Mark Knopfler
Get Lucky
Reprise
By Al Kaufman
Mark Knopfler has come a long way since “Sultans of Swing.” The 1977 hit for Knopfler’s band Dire Straits created that trademark fuzzy guitar sound that would serve Knopfler well for the next 30 or so years. Yes, Knopfler has grown and changed over time. His music often has more elements of country and Celtic flavor than it did during his early Straits days. He has recorded tremendous albums with the likes of Chet Atkins (Neck and Neck) and Emmylou Harris (All the Roadrunning). He has become an elder statesman of rock and roll. Through it all, he has maintained that fuzzy guitar, that voice that blends honey and molasses, and an ability to tell a good story.
Knopfler’s voice and story-telling skills are in good working order on Get Lucky. He spins yarns from people he knew in his youth; people who fascinated him and helped him to realize he wanted to play music; people like traveling characters who worked the fairgrounds and farms, then played music in the winter (“Get Lucky”), or guitar builder John Monteleone (“Monteleone”), who created the Monteleone Isabella model for Knopfler. Knopfler is able to inhabit these people’s minds and tell their stories with sincerity.
But the guitar. Where is the guitar? Michael McGoldrick’s flute and whistle play a more prominent role on this CD than Knopfler’s guitar, and while that may not necessarily be a bad thing, consider that McGoldrick is only present on four songs. The guitars are there, but they are more subtly arranged. Without his trademark guitar sound, Knopfler’s songs slog though quiet, mid-tempo mediocrity. He tries to bring some bite to “Cleaning My Gun,” but it has a certain tired, “been there, done that” quality about it.
Mark Knopfler is a legend. Dire Straits’ Making Movies is one of the most perfect albums ever made. Get Lucky is not. It’s an album made by a man content to reminisce and rest on his laurels rather than create. For those who wish to take a relaxing stroll down memory lane to a time when movies were in black and white, Get Lucky may be a perfect companion piece. The rest of us know that Knopfler is better than this.
