Knopfler

[philly]

Both dead on. He is a fantastic musician and guitar player, and a great song-writer. He chose to go less commercial and folky/rootsy and I think a lot of his more recent music downplays his abilities a bit more than I'd personally like. But he's just a humble Geordie, after all...

Dire Straits was enough career for any musician; 6 hit albums.
Since he 'retired', Knopfler has made 9 soundtrack albums and 10 albums of original songs (soon to be 11).

What impresses me, is that unlike many growing older musicians, he keeps getting better. His focus now is more on the singer/songwriter than the guitarist and his song craft; lyrics, arrangements, production, musical diversity and melody are of the highest quality imaginable. His band is cherry picked from the world's finest musicians and they have a comfortable decade and a half of playing together. The band is a joy to listen to.

Even his voice has improved. As a young man, it had a rough distinctiveness. Compare that to his duet with the celestially voiced Ruth Moody. (Wherever I Go. Off the Tracker album).

I can spend hours just listening to how he puts a song together; it's never what you'd expect.

So I guess that means it's a from me.

yes... thats the stuff

[Slowy]

What impresses me, is that unlike many growing older musicians, he keeps getting better.

I've always been dead impressed that, rather than move to the country to cultivate an enormous drug habit, he simply went and jammed a lot with other guitarists. . As one does. And fuck the fame and the DS comeback tours.

He claims his current band is way better than DS ever was. And as for fame, every album has been accompanied by a sellout 30-40 date world tour by private jet. He's not exactly playing happy hour at the local pub.

[Vince]

He claims his current band is way better than DS ever was. And as for fame, every album has been accompanied by a sellout 30-40 date world tour by private jet. He's not exactly playing happy hour at the local pub.

Yeah, fair enough, but he would earn a lot more with a Dire Straits reunion tour. I think he's obviously happy where he is. Good, sane guy.

[null_pointer]

Seems most estimates put his wealth in the post-$100M USD range so guess there’s no pull for a cash-in tour. Unlike John Lyndon...

[Danger Mouse]

He claims his current band is way better than DS ever was. And as for fame, every album has been accompanied by a sellout 30-40 date world tour by private jet. He's not exactly playing happy hour at the local pub.

Yeah, fair enough, but he would earn a lot more with a Dire Straits reunion tour. I think he's obviously happy where he is. Good, sane guy.

I'm being presumptuous, but he has never struck me as someone who would invest heavily in the Icelandic housing market, which was the main driver for a lot of the last decade's cash-in tours.

[HappyEnding]

Tried one of his solo albums and a few songs deep, there was no big "Money For Nothing" riff so I was out. Still not 'mature' enough to revisit it.

This is a fair comment. He's an old man now so it's reasonable to expect him to be writing old man music. Luckily for you, young HappyEnding, you have a treasure trove of delights waiting in your future.

Thanks. My more 'serious' listening phases were in my 20s. I have since regressed. But never say never.

[Slowy]

Tried one of his solo albums and a few songs deep, there was no big "Money For Nothing" riff so I was out. Still not 'mature' enough to revisit it.

This is a fair comment. He's an old man now so it's reasonable to expect him to be writing old man music. Luckily for you, young HappyEnding, you have a treasure trove of delights waiting in your future.

Thanks. My more 'serious' listening phases were in my 20s. I have since regressed. But never say never.

I regress all the time. Never have a clue what age I'm acting or actually am.

[mr_sooty]

I cannot abide Brothers in Arms - it embodies everything I hate about the 1980s.

Oh but the title track - his playing on that song is beautiful, and one of my favourite guitar tones still.

And I Love Over Gold - Telegraph Road.

But I grew up listening to Dire Straights, my Dad had the first CD player I'd ever seen and he got all the Dire Straights albums. First big concert I ever went to was Dire Straights at Athletic Park.

Knopfler only has to finger pick an acoustic guitar for 5 seconds and I'm blown away.