Mark Knopfler Releases 10th Solo Studio LP, ‘One Deep River’
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Mark Knopfler One Deep River
Mark Knopfler has released his 10th solo studio album. One Deep River, arrived on April 12, 2024, on his own British Grove label via Blue Note/EMI, with 12 new songs. (A boxed set includes several bonus tracks.) Watch a behind-the-scenes clip and listen to many of the songs below. The album is available to order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
One Deep River, the announcement notes, “offers an unstoppable flow of future Knopfler classics, with their customarily learned lyrics and refined guitar textures. They draw on a lifetime of genre-crossing ingredients and influences in blues, folk, rock and beyond.”
“Watch Me Gone” sees Knopfler harking back to his teenage dreams, when he took a chance and set forth from the streets of Newcastle to try his hand at making a living as a guitar player. “The dreams of a teenage kid…to me it’s always been the fuel that keeps you going,” he says. “That’s why I’ll still cross the street to look at a window of guitars—it’s just that bit of your teen years that it reminds you of, so you try to keep it alive. I remember going to City Hall seeing Van Morrison or Bob Dylan, wishing I was doing that. Statistically what are the odds of making it as an act? But I was a comically driven young person, who was determined to make it.”
The album’s title track, “One Deep River,” is described as “a wistful story about a singer-songwriter struggling to make it, set to a distinctively Knopfler riff” and “reflects his deep affection for the river that runs through his childhood home city of Newcastle.
One Deep River was produced by Knopfler and his longstanding collaborator Guy Fletcher and was recorded at his state-of-the-art British Grove Studios in London.
Mark Knopfler in 2021 via his Facebook page
The band on One Deep River features Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Glenn Worf on bass, Ian Thomas on drums, Danny Cummings on percussion, Richard Bennett on guitar and newcomer Greg Leisz on pedal and lap steel; Mike McGoldrick provides whistle and uilleann pipes and John McCusker plays fiddle, while the Topolski sisters Emma and Tamsin add backing vocals. All songs are written by Knopfler.
Watch the video for the album’s lead-off track, “Two Pairs of Hands”
Watch a behind-the-scenes clip
On March 15, Knopfler released a new, special recording of his anthemic composition, “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” featuring over 60 of the finest rock performers ever assembled on one iconic track. The recording includes Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Roger Daltrey, David Gilmour, Brian May, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Pete Townshend, Ronnie Wood, and many more. It’s available for order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here, and will raise funds for Teen Cancer America and its U.K. equivalent Teenage Cancer Trust.
ONE DEEP RIVER TRACKLIST
1. Two Pairs Of Hands
2. Ahead Of The Game
3. Smart Money
4. Scavengers Yard
5. Black Tie Jobs
6. Tunnel 13
7. Janine
8. Watch Me Gone
9. Sweeter Than The Rain
10. Before My Train Comes
11. This One’s Not Going To End Well
12. One Deep River
BONUS VINYL TRACKLIST (IN BOX SET)
1. Dolly Shop Man
2. Your Leading Man
3. Wrong’un
4. Chess
BONUS CD TRACKLIST (IN BOX SET)
1. The Living End
2. Fat Chance Dupree
3. Along A Foreign Coast
4. What I’m Gonna Need
5. Nothing But Rain
Related: Revisiting opening night of Knopfler’s 2019 tour
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationGreg Leisz is hardly a newcomer. He has been playing beautiful and tasty supportive pedal steel, lap steel & guitar for numerous artists in studio and on tour including Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Bob Dylan and a cast of hundreds since 1987. He is the successor to David Lindley in that regard.
A newcomer to Knopfler’s band, not to music overall.
Just heard Watch Me Gone. This is a great song. I like this track much better than the first single. I find it moving and emotional and enjoy it very much.