Sailing To Philadelphia

Not quite what the world needs right now you might be forgiven for thinking – yet another instalment from the erstwhile Sultan of Swing. But to be fair to Mr Knopfler he has hardly been ingratiating himself into our lives since the demise of the colossus that was Dire Straits over eight years ago. Movie soundtracks aside, this (astonishingly) is only Knopfler’s second solo album.

His last outing, 1996’s Golden Heart had a few worthy moments, the gorgeous ballad ‘Darling Pretty’ and his duet with Vince Gill on ‘Are We In Trouble Now’ among them. Sailing To Philadelphia, which could have been entitled The American Album, is even better. The title track, an unlikely duet with James Taylor, tells the story of a pair of Geordie lads heading for America “to draw the line, the Mason Dixon Line”. A beautifully cinematic old style emigration ballad, it sets the tone for much of what follows.

Now sounding even more like Bob Dylan than he did when Dire Straits ruled the world’s arenas, Knopfler has clearly been listening closely to quite a few American records of late. You could easily imagine Steve Earle belting out ‘Who’s Your Baby Now’, a catchy mid-paced country rocker, while the six-minute Springsteenesque ‘Silvertown Blues’ is lyrically as well as spiritually close to the Boss’ ‘Lucky Town’.

More mainstream in approach, ‘The Last Laugh’, a duet with Van Morrison, is one of the better performances by either artist in years.

The only gripe is that many of these tracks – ‘Speedway At Nazareth’ being a perfect example – are simply too long. But taken in small doses this is a classy piece of work.