly, a huge influence on The Beatles, inspired McCartney to reach beyond the obvious.

He initially planned a "straightforward version, because it's a tribute, so I thought I'd be faithful to Buddy's version, which I love," he says. "Then I had the idea to try a crazy, funky version. It seems to be going down well."

McCartney's planned rock album is tabled until he finishes a long-postponed standards collection.

"I've wanted to do this kind of album for years," he says. But "I never wanted to look like I was jumping on the bandwagon.

"I'm trying to put a different spin on it," says McCartney, who has been recording with Diana Krall. "A lot of the songs I've just discovered in researching the project. Some are big favorites from family singalongs as a kid. Great memories for me, that. And I've written a few tunes in the genre. We're going all sorts of ways, and I'm having a ball."

With his crowded schedule, when does McCartney, who was recently engaged to Nancy Shevell, plan to squeeze in a wedding ?

"That would be telling, wouldn't it?" he says.

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