| All the Roadrunning | 
 enlarge | Artist: Mark Knopfler And Emmylou Harris
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $6.50
You Save: $12.48 (66%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  278 reviews
Sales Rank: 618
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 44154
UPC: 936244154288
EAN: 0093624415428
ASIN: B000F0UV0E
Release Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Beachcombing | | • | I Dug Up A Diamond | | • | This Is Us | | • | Red Staggerwing | | • | Rollin' On | | • | Love and Happiness for You | | • | Right Now | | • | Donkey Town | | • | Belle Star | | • | Beyond My Wildest Dreams | | • | All the Roadrunning | | • | If This is Goodbye |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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 More Mark & Emmylou
Private Investigations: The Best of
Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler | 
Brothers in Arms
Dire Straits | 
Screenplaying
Mark Knopfler | 
Anthology: The Warner/Reprise Years
Emmylou Harris | 
Pieces of the Sky
Emmylou Harris | 
Wrecking Ball
Emmylou Harris |
Album Description
For several years, the iconic Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris have been quietly recording a remarkable collection of duets whenever the Grammy winning artists could steal away from their own illustrious careers. The extraordinary result is All the Roadrunning. The songs from their Nashville sessions, all originals, while undeniably modern, have the appeal of classics, whether country, Celtic flavored or gently soulful. All the Roadrunning is Knopfler & Harris making music and, as the lyric for "This is Us" puts it, making history.
Album Description
UK Limited Edition 12-track CD album is presented in a individually numbered slipcase. Limited to 5,000 worldwide! The album is a collaborative album from the Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and 11-time Grammy award-winner Emmylou Harris who for 7 years have been quietly compiling a treasure trove of duets and sees Knopfler share his electric, acoustic and slide playing with guitarist Richard Bennett. Polydor. 2006.
Album Details
For Almost Seven Years, Former Dire Straits Frontman Mark Knopfler and Billboard Century Award Winner Emmylou Harris have Been Quietly Compiling a Treasure Trove of Duets. The Sessions were Co-produced with Chuck Ainlay and Knopfler Shares his Electric, Acoustic and Slide Playing with Guitarist Richard Bennett. Other Musicians in the Line-up Include Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on Keyboards, Glen Duncan on Fiddle and Mandolin, Dan Dugmore on Steel Guitar, Glen Worf on Bass and Chad Cromwell and Danny Cummins on Drums. This Limited Edition Version Comes in an Individually Numbered (10,000 Copies Only) Slipcase.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 273 more reviews...
 Amazon Official Reviwer? April 26, 2006
589 out of 674 found this review helpful
Here we go again. Some nondescript no talent music maven wanting to go against the grain and show how cool he/she is by writing something that will stem the tide of popular opinion. Oooh, how cool!
Just give the CD a listen. It's a perfect melding of two musicians who go back a long way and have collaborated on numerous projects. Anyone who has seen them perform together on the Ovation Channel's great folk recordings with the likes of the McGariggle Sisters, Loudon and Rufus Wainwright, etc. would know that these two go back at least a decade. They have had ample time to hone their craft. Name a better guitarist? Name a better folk singer? Sometimes truth must rise to the surface.
Some people must have proverbial tin ears. Even literal ones. I really must chuckle again, after rereading "the official" Amazon reviewer's take. I hate to be caustic, but in this instance, wrong reviewer for wrong CD. And that statement alone will probably get this review booted. But really, if the emperor is naked, might as well at least whistle. He might at least have time to run for his skivvies.
These are great arrangements, great songs, great harmonies...in short... a wonderful recording from two of the best talents in the music "industry" today. In fact, if you sit back and listen to them as they mesh their musical geniuses, you might forget about such terms and just enjoy pure, unadulterated talent at play. Highly, highly, recommended.
BEK
Emmylou's voice and Knopfler's guitar April 26, 2006
268 out of 277 found this review helpful
Mark Knopfler gets a bit more rootsy with each new CD. In this one he has added a fiddle and mandolin and some of the songs have an "old-timey" Appalachian flavor to them. Emmylou Harris's folksy soprano is perfect for the music. One wishes Knopfler would have taken the next step, added a banjo, and tried a couple of bluegrass numbers. Oh, well. Next album.
The rootsy atmosphere doesn't extend to Knopfler's electric guitar -- the highlight of the CD -- as his coloratura picking weaves in and out of the lyrics, unmistakenly Knopler with not a single note too many nor too few. "This is Us" is the single from the CD and it's probably the most rocking number. There are others I liked more: "I Dug up a Diamond" is beautiful with a great mandolin in addition to Knopfler's guitar. "Donkey Town" is one of the semi-strange Knopfler songs that sometimes work. Of special note is "If This is Goodbye," about the fall of Flight 93 on 9/11. It's lovely, sad and touching -- a virtual showcase for Emmylou's voice and Knopfler's guitar. There's not a clunker on the whole CD.
Harris is the perfect duet partner for about any male singer whose vocal range is from A to B. That's Knopfler -- whose gruff mumble still manages to be appealing. This is a CD full of classy, quality listening music that falls somewhere between the genres of Rock, Folk, and Country.
Smallchief
The Very Definition of Class April 26, 2006
33 out of 33 found this review helpful
It should be no surprise Emmylou Harris' angelic voice blends perfectly with the gruff rumble of Mark Knopfler's. If you've heard her great duo with similarly bassoed country artist Don Williams on Townes Van Zandt's elegant "If I Needed You," you could anticipate the perfect fit. And anyway, Emmylou's voice blends with everyone's. She is not only one of the most sought after duet partners in country music, but an iconic soloist who is on the short list of all time country greats.
In a time when Nashville demands you are only as good as your last video, she is no Emmylou come lately. When one recent female country artist cut her first album and was asked of her goals for the disk, she replied: "I just wanted to do something that wouldn't embarrass me in front of Emmylou Harris." Or as Knopfler himself put it during their release day appearance on Imus in the Morning, "When Emmylou sings a song, it stays sung."
Knopfler is a talented songwriter and an elegant guitar artist with a distinctive musical tone and style that, if described in literary terms, might be dubbed "Hemingwayesque." Just as Papa never used ten words when one perfectly chosen one would do, so too with Knopfler's guitar work. Knopfler's taste and economy is recognizable whether gunning out "Sultans of Swing" with Dire Straits or "Wild Theme" from his sound track of "Local Hero."
In other words these individually brilliant artists flat out define good taste and talent performing together.
Fittingly, "All the Roadrunning" does not up and shout at you, but comes at you with a quiet confidence. It is flash-free, as understated and tasteful as its participants. No one is showing off here, these are artists plying their craft. And just how good that craft is may sneak up on you. We've had the title tune and "This Is Us" available as early teases--they may be the two most commercial tunes on the disk. No matter, MK and EH "filler" is better than most artists "A" Material.
As I keep playing the disk, I find new treats within. This is very, very good stuff, the 15-year-old single malt you keep in the back of the bar. It respects your intelligence and taste. It will never pounce on you like an overeager puppy. It expects you to find it, and find it you will.
One minor issue. Knopfler wrote all but the two songs Emmylou penned. And while most are very good, Emmylou has become a world-class songwriter herself, and I'd have liked to have heard more songs written by her.
Nevertheless, while her "Love and Happiness" is touching, the biggest goose bumps come from Knopfler's "If This is Goodbye." It is a stand-alone love song, a seemingly sweet and innocent ballad that could be a lover bidding a tentative farewell when romance ends. The narrator is still in love, you think, his love object ready to walk away. Pretty standard stuff for love songs, particularly of the country variety.
But as Knopfler has explained, that is not the topic. "The famous last words" that "could never tell the story" were inspired not by fading love but by the last phone calls from the World Trade Center left on message machines. In that context, and sung by these artists, it is haunting.
This is a treasure of an album, one that can stand up not only to the ages, but to the very high standards the artists who recorded it have set for themselves.
"This is Us"; This Is Them; Emmylou and Mark April 30, 2006
31 out of 31 found this review helpful
Across a dozen duets, pieced together over seven years Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler sing these tunes with deep emotional overtones. Much of this CD relates to the life of an itinerant musician, "trying to juggle family and relationships and just the wear and tear of being in the world".
Emmylou says of making this CD," Mark is very much in control and knows what he wants, but on the other hand, he understand the mystical process that happens when you make a record and that record becomes what it is. It has everything to do with the people involved, but there's this other ingredient, of something set in motion. When I heard these songs together, it was so listenable, and I mean that in the most positive way, It a very rich album, musically and lyrically, yet it doesn't requires a lot of work." All of these songs were written by Emmylou and Mark.
"Beachcombing" which starts off the album is evocative of Hurricane Kristina although it was written well before. It is a song about loss, personal and emotional, says Mark, "wreckage washing up all along the coast."
"This is Us", is selected to become the single of this album. It is infectious and many will relate to this.
A lighter touch comes to "Red Staggewring, which is a Cajun-like tune where lovers compare themselves to motorcycles, cars and vintage guitars.
On "Belle Star", Emmylou compares herself to an old West infamous female outlaw, "Belle Star" and Mark as Jesse James. This banter is reminiscent of Johnny and June Cash in their early albums.
"Donkey Song' as a song written by Mark and meant for an earlier CD. They both enjoyed the freedom and silliness.
"Love and Happiness:" is the only "proper" song that Emmylou says she has written. "You cannot always protect your children and this is my homage to them".
"All the Road Running" paints the picture of the musician always on the road singing about love found and lost, missing family and friends, and life in the fast lane.
"If This Is Goodbye" came out of 9/11. Mark Knopler talks of reading Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, both of whom he found affecting," I remember the McEwan piece honing in on people in the twin towers using their mobiles to make that final phone call home to say "I love you, this is goodbye. If there is anything positive to take from 9/11, that expression of love is surely it."
The underlying emotions, the straight from life sessions, the day to day existence on the road of this album, is extraordinary. This Is Them: Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler
and now "This Is Us", BK. So Highly Recommended. prisrob April 30, 2006.
haunting, beautiful, sad.... June 4, 2006
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
These two voices, which we have listened to for so long....now sing a sad and joyous story of getting old, looking back, wondering if it was in vain....with such gifted harmony and songwriting and musicianship. The customers who were looking for rock from Knopfler now (huh?) haven't been paying attention or haven't been listening to anything he's done in the last six years. That includes the Amazon.com reviewer, who completely missed the theme of this album. These two gifted musicians are singing the story of their lives, and those of us in their generation, of which I consider myself one. "This Is Us" sings of when we were young, marrying,"stoned on love". Then the music progresses to the hard work of marriage and the struggle of work, the heartbreak of real life. Then,in the middle of the CD. the poignant,magnificent song Emmy Lou wrote and sings that describes to perfection what every parent wishes for her kids--"Love and Happiness". When Mark sings "Wear your ruby shoes" the shivers went right down my spine. Then near the end, the utter desolation of broken lives as evoked by Right Now and Donkey Town. Ending with the song about pending death "If this is goodbye". Breathtaking, haunting....both voices are older now....you can hear Knopfler straining in the upper ranges, but it is that straining, the nostalgia for what has been and what is left that makes this album simply beyond brilliant. If you are under 45 you probably don't understand a note or a word of this CD unless you've got brains and sensitivity.
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