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Mark Knopfler recently returned to the U.K. after recording with Emmylou Harris in Nashville for an upcoming album of duets. The session was the pair's second in the past year; Knopfler was also in Nashville last April to record for the album. "I adore Emmy," Knopfler said. "We just keep adding to our little stash, recording a couple of more songs. I hope that we keep finding time to fit in more recording sessions."
The Nashville sessions feature Knopfler and Harris backed by session pros including keyboardist Jim Cox, drummer Chad Cromwell, bassist Glenn Worf, guitarist Richard Bennett, fiddler Glenn Duncan and pedal steel guitarist Dan Dugmore, most of whom played on Knopfler's most recent album, The Ragpicker's Dream, which he released last fall.
The album is a roots-music song cycle peppered with working class themes related to Knopfler's roots in northeastern England. Some of the album's songs -- like "Fare Thee Well Northumberland" with its tip to the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" -- serve as a reminder of music's real origins, spotlighting the English roots behind American folk music. "I adore roots music," he says. "But I'd never try to make, say, a bluegrass record. Bill Monroe, Merle Travis and people like that, they were actually influenced by the earlier music that was synthesized through them into what they made it. To me, I've always been interested in absorbing the spirit of something, but making it into something unorthodox. Bluegrass really does have an orthodoxy. And I'm not really into orthodoxies."
Knopfler has also lined up a thirty-date North American tour in support of the album. The dates pick up after a European jaunt, starting with a June 26th show in Portsmouth, Virginia. "I'm really pretty good at doing nothing," he says. "And I'm very slow at doing nothing. But it would feel a bit funny if I didn't tour."
Mark Knopfler tour dates:
6/26: Portsmouth, VA, Harbor Center
6/27: Philadelphia, Mann Center
6/28: Newark, NJ, New Jersey PAC
6/30: New York, Radio City Music Hall
7/1: Vienna, VA, Wolf Trap Filene Center
7/2: Boston, FleetBoston Pavillion
7/3: Ottawa, Cisco Systems Bluesfest
7/4: Montreal, Place Des Arts
7/5: Toronto, Molson Amphitheater
7/6: London, ONT, John Labatt Centre
7/8: Nashville, Ryman Auditorium
7/9: Atlanta, Chastain Park
7/11: Cleveland, Nautica Stage
7/12: Chicago, Chicago Theater
7/13: Dayton, OH, Fraze Pavillion
7/14: Milwaukee, Riverside Theater
7/15: Minneapolis, Orpheum Theater
7/17: Denver, Red Rocks
7/18: Salt Lake City, Abravanel Hall
7/19: Las Vegas, Joint
7/20: Phoenix, Dodge Theater
7/22: San Diego, Copley Symphony Hall
7/23: Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Bowl
7/24: Los Angeles, Greek Theater
7/25: Saratoga, CA, Mountain Winery
7/26: Berkeley, CA, Greek Theater
7/27: Kelseyville, CA, Konocti Field
7/29: Portland, OR, Arlene Schnitzer Hall
7/30: Seattle, Paramount
7/31: Vancouver, Queen Elizabeth Theater
ANDREW DANSBY
(March 7, 2003)