Rolling Stone : All The Roadrunning : Review

All the Roadrunning is an elegant, sometimes sleepy collection of country-folk duets pairing Dire Straits' former frontman with one of Nashville's elder stateswomen. Mark Knopfler, who's been working in roots mode for a while now on his solo records, sings in a shopworn tenor and works up graceful harmonies with Emmylou Harris, whose crystalline voice is put to better use here than on her arty recent records. The pair mostly keep the tempos slow and the arrangements light on these portraits of heartbreak and small-town life, and a handful of songs -- including the reggae-tinged "Rollin' On" -- meander by unremarkably. But ballads like the title track and the Springsteen-esque "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" are world-wise and gently gorgeous.

CHRISTIAN HOARD

(Posted: 4, 18 2006)