Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris Album: “All the Roadrunning”

It should be no surprise Emmylou Harris' angelic voice blends perfectly with the gruff rumble of Mark Knopfler's. If you've heard her great duo with similarly bassoed country artist Don Williams on Townes Van Zandt's elegant "If I Needed You," you could anticipate the perfect fit. And anyway, Emmylou's voice blends with everyone's. She is not only one of the most sought after duet partners in country music, but an iconic soloist who is on the short list of all time country greats.

In a time when Nashville demands you are only as good as your last video, she is no Emmylou come lately. When one recent female country artist cut her first album and was asked of her goals for the disk, she replied: "I just wanted to do something that wouldn't embarrass me in front of Emmylou Harris." Or as Knopfler himself put it during their release day appearance on Imus in the Morning, "When Emmylou sings a song, it stays sung."

Knopfler is a talented songwriter and an elegant guitar artist with a distinctive musical tone and style that, if described in literary terms, might be dubbed "Hemingwayesque." Just as Papa never used ten words when one perfectly chosen one would do, so too with Knopfler's guitar work. Knopfler's taste and economy is recognizable whether gunning out "Sultans of Swing" with Dire Straits or "Wild Theme" from his sound track of "Local Hero."

In other words these individually brilliant artists flat out define good taste and talent performing together.

Fittingly, "All the Roadrunning" does not up and shout at you, but comes at you with a quiet confidence. It is flash-free, as understated and tasteful as its participants. No one is showing off here, these are artists plying their craft. And just how good that craft is may sneak up on you. We've had the title tune and "This Is Us" available as early teases--they may be the two most commercial tunes on the disk. No matter, MK and EH "filler" is better than most artists "A" Material.

As I keep playing the disk, I find new treats within. This is very, very good stuff, the 15-year-old single malt you keep in the back of the bar. It respects your intelligence and taste. It will never pounce on you like an overeager puppy. It expects you to find it, and find it you will.

One minor issue. Knopfler wrote all but the two songs Emmylou penned. And while most are very good, Emmylou has become a world-class songwriter herself, and I'd have liked to have heard more songs written by her.

Nevertheless, while her "Love and Happiness" is touching, the biggest goose bumps come from Knopfler's "If This is Goodbye." It is a stand-alone love song, a seemingly sweet and innocent ballad that could be a lover bidding a tentative farewell when romance ends. The narrator is still in love, you think, his love object ready to walk away. Pretty standard stuff for love songs, particularly of the country variety.

But as Knopfler has explained, that is not the topic. "The famous last words" that "could never tell the story" were inspired not by fading love but by the last phone calls from the World Trade Center left on message machines. In that context, and sung by these artists, it is haunting.

This is a treasure of an album, one that can stand up not only to the ages, but to the very high standards the artists who recorded it have set for themselves.

Across a dozen duets, pieced together over seven years Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler sing these tunes with deep emotional overtones. Much of this CD relates to the life of an itinerant musician, "trying to juggle family and relationships and just the wear and tear of being in the world".

Emmylou says of making this CD," Mark is very much in control and knows what he wants, but on the other hand, he understand the mystical process that happens when you make a record and that record becomes what it is. It has everything to do with the people involved, but there's this other ingredient, of something set in motion. When I heard these songs together, it was so listenable, and I mean that in the most positive way, It a very rich album, musically and lyrically, yet it doesn't requires a lot of work." All of these songs were written by Emmylou and Mark.

"Beachcombing" which starts off the album is evocative of Hurricane Kristina although it was written well before. It is a song about loss, personal and emotional, says Mark, "wreckage washing up all along the coast."

"This is Us", is selected to become the single of this album. It is infectious and many will relate to this.

A lighter touch comes to "Red Staggewring, which is a Cajun-like tune where lovers compare themselves to motorcycles, cars and vintage guitars.

On "Belle Star", Emmylou compares herself to an old West infamous female outlaw, "Belle Star" and Mark as Jesse James. This banter is reminiscent of Johnny and June Cash in their early albums.

"Donkey Song' as a song written by Mark and meant for an earlier CD. They both enjoyed the freedom and silliness.

"Love and Happiness:" is the only "proper" song that Emmylou says she has written. "You cannot always protect your children and this is my homage to them".

"All the Road Running" paints the picture of the musician always on the road singing about love found and lost, missing family and friends, and life in the fast lane.

"If This Is Goodbye" came out of 9/11. Mark Knopler talks of reading Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, both of whom he found affecting," I remember the McEwan piece honing in on people in the twin towers using their mobiles to make that final phone call home to say "I love you, this is goodbye. If there is anything positive to take from 9/11, that expression of love is surely it."

The underlying emotions, the straight from life sessions, the day to day existence on the road of this album, is extraordinary. This Is Them: Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler

and now "This Is Us", BK. So Highly Recommended. prisrob April 30, 2006.

Talent is the ante. Many have it. What you do with it is what matters. Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler are blue-collar workers. They take their immense natural talent, put it to the side and roll up their sleeves, building songs like brick walls --- a note at a time. As the notes pile up, they sound effortless, eternal, as if they could have been served up in no other way. Which is why Knopfler and Harris's CDs feel like houses: solid, honest, as permanent as anything mortals can create.

They're houses in another way too --- as places of refuge. Put a Knopfler or Harris CD on, and the world feels right. His sure slow hand, cousin to J.J. Cale, a fluid contrast to his refreshingly non-professional voice. The angelic clarity of her voice, cutting and floating, suspended in time and space, as close to perfection as we'll know in this life.

Together, there's nothing they can't do: iron strength, gossamer delicacy, you name it.

"All the Roadrunning" is everything you could possibly want. A "ten best," desert-island disc. Background music. A throwaway collection of tunes for the road. A fan might say, with deep pleasure, "I've waited seven years for this." But the truth is, we've been waiting all our lives. And so have Knopfler and Harris.

Like lots of reviewers here, I'm baffled by the Editorial Review from Amazon. I must admit however that I wasn't over the moon about the album the very first time I listened to it. I was doing stuff around the house while listening, and thought it was really good but I wasn't thinking of it as great. It was on a second listen that I began to find myself standing foolishly in the middle of the floor, whatever I was doing completely forgotten for a moment as a particular song sort of commanded my attention. Finally I got the chance to listen to the whole thing closely and without distractions as I was riding in a car. It was this third time through that convinced me-- this is a really brilliant record. It's simply not an in-your-face kind of thing, one that instantly screams whatever it is the Amazon reviewer was listening for the moment you press 'play'. It is subtle and layered, something that reveals itself more fully with repeated listening. I, like other reviewers here, find something new and wonderful each time, whether it's an unexpected turn of a melody, or a line from the lyric that I missed the first time, or one of Knopfler's just-exactly-perfect note choices. I haven't been this moved or impressed by a release in a long time!

I've been a Mark Knopfler fan since his days with Dire Straits, and it is my opinion that nothing he's done as a solo artist can compare to this new album of duets with Emmy Lou Harris. To date this is Knopfler's finest work yet. And what a delightful surprise Emmy Lou's vocals are!

"This Is Us" is remescient of Knopfler's later Dire Straits days ("On Every Street" Album), and makes the perfect hit single! "Red Swaggering" has a very upbeat country/bluegrass sound and is also an instant favorite. The two songs Emmy Lou wrote "Belle Star" and "Love And Happiness" are fantastic. "Belle Star" is upbeat and what a perfect blend of M.K.'s voice with Emmy Lou's! "Love and Happiness" is a beautiful ballad, as well as the title track: "All The Roadrunning.

This was something of a risky undertaking for Knopfler given his macho guitar image (which is normally a guy thing). However the ladies are gonna love this album also. The music and lyrics are all originals are are beautiful!

The blend of M. K. vocals with Emmy Lou's are PERFECT!!

BUY THIS ALBUM!! There are no filler songs here, and you will not be disappointed. I have rarely given an album 5 stars but this one has earned every single one!