Mark Knopfler Announces Ninth Solo Studio Album ‘Down The Road Wherever’
The first single is called: "Good On You Son" and features images of the forthcoming documentary by Henrik Hansen
The follow-up to 2015’s ‘Tracker’ features many of the musicians Knopfler has worked with in recent years, and a guest appearance by Imelda May.
Published on September 19, 2018
By Paul Sexton
Mark Knopfler will return with his ninth solo studio album, Down The Road Wherever, on 16 November. The follow-up to 2015’s Tracker, it will be released on his own British Grove label via Universal/Virgin EMI and features 14 new Knopfler compositions recorded at his west London studio, also called British Grove. Contributors to the album include Irish star Imelda May.
“’Down The Road Wherever’ is a line from ‘One Song At A Time,’” says Knopfler, referring to the album title and one of its tracks. “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.”
With Knopfler’s ever-present eye for compelling narratives and striking characters, the new songs cover such subjects as his early days in the south-east London area of Deptford, when Dire Straits were a fledgling band; a man out of time reflecting on his circumstances in his local “greasy spoon” café; and a stray Liverpool Football Club fan who finds himself in Newcastle (where Mark himself grew up) on ‘Just A Boy Away From Home.’ That’s the only track on which Knopfler is not the sole writer, as it features the melody of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ also well-known as Liverpool FC’s own anthem.
The team that Knopfler assembled around him for the recording sessions includes many of the musicians who have been with him in the studio and on the road for years. Among them are keyboardist Guy Fletcher, who has worked with him since Dire Straits days and co-produced Down The Road Wherever with Mark; Jim Cox, also on keyboards; Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone, Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker (fiddle), Mike McGoldrick (whistle and flute), Glenn Worf (bass), drummer Ian ‘Ianto’ Thomas and Danny Cummings on percussion.
There are also appearances by Richard Bennett and the widely-travelled Robbie McIntosh on guitar and Trevor Mires on trombone. Along with May, the album has backing vocals by Lance Ellington, Kris Drever, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon.
Down The Road Wherever will be available on digital DL, CD, double vinyl (with one bonus track), deluxe CD with two bonus tracks, and as a lavish box set including the album on both vinyl and deluxe CD. The box will also contain a 12” vinyl EP with four bonus tracks, a 12” print of the artwork and a 12” guitar tablature of a selected 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,” says Knopfler. “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.”
And I’ll be out of this place
And down the road wherever
There but for the grace, etcetera
I’ll see you later somewhere down the line
I’ll be picking my way out of here
One song at a time
Mark Knopfler
Down The Road Wherever
Ask Mark Knopfler to explain the title of his ninth solo studio album and he will tell you that Down The Road Wherever is a line from one of the tracks: “One Song At A Time.” He'll give the credit for that title phrase to a sadly departed friend with whom he shared a lifelong love of songwriting and guitar playing, and their endless potential to change lives.
“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,” says Mark. “You get to an age where it is a few songs. But Down The Road Wherever seems to be appropriate, just because it’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always tried to keep my own geography happening in the songs, that applies there as well.” In “One Song At A Time” that autobiographical geography pinpoints Deptford, England, where the up-and-coming Dire Straits began to make their way, one song at a time.
The unassuming spirit of the itinerant songsmith is still Knopfler’s pilot light, inextinguishable through more than 40 years at the absolute pinnacle of his profession. Down The Road Wherever is the latest, elegant evidence of that steadfast hunger, a bold and often surprising songbook of 14 selections (more on the deluxe editions) boiled down from twice as many that went into the workshop.
Mark’s apparently limitless creativity was further extended by simultaneous compositions for the upcoming Local Hero musical. That’s a subject close to his heart too, as the 1983 movie version became his first of several soundtrack projects and included the talismanic instrumental theme “Going Home,” to which his beloved Newcastle United still take the field.
Just as with its 2015 predecessor Tracker and others before it, Down The Road Wherever was created at Knopfler’s own West London recording space, British Grove Studios. Instrumental compadres include longtime collaborators such as co-producer and keyboardist Guy Fletcher, bass player Glenn Worf, pianist Jim Cox, guitarist Richard Bennett, drummer Ian “Ianto” Thomas and percussionist Danny Cummings. Mark’s ten-year association with top folk players John McCusker (fiddle) and Michael McGoldrick (whistles) continues, while additions to the group include saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and Tom Walsh on trumpet.
As ever, Knopfler found that the pleasure of birthing a new song is complemented by the process of what to do with it. “I enjoy the whole thing, of being inspired to write something, of working on it at home, writing it, and then taking it to a studio to try to make it work as a record,” he says. “I’ve got to make a decision as well: shall I just bring it here (to British Grove) and work on it on my own, or should I take it straight to the band? Because it’ll be a different thing if you do that. So you’re trying to decide which school to send your child to.”
Female backing vocals also abound on several tracks, along with a notable name on the door for “Back On The Dancefloor” in the form of Irish force of nature Imelda May. “It was great to have Imelda on that song, I think she’s fantastic,” says Knopfler. “She really did add a lot of color to it. She’s so creative, and that was fun. It’s a kind of a mystery song to me but I like it, that’s one of my favorites.”
“Female backing vocals are something that was going to happen. [I’ve] probably been meaning to feature that for a long time. And I’ve been enjoying having the brass element in quite a lot of the songs. When I go out on tour, I’m thinking I’ll have the elements I’ve always had but add brass to the line-up. It’ll just be more people on the bus.”
Longtime fans of this giant among singer-songwriter guitar heroes will note some palpable changes of mood on Down The Road Wherever, which stays true to the folk and roots-inflected ambience of his solo oeuvre but introduces new elements of jazz, funk and even a hint of the rockier leanings of earlier days.
“It will be different because whether you want to or not, you develop,” says Knopfler. “That’s just what happens. Sometimes the songs will tell you after you’re done, what it is you’ve been doing wrong, or where you’ve been going. So that’s a never-ending source of amusement. You can even find out from doing them what they’re about, or what you’ve been thinking about, perhaps.”
Other sonic surprises include the sparse and deeply romantic ballad “When You Leave” and the playful “Heavy Up,” inspired by a fellow songwriter who told Mark that his response to being told to “lighten up” was “I’ll lighten up for you if you’ll heavy up for me.” There is further inspiration from close to home in “Just A Boy Away From Home,” which rose from a memory back home in Newcastle, when his father was in hospital after a heart attack.
“He was in Newcastle General, which as anyone from the Northeast of England will know is very close to the football ground. He was lying awake in the middle of the night feeling a bit sorry for himself, and he heard a lad walking on the deserted street outside singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ Of course, he was a Liverpool fan and he’d been to the match—or who knows, he might have missed it somehow. But there he was in Newcastle singing his song. My dad found it inspiring, the spirit of it.” The track includes a full, stirring reprise of the famous melody. “It just felt good to play it on the slide,” says Mark. “I thought, ‘I’ve started, so I may as well finish.’ And it’s fun for the band to play.”
The completion of another momentous entry in Knopfler’s catalogue is the prelude to another joy of his life: the chance to perform some of it along with his endless supply of classic songs on the road. “You do find yourself thinking about being on a stage and playing a song,” he says. “I’ll be thinking about everybody, about having Mike McGoldrick and John McCusker, the folk musicians, as part of some songs, and Nigel and Tom as part of the brass thing on others. I’m looking forward to it.”
Down The Road Wherever concludes with “Matchstick Man,” another personal memory that poignantly captures Mark Knopfler as he was, and as he remains. “That’s me,” he confesses readily, “a young idiot with a guitar and a bag, climbing up into trucks and hitchhiking. I was trying to get back from a Christmas Eve gig in Penzance early on Christmas Day. I thought I’d hitch home. I don’t think I really knew it was 500 miles from there.”
“I got a lift up the old A1 and he let me off at a high crossroads in the Midlands. The sun was shining, there was snow everywhere and I could see for miles. There was nothing moving anywhere. I’m standing there with my guitar case and bag and this realization of what I’d chosen to do with my life. To me, it was exactly what I wanted to do. It’s just a snapshot of me then. From the air I would have been a tiny matchstick figure in this vastness of snow with his dream of being a musician.”
“You need some energy to make these things happen,” he concludes. “You’re not going to last if you haven’t got enough to get you through all the tougher times. I feel the same way I always felt. When I come in here and I see a couple of guitars in the corner, I get the same buzz that I had when I was a kid, and you’ve got to have that. It’s almost a childish attitude that keeps you fired up about turning up.”
STANDARD EDITION
1.Trapper Man 6.00
Ian Thomas, Drums
Beverley Skeete, Background Vocalist
Nigel Hitchcock, Tenor Saxophone
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Katie Kissoon, Background Vocalist
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Trevor Mires, Trombone
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
2.Back On The Dance Floor 5.30
Ian Thomas, Drums
Imelda May, Background Vocalist
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ
Danny Cummings, Percussion, Background Vocalist
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
3.Nobody’s Child 4.16
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
4.Just A Boy Away From Home (featuring "You'll Never Walk Alone", by Rodgers & Hammerstein) 5.12
Ian Thomas, Drums
Robbie McIntosh, Guitar
Nigel Hitchcock, Tenor Saxophone
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Danny Cummings, Percussion
5.When You Leave 4.12
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Vibraphone, Recording Engineer
6.Good On You Son 5.37
Ian Thomas, Drums
Lance Ellington, Background Vocalist
Beverley Skeete, Background Vocalist
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ, Piano
Katie Kissoon, Background Vocalist
Tom Walsh, Trumpet?
Nigel Hitchcock: Tenor Sax
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer, Background Vocalist
7.My Bacon Roll 5.35
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ, Piano
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
Kris Drever, Background Vocalist
8.Nobody Does That 5.15
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Lance Ellington, Background Vocalist
Beverley Skeete, Background Vocalist
Nigel Hitchcock, Tenor Saxophone
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Synthesizer
Katie Kissoon, Background Vocalist
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Keyboards, Recording Engineer
9.Drovers’ Road (apparently not in the US version or not in the standard version according MK.com) 5.05
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
John McCusker, Fiddle
Kris Drever, Background Vocalist
Mike McGoldrick, Whistle
10.One Song At A Time 6.17
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ
Danny Cummings, Percussion, Background Vocalist
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
John McCusker, Fiddle
Mike McGoldrick, Whistle
11.Floating Away 5.02
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Imelda May, Background Vocalist
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
12.Slow Learner 4.34
Ian Thomas, Drums
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Danny Cummings, Percussion
13.Heavy Up 6.00
Richard Bennett, Guitar
Ian Thomas, Drums
Lance Ellington, Background Vocalist
Beverley Skeete, Background Vocalist
Nigel Hitchcock, Tenor Saxophone
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano, Synthesizer
Katie Kissoon, Background Vocalist
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Trevor Mires, Trombone
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Organ, Recording Engineer
14.Matchstick Man 2.52
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
BONUS TRACKS IN DELUXE CD
15.Every Heart In The Room 4.30
Ian Thomas, Drums
Robbie McIntosh, Guitar
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Piano
Danny Cummings, Percussion
Guy Fletcher, Synthesizer
Kris Drever, Background Vocalist
16.Rear View Mirror 2.29
Ian Thomas, Drums
Nigel Hitchcock, Tenor Saxophone
Glenn Worf, Bass Guitar
Mark Knopfler, Guitar, Vocals
Jim Cox, Organ
Tom Walsh, Trumpet
Danny Cummings, Percussion
BONUS TRACKS IN THE BOX (VINYL)
17.Don’t Suck Me In
18.Sky And Water
19.Pale Imitation
