By: PAULO SILVESTRE
FORMER DIRE Straits legend, Mark Knopfler, will be performing with his band on April 4 at Campo Pequeno in Lisbon.
Born on August 12, 1949, in Glasgow city, Scotland, Mark is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He worked as a journalist and a teacher before forming Dire Straits in 1977. Two years later, the band, recorded their first hit, Sultans of Swing.
Known as the lead guitarist and vocalist of Dire Straits, he has also made albums as a solo performer and played in other bands, such as the Notting Hillbillies.
He played with other famous artists such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Chet Atkins, and produced albums for musicians such as Tina Turner, Randy Newman and, again, Bob Dylan.
In addition, he has written music for several films soundtracks including Local Hero, The Princess Bride, Comfort and Joy, Cal, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Wag the Dog.
After Knopfler left Dire Straits in 1995, he immediately began a solo career and recoded his debut album Golden Heart (1996).
This album is a mixture of his various music styles that appeared throughout Dire Straits’ career.
Sailing to Philadelphia (2000) was the ‘step forward’ album for his solo career.
With the participation of artists such as James Taylor and Van Morrison, Sailing to Philadelphia was one of his most successful albums to date.
In his next album, The Ragpicker’s Dream (2002), Knopfler moved to the ‘story telling theme’. The single Why Aye Man was used as the theme tune for the third series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet in 2002.
His next album Shangri-L, released in 2004, continued the idea of story telling with each song having a different story.
2006 saw the release of All the Roadrunnin, a collaboration album with Emmylou Harris.
This contains a mixture of rock and folk-styled music, mostly written by Knopfler.
In 2007, he recorded his fifth record entitled Kill to Get Crimson, which follows Knopfler’s year long teamwork with Emmylou Harris.
This album is another classily low-key work, one that resides at ease in his melodious Americana niche, where country, blues and rock kindly combine into a sound that does not depict any particular style but evokes loads of past sounds.
Check Mark Knopfler’s website at www.markknopfler.com
