Mark Knopfler dives into 'One Deep River' on April album

Mark Knopfler’s 10th solo studio album, One Deep River, will drop on April 12 on his own British Grove label via Blue Note/EMI. It has 12 new songs. Pre-order/pre-save here.

First single “Ahead Of The Game,” about a singer/songwriter struggling to make it, is out now. Listen/share here.

The album’s title track, “One Deep River,” reflects Knopfler’s deep affection for the river that runs through his childhood home city of Newcastle.

“Crossing the Tyne is always on your mind,” he says. “It’s what you were doing when you were leaving as a youngster and that feeling is always the same every time you do it. You’re heading out or you’re coming back, and it just connects with your childhood. The power of it doesn’t go away.”

Newest single “Watch Me Gone” debuted this week; listen here. The song 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.

Knopfler says, “The dreams of a teenage kid...to me it’s always been the fuel that keeps you going. 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.”

Produced by Knopfler and longstanding collaborator Guy Fletcher, the album was recorded at his British Grove Studios in London. The album will be available on CD, double gatefold vinyl, cassette and a special limited-edition box set that will include the album on both vinyl and CD with nine exclusive bonus tracks on LP and CD, a litho print of Knopfler, a guitar pick set and tin and an enamel badge.

The band on One Deep River features Mark 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 veteran session man 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.

Track Listing:

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 Track Listing (box set):

1. Dolly Shop Man
2. Your Leading Man
3. Wrong’un
4. Chess

Bonus CD Track Listings (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