All The Road Running

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Over the last seven years, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris quietly recorded an album by stealing "a few precious hours of studio time here and there," as the ex-Dire Straits singer/guitarist puts it. Good thing they kept it largely under wraps--expectations would have pushed through the clouds, especially as Knopfler conjured 10 of the 12 cuts, and Harris, who writes potently, but little, contributed two ("Love and Happiness," "Belle Starr"). Yet now that it's here, All the Roadrunning--while beautiful--seems somehow underwhelming, and without a true centerpiece. Anyone familiar with the artists' famous catalogues would expect the repertoire to be poetic and brooding, and that Harris's ethereal soprano would add light to Knopfler's dark Prozac rumblings. But the surprise is that the album is too tame, never breaks out of its midtempo groove, and never takes any big chances. That said, there is much to like: The marital scrapbook romp of "This Is Us," the bluesy bickering of "Right Now," the wrenching poignancy of the 9/11-inspired ballad "If This Is Goodbye." Knopfler, ever the hypnotic guitarist, turns in some thrillingly droll and laconic vocals, and Harris brings the spirited coltishness of her early work to "Belle Starr." In the end, though, this is not so much a duet album as two famously melancholy musicians singing together--at times, strikingly so. --Alanna Nash

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Customer reviews

review by: www.nikwatt.co.uk date: 2008-03-18 rating:
Nice But..
..Boring.

I think they tried too hard to make something out of nothing.

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review by: date: 2008-01-22 rating:
Pure pleasure
Having never been a fan of Mark Knopfler when he was in Dire Straits, and EmmyLou Harris is not a singer I now much about, I was very pleasantly suprised by the album. I thought the album would be a bit mean and moody for me, like a lot of music lovers I was hooked on perhaps the one song from the album to be of any good, so I took a chance. How glad I was, absolutely loved Red Staggerwing and Rollin On was so beautifully sung, guitar wonderful, goosebump music, quite honestly. Both singers complimented each other very well, so take a chance on getting something not normally in your sphere.

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review by: date: 2008-01-15 rating:
Great combo!
Got this album for christmas. At first I thought it was average but after another listen I take back what I thought. There voices compliment the others so well. Not your typical jammy Dire Straits album but a great alternative. It's got everything it has the chilled songs such as "All the roadrunning" and "I dug up a diamond" and the more lively "This is us" and "right now" and something in between. I'm sixteen and love Dire Straits and I enjoyed this incredibly. Worth every penny!

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review by: date: 2007-02-10 rating:
Great
This is another great album from Knopfler. His guitar playing is as inspiring as ever and the blend of his and Emmylou's voice is just superb. This has some amazing tracks, 'This is us' being a particular favourite. He kept this project very quiet, which only added to the joy when it was released, with such a high level of songwriting and playing. As another reviewer mentioned, Knopfler seems to be at the top of his game at the moment and this album only serves to confirm that.


review by: date: 2006-10-30 rating:
as good as it gets
While I have considered posting reviews of albums this is the first review I have ever taken the trouble to write about.

Knopfler, like Dylan, is producing the best music of his life. Knopfler's last (Shangri-la) is also superb and you have to ask yourself why are both of them still playing? They don't need the money. They don't care about the reviews - they are playing the way they want to and both are playing with the best guys in town. I've seen both live in the last year and neither went for fancy sets, clever lights and gizomos, they just played.....

Yes, neither of them is rocking the house down, but there's a lot more to life than trying to shake your brains out of your ears in front of a stack.

This music on this album is perfect, utterly perfect. The lyrics, the narrative, the musicianship, the production are all sublime.

If you add to that the collaboration with Emmylou Harris, this album is nothing short of remarkable. I can't say I've listened to many `duet' projects over the years - most of them are contrived nonsense featuring Tom Jones - but this is the first one that actually works.

This is an album you need to play for a while and come back to before you pass judgement. I won't do the tedious track by track run-through of comments, I'll only say it's a great album that should have had a lot more attention than it has had. If there's one churlish criticism it's that some of the tracks fade out on some superb guitar playing a little too soon - just 20 seconds more would have put me in heaven forever.

If you don't like this album you haven't got a heart, you haven't got a soul and you don't know what love - and life - are all about.

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