Mark Knopfler: The Ragpicker's Dream CD Track Listing

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Mark Knopfler The Ragpicker's Dream (2002)
Originaly Released October 1, 2002\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: With his second post-millennium album in just two years, Mark Knopfler has already equaled his meager (non-soundtrack) output for the '90s. And while he isn't reinventing himself, The Ragpicker's Dream is a pleasant, classy, often inspired effort whose unassuming charms are best appreciated after repeated listenings. The memorable riffage that fueled Dire Straits' most radio-friendly material has been discarded for a more pastoral approach, making this a perfect album for a rainy Sunday morning. Like his Notting Hillbillies side project, it isn't entirely unplugged, yet there is an emphasis on acoustic accompaniment to its predominantly ballad slant. Instead of leaving space for traditional soloing, Knopfler weaves his snake-like guitar between the words. This infuses a tense, edgy quality in even the most bucolic tracks, resulting in the crackling but still low-boil atmospherics of "Hill Farmer's Blues" and "Fare Thee Well Northumberland." "Marbletown" is an unaccompanied folk/blues that sounds as if Knopfler was born and raised in the Mississippi backwoods. He taps into the patented insistent lazy, shuffling groove on the spooky "You Don't Know You're Born." It's the most Straits-like track here featuring an extended, winding, yet subtle solo. "Coyote," a mid-tempo sizzler -- lyrically based on the Road Runner cartoons -- is propelled by a walking bass figure and Knopfler's homey, lived-in, talk-sung vocals. Again, the guitar pyrotechnics are interspersed throughout the verses with overdubbed sounds employed to provide ambiance and mood. The authentic honky tonk swing of "Daddy's Gone to Knoxville" could have come off a Wayne Hancock album, and the "King of the Road" melody from "Quality Shoe" is a tribute to Roger Miller. As an homage to the American roots music he's always admired and a desire to retreat further from the stadium rock of his Straits days, The Ragpicker's Dream is a restrained success, at least on its own terms. It may not please some of Knopfler's old "Money for Nothing" fans, but at this stage, he's obviously not trying to. -- Hal Horowitz\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nEven at the peak of Dire Straits' fame, Mark Knopfler's music often seemed informed by a restless worldview as abstruse as his guitar playing was fluid and expressive. This follow-up to his impressive 2000 collection, Sailing to Philadelphia, finds Knopfler chasing a similar musical and lyrical muse, with results that are even more surprising and loose-limbed. "Why Aye Man," the bracing opening chantey that sets much of the album's tone, draws parallels between Geordie pub-speak and Native American chants whilst lamenting economic refugees of Thatcherism forced to ply their blue-collar trades--and keep their Brit pub culture alive--deep in the Fatherland. From there, Knopfler takes us by "A Place Where We Used to Live" for a lounge-y, Jobim-inflected reminder that one can never really go home, drops in on "Quality Shoe" for a tribute to Roger Miller, and gives us a typically dry, so-deadpan-it's-funny rundown of his Circus Sideshow pals on "Devil Baby." "Marbletown," a graveyard folk-blues, showcases the musician at home on solo acoustic guitar, while the loping, laconic "Coyote" draws its good-natured inspiration from a beast named Wile E. But it's the way that Knopfler connects disparate cultures and histories with subliminal, deceptively effortless grace on "Fare Thee Well Northumberland," "You Don't Know You're Born" (both of which feature Knopfler's signature languorous, blues-inflected soloing), the folksy "Hill Farmer's Blues," and the country-fried "Daddy's Gone to Knoxville" that make the album a triumph of understatement. --Jerry McCulley \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA Star in an Otherwise Dark Night, November 8, 2004\nReviewer: N. Keshava (Needham, MA USA) \nI bought this album to "catch up" with my Mark Knopfler albums after purchasing Shangri-La. I spend most of my radio time flitting from one station to another. Most songs I hear are written by musicians that are obscenely overpromoted, and who overzealously write arcane lyrics to hide their own lack of musical exceptionalism. They miss the idea that their instrument can be be far more moving than any words they pen, for the simple reason that they aren't exceptional musicians, let alone artists. Knopfler doesn't just deliver on this album. He teaches. His compositions on this album delve so deep into the musical world, that they almost shame the latest songwriters who are promised as the next so-and-so. Instead of settling for brief, three-and-a-half minute vignettes of modern life, Knopfler evokes a catalog of lives in as many different states. The world is varied, but the underlying forces remain constant: love, loss, struggle, humor. Most artists are complacent, if not lucky enough, to evoke their own lives. Knopfler's sighing guitar, notes plucked one by one, align all the wandering paths in this world with a common microtonal vocabulary. When I listen to this album, I hear the artist more than the musician -- as it should be -- perhaps more than anything Knopfler has done since "On Every Street" with Dire Straits. For all the hoopla showered on Dylan, Bowie, and Springsteen for occassionally measuring up to the laurels they earned 30 years ago, Knopfler doesn't need to worry about meeting those benchmarks. This album is better than anything he's ever done. In short, Knopfler isn't meeting the standards he set with with Dire Straits. He's redefining them.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMK Finally Stepping Out of the Shadows, November 20, 2002\nReviewer: Joe Chumbler (Little Rock, AR USA)\nAn excellent follow up to STP and perhaps a bit easier to listen to. As a Strait's fan since 1983, I'm obliged to compare MK's work to Communique, still my favorite work to date from the Knopflers. Ragpicker's Dream does not disappoint. Mark continues to pay homage to his roots with the opening Why Aye Man, but does not deny his familiarity of being the outsider observing the passing world (One Upon a Time in the West and Devil Baby). But the sultan of swing is maturing and, while his guitar work is as smooth as ever, I sense he is displaying more of a propensity to write in the first person.\nA perfect example is Old Pigweed, the final track and a vintage, yet uncommon style for MK. Vintage in that, in the spirit of Wild West End or News?, Mark writes about a girl and all the emotions of meeting and keeping one. But whereas MK's early work frequently made him the outsider, MK in the shadows observing what so many of us have experienced, Pigweed puts him square in the heat in the kitchen - it's not "he" or "them", it's "I" and "me." And the tone seems different - what once was frustration and unhappy endings, now is resolved with a spoonful of forgiveness. Unchanged, is MK's addictive ability to express with his guitar the emotion that words and voice can not. \n\nThus, this Strait's fan is very happy - more frequent albums from MK, a US tour last year, happy endings, and soulful guitar. But for Christmas, how about news of a spoonful of forgiveness and a Mark/David reunion/collaboration? That's a happy ending I'm sure many, many people are waiting to see written.\n\nAnd is Old Pigweed really just about making stew? Alas, the unending allure of this great musician.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAbsolutely fabulous!, October 10, 2002\nReviewer: Grey Eagle (Chilliwack, B.C. Canada)\nI must admit, although I enjoyed Goldenheart and Sailing to Philadelphia, I was uncertain how far Mr Knopfler would take what seemed to be evolving into, dare I say, a more laid back approach to his music.\nI need not have worried! This is a phenomenal album; certainly the best of his three solo albums to date. The music styles are wide ranging from folk, Celtic, bluegrass, Appalachian, jazz and rock - (I could even imagine Michael Franks doing a cover version of the samba-tinged A Place where We used to Live)and allows Mr Knopfler ample opportunity to display his skills on both acoustic and electric guitars.\nWonderful music from a man I consider to be one of the finest guitarists in the world today- a man who knows when to play and equally as important, when not to. Have a listen and let the man play and the music speak!\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nJust like the cover, October 3, 2002\nReviewer: "hobbesdutt" (Sunnyvale, CA)\nThis is a wonderful album, in some ways a far cry from the Dire Straits sound. It emphasises the singing and songwriting talents of Mark Knopfler. It is more rootsy, has fewer long guitar solos but excellent guitar and music. The album is also not as rocky as most of his other outings. Like the cover, except for the first track and possibly the third, the rest of the songs are more laidback or quiet. The cover says it all. \nMy favorite song is "A Place Where We Used to Live". The lyrics are so poignant that they struck a special chord deep inside me. The understated way of expressing all that is lost by saying "its just a place where we used to love" is just breath-taking. The rest of the album has this sense of understated-ness, something subtle. Marbletown is another lovely track with just MK singing and picking guitar, no other instruments.\n\nThe weak tracks are possibly the last two songs. I find it hard to like the sound of "Daddy's Gone To..". The other standout tracks are "Devil Baby", "Fare Thee Well...", "Marbletown", "You Don't Know..", "Hill Farmer Blues" and "Coyote". \n\nThose looking for Telegraph Road like solos won't find it here, but those looking for good music will find this an oasis in a sea awash with mediocre stuff.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nBluesy, Wistful, and Occasionally Playful, October 2, 2002\nReviewer: JD Cetola (Albuquerque, NM USA)\n \nMark Knopfler's third solo album (not counting his numerous film soundtracks) is his bluesiest yet. "The Ragpicker's Dream" features 12 tracks and clocks in at almost 56 minutes. All tracks include vocals and the backing band is top notch and features (of course) Guy Fletcher on keyboards and some nice drumwork by Chad Cromwell. Paul Franklin adds his pedal steel mastery to three of the tracks. The piano (played by Jim Cox who also plays organ on several of the more bluesy tracks) is more prominent than on previous solo efforts as well, and adds a jazz-like quality to several of the tracks.\nMusically, "TRD" is steeped in the blues with hints of folk, swing, and jazz. As for comparisons with previous work, this disc is most similar to the "Wag the Dog" soundtrack and (in some instances) Dire Straits' "On Every Street". The focus is the music (and also the lyrics) and not so much the guitar work. There's some crying and singing, but mostly the playing is subdued and workmanlike. There are no hyper-emotional solos (although some of the work on "Devil Baby" comes close) like on "Are We in Trouble Now" or "Nobody's Got the Gun" from "Goldenheart". If that's what you're looking for, you may be a tad disappointed in TRD. If not, you'll be well-satisfied by this release. There are a lot of bluesy numbers ("Why Aye Man", "Marbletown", and the Soggy Bottom Boys' sounding "Fare the Well Northumberland"), some jazz-inflicted tracks ("A Place Where We Used to Live") and several playful tunes ("Coyote", "Quality Shoe" and "Daddy's Gone to Knoxville"). The brilliant "Ragpicker's Dream" would've fit (musically) nicely on "The Princess Bride" soundtrack. \n\nLyrically, TRD focuses on blue collar workers and workingclass towns. The songs are poetic (especially "Ragpicker's Dream" and "Old Pigweed"), wistful, and often deal with working--both the land, the job, and other people. Overall, this album is a positive continuation of "Sailing to Philadelphia" with a familiar, but more bluesy feel to it and still fewer emotional guitar solos. Definitely Recommended.\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nEx-dire straits frontman Mark Knopfler has been retreating from the limelight since his taste of superstardom in the Eighties, finding refuge in soundtrack work, charity gigs and the occasional solo effort. A Dire Straits record in everything but name, The Ragpicker's Dream is a picturesque collection of folksy, mostly acoustic vignettes that works its old-fashioned magic in mysterious ways. "A Place Where We Used to Live," with its sweet piano and autumn-gray lyrics, and "You Don't Know You're Born" -- a murmur of an idea that unexpectedly evolves into a delectable pop chorus -- are the highlights of an album that can express itself only through understatement. It is clear that Knopfler cares about pleasing no one but himself at this point in life. His Zen attitude, ironically, is what makes this unassuming batch of gentle tunes so oddly compelling. (RS 909 -- November 14, 2002) -- ERNESTO LECHNER
This rock cd contains 12 tracks and runs 55min 41sec.
Freedb: b10d0b0c
Buy: from Amazon.com

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