MARK KNOPFLER

ONE DEEP RIVER BRITISH GROVE

Two months after the instruments which birthed Money For Nothing and Walk Of Life sold at auction for over £1 million in total, Mark Knopfler returns to prove his guitar heroics are still intact. Of course, having long since settled into the status of elder statesman, his 10th album is less arena axeman and more front porch troubadour.

Once again produced by former bandmate Guy Fletcher, the follow-up to 2018’s Down The Road Wherever mines a similar vein of country, blues, folk and Americana, the loping grooves of opener Two Pairs Of Hands the only concession to any musical developments since Dire Straits disbanded 29 years ago. Yet, amid all the genial, laidback vibes, there’s an occasional lyrical bite.

Boasting wistful pedal steel from Grammy-winning sideman Greg Leisz, Smart Money takes aim at the fickleness of celebrity culture, and you can take your pick from the multiple suspects likely to have inspired political diatribe This One’s Not Going To End Well (“Still after he’s gone/ They’ll whip up old lies/ To ride into power.”)

Now in his mid-70s and with a world-weary voice to match, Knopfler also gets deeply reflective about his early career. The bittersweet Watch Me Gone addresses his conflicted feelings about hitting the big time: “It’s all gonna happen/ And I’ll be a happenin’ man.” Meanwhile, the chugging Ahead Of The Game finds Knopfler offering advice to an aspiring singer-songwriter, perhaps his younger self, about the trials and tribulations of starting from the bottom.

Delving even further back, the orchestral Black Tie Jobs is a sobering account of Knopfler’s newsroom beginnings: the inner journalist also comes out in how detailed Tunnel 13 documents its real-life 1920s train robbery. Meanwhile, the closing title track, a harmony-laden ode to the Tyne, adds to Knopfler’s canon of hometown love letters. The proud Geordie should be equally proud of how he quietly continues to extend his legacy. Jon O’Brien