Mark Knopfler

Last Friday, I promised a full report of the Bob Dylan concert. But before I talk about Bob Dylan, I think it's important to say that the Mark Knopfler portion of the evening alone was worth the price of admission. We actually arrived late to the concert thanks to some horrendous traffic through Richardson, so we only got to see the last half of Knopfler's set, and that alone was worth it for me. I was unfamiliar with Knopfler's work prior to the concert, and I only discovered that he was the frontman for Dire Straits a couple of weeks before the concert. He did play some Dire Straits songs, but the best parts of his set were the songs from his latest album, which he played a lot of. (Check it out, here).

I'm not a nut about guitar tone, but Knopfler's electric guitar tone combined with his fantastic playing formed one of the most beautiful guitar sounds I've ever heard. And his band was amazing, weaving together celtic folk sounds with the blues seamlessly, and making an accordion or uillleann pipes sing just as effortlessly as guitar and bass. Knopfler's deep, mellow, gravelly voice made for wonderful listening as well.

I don't want to commit heresy here, but, truthfully, Bob Dylan was a bit of a let-down after the Mark Knopfler set, which sometimes left me so stunned with beauty that I could barely lift my hands to join in the (rightly thunderous) applause. That being said, I'm glad I got to hear Bob Dylan perform -- and I'll tell you all about that later this week.