Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
Real Live Roadrunning

(Warner Bros./Nonesuch)

First Appeared in The Music Box, January 2007, Volume 14, #1

Written by John Metzger

Strange as it may seem, the problem with Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris’ recent concert set Real Live Roadrunning isn’t the performances. Instead, the trouble lies largely with the redundancy between the live recording and the similarly titled studio outing that served as the inspiration for the duo’s collaborative tour. Between the CD and the DVD that are included in the collection, seven tracks from All the Roadrunning are duplicated, and although they are tackled impeccably, they also adhere quite closely to their studio counterparts. Alternating between playful and melancholy moods, Harris and Knopfler add a springier bounce to Done with Bonaparte, and they give the country-imbued fiddle accompaniment that graces Red Staggerwing more room to breathe. Elsewhere, Knopfler laces This Is Us with a brief but fiery guitar solo before the song settles into its lovely piano-driven conclusion, and he suitably underscores Right Now with a blues-baked bite. Still, the updated tunes never quite manage to assume distinctive personalities that can erase the memory of their original incarnations.

Real Live Roadrunning’s highlights, therefore, come in the form of the reinvigorated nuggets from Harris and Knopfler’s back catalogues. Although Romeo and Juliet differs only slightly from the renditions that Knopfler has been performing since his days fronting Dire Straits, it nonetheless sounds remarkably fresh as he fills the song with more passion, conviction, sorrow, and yearning than he has in years. Likewise, Speedway at Nazareth slowly builds in intensity until it becomes a rush of guitar and organ, while the Dylan-esque refrains of Song for Sonny Liston are baked in a minimalist arrangement that effectively pits electric guitar against acoustic bass and skittering percussion. As for Harris, she not only unleashes a tenderhearted reading of Red Dirt Girl, but she also joins Knopfler to deliver a stunningly beautiful version of Dire Straits’ Why Worry. Understandably, in transforming their work for the stage, Knopfler and Harris were forced to swap subtlety for zeal, but as the accompanying video makes clear, they still succeeded in retaining the charming intimacy that made All the Roadrunning such a superlative collection in the first place. ½

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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2007 The Music Box