Wednesday, July 9, 2014

CD Odyssey Disc 638: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

There’s a heat wave blowing through town this week, and I’ve been enjoying it. My office becomes a bit of a roaster at this time of the year, but I still put on a suit and tie every day.

This is partly because I think you should dress the part if you work at a white collar job, but I also do it for the psychological divide it creates when I finally leave work. I am sitting here writing this review in a pair of loud yellow shorts and a Steve Earle tour shirt and despite a hard day, I am thinking mostly about music. Clothing matters.

Disc 638 is….All The Road Running
Artist: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? A lonely desert road, marred only by…ridiculous swooshes of neon? This is a time lapsed photo where the vehicle lights create a conceptual design aimed at marrying the Americana folk of Emmylou Harris and the electrified rock of Mark Knopfler into a single image. Or maybe this is what happens when those computer animated movers from the “Money for Nothing” video drive through your town delivering appliances.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of both artists, but to be honest in 2006 when I bought this I probably found it under the Mark Knopfler section. I was a dedicated fan of Knopfler’s solo work and eager for whatever he was going to do next, and this was it.

Hence this album was at least partly responsible for rekindling my love of Emmylou Harris’ music, and I’ve gone on to purchase a lot of her back catalogue since.

How It Stacks Up:  I have ten Emmylou Harris albums, plus two where she shares top billing (this one and “Old Yellow Moon” with Rodney Crowell). I have seven of Mark Knopfler’s solo albums, plus two where he shares top billing (this one again, and “Neck and Neck” with Chet Atkins). I can’t really compare this to the solo albums of each artist, but in the case of their respective collaborations, “All the Road Running” is my favourite on both sides of the ledger

Rating:  4 stars

With the sheer amount of musical collaborations Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris are part of this album feels almost inevitable. I’m just surprised it took this long.

Of course, they were making music in different worlds for many years; Emmylou doing the country music thing and Knopfler rocking out in Dire Straits. “All the Road Running” is them coming together in their second careers. Both are significantly more removed from the spotlight than they were before, and both are using the artistic space that can create to make some of the best music of their careers. Knopfler has relaxed his guitar shredding for a more relaxed blues/roots style while Harris has become more alternative, willing to risk forays into rock edged production. Their meeting up for “All the Road Running” is less about them adjusting their styles to fit, and more them naturally growing naturally to common ground.

The result is a seamless blend of two great talents who have parked their egos at the door. The style is mostly the contemporary folk that Knopfler has embraced since he released his first solo album in 1996, with easy flowing melodies and one foot planted firmly and nostalgically in the past.

Knopfler wrote all but one of the 12 songs, and it is pretty clear that he had Emmylou in mind. There is a traditional swing rhythm in almost all of them that brings an old school country sound to his music that is much stronger than on any other record. Each track is some form of duet featuring plenty of opportunity for Harris to shine as both a lead vocalist and as popular music’s greatest harmonizer.

Many of the songs are sung as a ‘couple’ with verses traded back and forth with a warmth that belies the respect and admiration these two artists obviously have for each other. There are up tempo love songs like “This Is Us” where you can see them as a long-time couple flipping through old photo albums, finishing each other’s sentences. It made me think of Emmylou’s more recent collaboration with Rodney Crowell on the tearjerker “Back When We Were Beautiful,” but with laughter instead of tears.

Emmylou gets one writing credit for “Belle Starr” which once again had me wishing she would write more of her songs. She’s a natural, but it just seems to be in her nature to gracefully take a back seat to other talents.

This is Us” and “Right Now” are also good examples of Knopfler’s adaptability on guitar. Even when he plays rock riffs over these decidedly country constructions, the result feels easy and natural. Emmylou’s trademark quaver is a nice compliment to Knopfler’s big blue notes, neither ever so sharp as to cut across the other.

My favourite song on the album is “Donkey Town,” a song about a love triangle in a trailer park with a group of characters that have had their share of bad luck. Even if you’ve never lived in a trailer park, when Knopfler sings about ‘hangin’ round in Donkey Town, too long, baby, too long” you can feel that deep yearning that comes from people who can imagine a better life, but not see their way clear to get there.

The song has a slow, relaxed feel that belies the tension between a neighbor and his growing relationship with the wife of an ornery army veteran living in a nearby trailer. Just when you think our hero is going to take her away from the old bastard, the song throws you a curveball:

“It was Friday late and she crossed those legs
She told me flat out she would
If I could pull up my trailer pegs
We could get away together for good
I sure wish her the best of luck
She’s going to need it, thinking of Jim
I don’t like to leave her stuck
But she’s near as bad as him.”

I love the use of “she crossed those legs” which summons up a pretty picture in my head. Obviously the narrator was impressed as well, just not enough to help her pack a suitcase.

Emmylou’s voice and Mark Knopfler’s guitar have always individually had the ability to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Together they have the good sense to not tread on each other’s power, but instead create a gentle blended experience. The result is a relaxing record with a subtly complicated grace.


Best tracks:   Beachcombing, I Dug Up a Diamond, This Is Us, Rollin’ On, Donkey Town, Belle Starr, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, All the Road Running

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