All The RoadRunning (U.S. Version)

Mark Knopfler And Emmylou Harris | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: April 25, 2006
• Release Date: April 25, 2006
• Label: Warner Bros./Nonesuch Records
• Copyright: 2006 Will D. Side Limited under exclusive license to Warner Bros. Records Inc.
• Total Length: 50:12
• Genres:
• ASIN: B00122EX4Y
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (294 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,956 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

288 of 298 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emmylou's voice and Knopfler's guitar, April 26, 2006

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: All the Roadrunning (Audio CD)

Mark Knopfler gets a bit more rootsy with each new CD. In this one he has added a fiddle and mandolin and some of the songs have an "old-timey" Appalachian flavor to them. Emmylou Harris's folksy soprano is perfect for the music. One wishes Knopfler would have taken the next step, added a banjo, and tried a couple of bluegrass numbers. Oh, well. Next album.

The rootsy atmosphere doesn't extend to Knopfler's electric guitar -- the highlight of the CD -- as his coloratura picking weaves in and out of the lyrics, unmistakenly Knopler with not a single note too many nor too few. "This is Us" is the single from the CD and it's probably the most rocking number. There are others I liked more: "I Dug up a Diamond" is beautiful with a great mandolin in addition to Knopfler's guitar. "Donkey Town" is one of the semi-strange Knopfler songs that sometimes work. Of special note is "If This is Goodbye," about the fall of Flight 93 on 9/11. It's lovely, sad and touching -- a virtual showcase for Emmylou's voice and Knopfler's guitar. There's not a clunker on the whole CD.

Harris is the perfect duet partner for about any male singer whose vocal range is from A to B. That's Knopfler -- whose gruff mumble still manages to be appealing. This is a CD full of classy, quality listening music that falls somewhere between the genres of Rock, Folk, and Country.

Smallchief

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Very Definition of Class, April 25, 2006

By 

John Corcoran (SoCal, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Roadrunning (Audio CD)

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.

611 of 700 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon Official Reviwer?, April 25, 2006

By 

Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Roadrunning (Audio CD)

Here we go again. Some nondescript no talent music maven wanting to go against the grain and show how cool he/she is by writing something that will stem the tide of popular opinion. Oooh, how cool!

Just give the CD a listen. It's a perfect melding of two musicians who go back a long way and have collaborated on numerous projects. Anyone who has seen them perform together on the Ovation Channel's great folk recordings with the likes of the McGariggle Sisters, Loudon and Rufus Wainwright, etc. would know that these two go back at least a decade. They have had ample time to hone their craft. Name a better guitarist? Name a better folk singer? Sometimes truth must rise to the surface.

Some people must have proverbial tin ears. Even literal ones. I really must chuckle again, after rereading "the official" Amazon reviewer's take. I hate to be caustic, but in this instance, wrong reviewer for wrong CD. And that statement alone will probably get this review booted. But really, if the emperor is naked, might as well at least whistle. He might at least have time to run for his skivvies.

These are great arrangements, great songs, great harmonies...in short... a wonderful recording from two of the best talents in the music "industry" today. In fact, if you sit back and listen to them as they mesh their musical geniuses, you might forget about such terms and just enjoy pure, unadulterated talent at play. Highly, highly, recommended.

BEK