Follow-Up To 2015's Tracker Stays True To the Folk and Roots-Inflected Ambience Of Mark Knopfler's Solo Material, But Introduces New Elements Of Jazz, Funk and Even a Hint Of the Rockier Leanings Of Earlier Days!

Down The Road Wherever features 13 unhurriedly elegant new Mark Knopfler songs inspired by a wide range of subjects including his early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, a stray football fan lost in a strange town, the compulsion of a musician hitching home through the snow, and a man out of time in his local greasy spoon. Knopfler has a poet's eye for telling details that infuse his songs with his unique psychogeography – "where the Delta meets the Tyne" as he describes it – and his warm Geordie vocal tone and his deft, richly melodic guitar playing are as breathtaking and thrilling as ever.

Knopfler says: "'Down The Road Wherever' is a line from 'One Song At A Time.' 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."

Down The Road Wherever was produced by Knopfler and Guy Fletcher and recorded at British Grove Studios in London. The band features Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Fletcher on keyboards, Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone, Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker on fiddle, Mike McGoldrick on whistle and flute, Glenn Worf on bass, Ian ‘Ianto' Thomas on drums and Danny Cummings on percussion. Richard Bennett and Robbie McIntosh also feature on guitar and Trevor Mires on trombone. Imelda May, Kris Drever, Lance Ellington, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon add backing vocals.

All songs were written by Knopfler apart from "Just A Boy Away From Home" where he shares the credits with Rodgers and Hammerstein, as the song uses a piece of "You'll Never Walk Alone" to spin its tale of a lone Liverpool fan wandering the empty streets of Newcastle after midnight.