Mark Knopfler Announces Ninth Solo Studio Album ‘Down The Road Wherever’

Mark Knopfler will return with his ninth solo studio album, Down The Road Wherever, on 16 November. The follow-up to 2015’s Tracker, it will be released on his own British Grove label via Universal/Virgin EMI and features 14 new Knopfler compositions recorded at his west London studio, also called British Grove. Contributors to the album include Irish star Imelda May.

“’Down The Road Wherever’ is a line from ‘One Song At A Time,’” says Knopfler, referring to the album title and one of its tracks. “I remember my pal Chet Atkins once saying that he picked his way out of poverty one song at a time, and it just stuck in my mind. You get to an age where you’ve written quite a few songs.

“But Down The Road Wherever seems to be appropriate for me, just because it’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always tried to make a record and also to keep my own geography happening in the songs.”

With Knopfler’s ever-present eye for compelling narratives and striking characters, the new songs cover such subjects as his early days in the south-east London area of Deptford, when Dire Straits were a fledgling band; a man out of time reflecting on his circumstances in his local “greasy spoon” café; and a stray Liverpool Football Club fan who finds himself in Newcastle (where Mark himself grew up) on ‘Just A Boy Away From Home.’ That’s the only track on which Knopfler is not the sole writer, as it features the melody of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ also well-known as Liverpool FC’s own anthem. 

The team that Knopfler assembled around him for the recording sessions includes many of the musicians who have been with him in the studio and on the road for years. Among them are keyboardist Guy Fletcher, who has worked with him since Dire Straits days and co-produced Down The Road Wherever with Mark; Jim Cox, also on keyboards; Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone, Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker (fiddle), Mike McGoldrick (whistle and flute), Glenn Worf (bass), drummer Ian ‘Ianto’ Thomas and Danny Cummings on percussion.

There are also appearances by Richard Bennett and the widely-travelled Robbie McIntosh on guitar and Trevor Mires on trombone. Along with May, the album has backing vocals by Lance Ellington, Kris Drever, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon.

Down The Road Wherever will be available on digital DL, CD, double vinyl (with one bonus track), deluxe CD with two bonus tracks, and as a lavish box set including the album on both vinyl and deluxe CD. The box will also contain a 12” vinyl EP with four bonus tracks, a 12” print of the artwork and a 12” guitar tablature of a selected song.

“I think the business of making a record, from having written a song and then bringing it to musicians, it can be quite a bendy route,” says Knopfler. “It’s not just motorways all the way…and you can end up in the occasional cul-de-sac, then you have to do a 16-point turn to try to get your truck back out on the main road, as unobtrusively as you can. That’s part of the fun of it.”

Down The Road Wherever is released on 16 November. Scroll down to read the tracklisting, and buy it here.

Standard CD

1.   Trapper Man

2.   Back On The Dance Floor

3.   Nobody’s Child

4.   Just A Boy Away From Home

5.   When You Leave

6.   Good On You Son

7.   My Bacon Roll

8.   Nobody Does That

9.   Drovers’ Road

10. One Song At A Time

11. Floating Away

12. Slow Learner

13. Heavy Up

14. Matchstick Man

Deluxe

Std album plus 2 bonus tracks

1.   Trapper Man

2.   Back On The Dance Floor

3.   Nobody’s Child

4.   Just A Boy Away From Home

5.   When You Leave

6.   Good On You Son

7.   My Bacon Roll

8.   Nobody Does That

9.   Drovers’ Road

10. One Song At A Time

11. Floating Away

12. Slow Learner

13. Heavy Up

14. Rear View Mirror

15. Every Heart In The Room

16. Matchstick Man

Double Vinyl – 00602547169822

2 x heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

Side A

1. Trapper Man

2. Back On The Dance Floor

3. Nobody’s Child

Side B

1. Nobody Does That

2. Good On You Son

3. Floating Away

Side C

1. One Song At A Time

2. Heavy Up

3. Slow Learner

Side D

1. Just A Boy Away From Home

2. My Bacon Roll

3. When You Leave

4. Matchstick Man

BOX SET

Double Vinyl + Deluxe CD – tracklistings as above

Additional 12” vinyl EP

Side A

1. Drovers’ Road

2. Don’t Suck Me In

Side B

1. Sky And Water

2. Pale Imitation

Explore our Mark Knopfler Artist Page.

Format: UK English