New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Announced today,
Mark Knopfler will release his ninth solo studio album on November 16 on his own British Grove label via Virgin EMI/Universal Music. Entitled Down The Road Wherever, it features 14 unhurriedly elegant new Knopfler songs inspired by a wide range of subjects including his early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, a stray football fan lost in a strange town, the compulsion of a musician hitching home through the snow, and a man out of time in his local greasy spoon. Knopfler has a poet's eye for telling details that infuse his songs with his unique psychogeography - "where the Delta meets the Tyne" as he describes it - and his warm Geordie vocal tone and his deft, richly melodic guitar playing are as breathtaking and thrilling as ever.
Knopfler says: "'Down The Road Wherever' is a line from 'One Song At A Time.' I remember my pal Chet Atkins once saying that he picked his way out of poverty one song at a time, and it just stuck in my mind. You get to an age where you've written quite a few songs. But 'Down The Road Wherever' seems to be appropriate for me just because it's what I've always done. I've always tried to make a record and also to keep my own geography happening in the songs."
Knopfler has assembled the same group of top flight musicians he has worked with for the last few years (with one or two new faces). As is his way, he encourages them to put their own stamp on the material but never interfering in the essence of the song.
"I think the business of making a record, from having written a song and then bringing it to musicians, it can be quite a bendy route," he says. "It's not just motorways all the way….and you can end up in the occasional cul-de-sac, then you have to do a 16 point turn to try to get your truck back out on the main road as unobtrusively as you can. That's part of the fun of it."
Down The Road Wherever has been produced by Knopfler and Guy
Fletcher and was recorded at British Grove Studios in London. The band features
Mark Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Guy
Fletcher on keyboards, Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone and Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker on fiddle, Mike McGoldrick on whistle and flute,
Glenn Worf on bass, Ian 'Ianto'
Thomas on drums and
Danny Cummings on percussion. Richard
Bennett and Robbie McIntosh also feature on guitar and Trevor Mires on trombone. Imelda May, Kris Drever, Lance Ellington, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon add backing vocals. All songs are written by
Mark Knopfler apart from "Just A Boy Away From Home" where he shares the credits with Rodgers and Hammerstein, as the song uses a piece of "
You'll Never Walk Alone" to spin its tale of a lone Liverpool fan wandering the empty streets of Newcastle after midnight.
Mark Knopfler has released eight solo albums as well as recording Neck And Neck with guitar great Chet Atkins, and collaborated with
Emmylou Harris on All The Roadrunning. He has created soundtracks for Local Hero, The Princess Bride, and Altamira. In addition to producing his own records, Knopfler has also produced albums for
Bob Dylan and
Randy Newman amongst others. Knopfler was made an OBE in 1999 and was given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ivor Novellos in 2012.
Down The Road Wherever will be available on digital DL, CD, double vinyl (with one bonus track), deluxe CD with two bonus tracks, and a lavish box set that will include the album on both vinyl and deluxe CD and an additional 12"vinyl EP with 4 bonus tracks, a 12" print of the artwork and a 12" guitar tablature of a selected song.
Mark Knopfler - Down The Road Wherever:
Standard CD:
Trapper Man
Back On The Dance Floor
Nobody's Child
Just A Boy Away From Home
When You Leave
Good On You Son
My Bacon Roll
Nobody Does That
Drovers' Road
One Song At A Time
Floating Away
Slow Learner
Heavy Up
Matchstick Man
Deluxe Std album plus 2 bonus tracks:
Trapper Man
Back On The Dance Floor
Nobody's Child
Just A Boy Away From Home
When You Leave
Good On You Son
My Bacon Roll
Nobody Does That
Drovers' Road
One Song At A Time
Floating Away
Slow Learner
Heavy Up
Rear View Mirror
Every
Heart In The Room
Matchstick Man
Double Vinyl - 00602547169822
2 x heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
Side A
Trapper Man
Back On The Dance Floor
Nobody's Child
Side B
Nobody Does That
Good On You Son
Floating Away
Side C
One Song At A Time
Heavy Up
Slow Learner
Side D
Just A Boy Away From Home
My Bacon Roll
When You Leave
Matchstick Man
BOX SET:
Double Vinyl +
Deluxe CD - tracklistings as above
Album print, guitar
Additional 12" vinyl EP
Side A
Drovers' Road
Don't Suck Me In
Side B
Sky And Water
Pale Imitation
