Mark Knopfler

Knopfler delivers one easy-rolling country rock sketch of a small town beautiful loser after another, and he actually sings about a successful fast food restaurant. Interesting. Anyway, longtime fans will be glad to hear Dire Straits-brand tightness and plenty of Knopfler's impeccable playing.

Mark Knopfler has grown into one of rock's more mature and sharp-eyed writers; in an
Ashlee Simpson world, he takes pages from Philip Roth and Joan Didion -- and still plays the
guitar far better than any of the above. Shangri-La -- recorded in the famed Malibu studio of
the same name that was once home to Bob Dylan and the Band, and featuring the same
musicians who shined on 2000's Sailing to Philadelphia and 2002's ,I>The Ragpick... More >