Kill to Get Crimson

Mark Knopfler is that rare guitar virtuoso who doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to a beautiful song. Like Richard Thompson, Knopfler, solo or with his old band Dire Straits, can let his fingers fly, and the flourishes are often spine-chilling, but he never lets it overtake a simple, tragic melody or overshadow the poignancy of the song. Recorded after his collaboration with Emmylou Harris, 2007’s Kill to Get Crimson is a low-key affair that finds Knopfler in a reflective mood. “True Love Will Never Fade” begins things with a gentle acoustic finger-picking that opens to the bucolic swell of flute and electric guitar supporting “The Scaffolder’s Wife” that suggests the leisurely country squire gait of Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece. Accordion and fiddles join Knopfler for the Celtic-folk reveries of “Secondary Waltz” and “Madame Geneva’s,” while simple, spare guitar lines convey the lonesome evening that pervades the somber “We Can Get Wild.” Whether he’s mining the folk tradition (“The Fish and the Bird”) or merely quoting his signature tone (“Punish the Monkey”), Knopfler is a master of control.