Cheap All the Roadrunning (Music) (Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris) Price

Over the last seven years, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris quietly recorded an album by stealing "a few precious hours of studio time here and there," as the ex-Dire Straits singer/guitarist puts it. Good thing they kept it largely under wraps--expectations would have pushed through the clouds, especially as Knopfler conjured 10 of the 12 cuts, and Harris, who writes potently, but little, contributed two ("Love and Happiness," "Belle Starr"). Yet now that it's here, All the Roadrunning--while beautiful--seems somehow underwhelming, and without a true centerpiece. Anyone familiar with the artists' famous catalogues would expect the repertoire to be poetic and brooding, and that Harris's ethereal soprano would add light to Knopfler's dark Prozac rumblings. But the surprise is that the album is too tame, never breaks out of its midtempo groove, and never takes any big chances.

That said, there is much to like: The marital scrapbook romp of "This Is Us," the bluesy bickering of "Right Now," the wrenching poignancy of the 9/11-inspired ballad "If This Is Goodbye." Knopfler, ever the hypnotic guitarist, turns in some thrillingly droll and laconic vocals, and Harris brings the spirited coltishness of her early work to "Belle Starr." In the end, though, this is not so much a duet album as two famously melancholy musicians singing together--at times, strikingly so. --Alanna Nash

More Mark & Emmylou

Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler	Brothers in Arms Dire Straits	Screenplaying Mark Knopfler
Anthology: The Warner/Reprise Years Emmylou Harris	Pieces of the Sky Emmylou Harris	Wrecking Ball Emmylou Harris

ARTIST:	Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris
CATEGORY:	Music
MANUFACTURER:	Warner Bros / Wea
TYPE:	Pop, Rock, Rock/Pop
MEDIA:	Audio CD
TRACKS:	Beachcombing, I Dug Up A Diamond, This Is Us, Red Staggerwing, Rollin' On, Love and Happiness for You, Right Now, Donkey Town, Belle Star, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, All the Roadrunning, If This is Goodbye
UPC:	093624415428