Mark Knopfler has released a new single, Watch Me Gone. It's the follow-up to Ahead Of The Game, which was released last month, and once again finds the former Dire Straits man in reflective mood.
"The dreams of a teenage kid... to me it's always been the fuel that keeps you going," muses Knopfler. "That's why I'll still cross the street to look at a window of guitars - it's just that bit of your teen years that it reminds you of, so you try to keep it alive. I remember going to City Hall seeing Van Morrison or Bob Dylan, wishing I was doing that. Statistically what are the odds of making it as an act? But I was a comically driven young person, who was determined to make it."
Ahead Of The Game comes from Knopfler's upcoming album One Deep River, which is due for release on April 12. The titular river is The Tyne, the waterway that runs through Knopfler's hometown of Newcastle, and the guitarist is as nostalgic about that as he is about his youthful ambitions.
"Crossing the Tyne is always on your mind," he says. "It's what you were doing when you were leaving as a youngster and that feeling is always the same every time you do it. You're heading out or you're coming back, and it just connects with your childhood. The power of it doesn't go away."
One Deep River was recorded with longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher at British Grove Studios in London, and features a cast of musicians that includes Fletcher and Jim Cox (both keyboards), Glenn Worf (bass), Ian Thomas (drums), Danny Cummings (percussion), Richard Bennett (guitar), Greg Leisz (pedal and lap steel), Mike McGoldrick (whistle and uilleann pipes), John McCusker (fiddle) and sisters Emma and Tamsin Topolski (backing vocals). It's available to pre-order now.
One Deep River soundtrack
Standard Album Tracklist
Two Pairs Of Hands
Ahead Of The Game
Smart Money
Scavengers Yard
Black Tie Jobs
Tunnel 13
Janine
Watch Me Gone
Sweeter Than The Rain
Before My Train Comes
This One’s Not Going To End Well
One Deep River
Bonus Vinyl Tracklist (exclusively in boxset)
Dolly Shop Man
Your Leading Man
Wrong ’un
Chess
Bonus CD Tracklist (in boxset and deluxe CD)
The Living End
Fat Chance Dupree
Along A Foreign Coast
What I’m Gonna Need
Nothing But Rain
