Mark Knopfler Does it Again with "Get Lucky"

© Zoriah

Mark Knophler's "Get Lucky" hits the U.S. on September 15.

Imagine what you'd write if you had the time and talent to sit down and give appreciations to the formative moments of your life, the people and places that have shaped your mind and haunt your memory. What would you write about? What would it sound like? Ask these question of legendary songwriter and guitar master Mark Knopfler, and he'd likely point to his music catalog, which stretches all the way back to Dire Straits' 1978 self-titled album and includes a handful of excellent solo albums, all of which sparkle with reflection.

Knopfler's songs are filled with memories, appreciations and stories of the people he's known or hasn't known, the latter of which seem to haunt him like ghosts whose stories beg to be told. And tell them he does.

In the fashion that makes him one of the greatest storytellers alive, Knopfler creates scenes that take shape in our minds, rise up in the ether and come alive. Just look back over the past decade: There's the boxer, Sonny Linston, in "Song for Sonny Linston" the young bride in "Prairie Wedding," the famed cartographers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, in "Sailing to Philadelphia," and scores more. 

Knopfler's songs serve as a history lesson, a guided tour, a voyeuristic peek into the minds of characters real and imagined. Add to these stories Knopfler's hauntingly brilliant guitar riffs, his romantic, crackly voice, and his astute sense of timing, and they rise to the level of greatness.

This year's offering, Get Lucky continues the songster's work of bringing the stories of those quiet moments and characters to life. In it are a memorial to the uncle he never knew in "Piper to the End;" an appreciation of guitar-builder John Monteleone in the appropriately-enough titled "Monteleone;" and a stunning moment-in-the-life of a Glasgow truck driver in "Border Reiver." Through it all are Knopfler's bluesy folk-rock underpinnings made all the better by the serene chemistry of his band, which seems to work as the many limbs of a single, graceful, body.

If you have a favorite Knopfler album, Get Lucky most likely won't beat it. But this probably has more to do with your attachment to that album than any failing of Get Lucky. Still, this gem of an album will and should get plenty of play as fans discover its idiosyncrasies, indelible stories and bewitching moments. And, if this is your first taste of the Dire Straits frontman's solo career, it just may become your favorite. Either way, Get Lucky will make you sit back, close your eyes, and sway.