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Elly Roberts reviews
Mercury
- Cat.no: 9877385
- Released: April 2006
- Rating: 8/10
Duets have a propensity of being hit-and-miss affairs, especially when you consider that the main ingredients are a musical odd couple.
Finding complementary singers is the main problem – no such worries here. In theirseparate careers, both silver-haired Knopfler and Harris (looking asstunning as ever) have done their fare share of roadrunning. They now meetat a new musical crossroad.
Their separate journeys meet head-on on thiseasy-on-the-ear MOR country collaboration, mostly written by the ex-DireStraits frontman (10 songs) and Harris two Love And Happiness and BelleStar.
Knopfler veers more into her territory than his rock outings on theseoriginals, though he cant help himself on the odd occasion such as BelleStarr: his wiry warbling guitar his evident along with his unculturedbaritone voice. You kinda feel shes the one actually teaching him theropes, though his songwriting is graceful at every level, backed by 14session musicians.
A Fleetwood Mac sounding Beachcombing (at Dreams pace) opens theproceedings followed by a reflective ballad Dug Up A Diamond as he throws insome restrained bluesy picks. The introductory single This Is Us smacks ofKnopfler from the early 80s, (as is the gentle Donkey Town) – maybe anotherparty classic?
Going for a more indigenous Nashville feel we get a violinhoe-down finger-licking Red Staggerwing, which is a riot. Slowies like thetitle track and If This Is Goodbye showcase Harris voice better than anyother song. To his credit Knopfler adapts well on the songwriting andsinging, and who better to have alongside than, arguably, the Queen OfCountry as a mentor.
As an album, its way short of being a classic, but its still an excellentfusion of two icons at play. Part two soon, please?
Best track Rollin On.
Weblink:Mark-Knopfler.co.uk /Emmylou.net
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Beachcombing
2. I Dug Up A Diamond
3. This Is Us
4. Red Staggerwing
5. Rollin On
6. Love And Happiness
7. Right Now
8. Donkey Town
9. Belle Starr
10. Beyond My Wildest Dreams
11. All The Roadrunning
12. If This Goodbye
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.