The CD of the Week on “Out of the Box”
Aging Gracefully.
The magic to making a song enduring is in its simplicity. Mark Knopfler has embraced the simplicity found in ballads and waltzes and continues to mine that fertile ground on his new cd “Kill to Get Crimson.” It’s been thirty years since he founded Dire Straits’ unusual mixture of compelling stories and hot guitar. As the years go by there’s less hot guitar but the stories, and the way he sings them, have become even more compelling.
This is Knopfler’s sixth solo cd, not counting his many cinematic scores and his unassuming, laid back style has not changed much since he disbanded Dire Straits’ and their more commercial sound for the traditional folk arrangements he now fits most of his originals into. In “Madame Geneva’s” he personifies a busker singing “I’m a maker of ballads right pretty, I write them right here in the street.” These twelve new songs and his five previous albums of originals bear witness to his prolificacy. “The Scaffolder’s Wife”, “Punish the Monkey” and “Heart Full of Holes” tell of working class struggles and sometimes, but not always, redemption. “Secondary Waltz” is the story of a fighter reminiscing about learning to dance in school and “True Love Will Never Fade” is a simple love song from a tattoo artist to his customer.
Knopfler’s crisp guitar teasingly works its way in and out on songs like “We Get Wild” and the album’s closer “In the Sky.” Accordions, violins and assorted winds instruments augment the four piece band and Knopfler seems content to let his fiery guitar work be more of a memory and have his whiskey soaked baritone and captivating stories be what he is remembered for most.
Listen for lots of songs from Mark Knopfler’s “Kill to Get Crimson” on Paul Surge’s new music show “Out of the Box” Monday through Thursday from 7pm to 9pm, Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm and on-demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.