Mark Knopfler announces new album, ‘Down The Road Wherever’

Former Dire Straits frontman and guitarist Mark Knopfler has announced a new solo album, Down the Road Wherever, which will arrive November 16.

It will be his ninth solo album, following 2015’s Tracker. Fans can look forward to a compilation of stories on the record, ranging from “Knopfler’s early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, a stray soccer 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 diner,” according to a press release.

Even the LP’s title bears a story. It comes from a line from one of the album tracks, “One Song at a Time,” an aphorism that Knopfler credited to Chet Atkins.

“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,” he said. “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.”

The album was recorded in London’s British Grove Studios and produced by Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher. Knopfler’s band features Jim Cox on the keys, Nigel Hitchcock on sax, 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.

To give us a taste of what’s to come, Knopfler has released “Good on You Son,” which you can check out here:

Pre-order the album at markknopfler.com.