Mark Knopfler Emmylou Harris All The Roadrunning Views

• General Goods

Written and recorded over seven years, All The Roadrunning is a warm and generous collaboration between two veteran recording artists still capable of putting down music with strong, grounded narratives and plausible emotions. Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler share and trade vocal duties with such an organic touch itVan Lear Rose, which initially benefited from the buzz generated by the incongruity and notoriety of the duo (Loretta Lynn & Jack White) but has lost some of its luster since release, whereas All The Roadrunning appealed on first listen and endures still because Knopfler and Harris make for a much better pairing in several respects.

They hardly make the most obvious pairing, Emmylou's piercing, plaintive melodies and Knopfler's dusky, mid-Atlantic drone, the one able to soar around an intricate bluegrass harmony, the other confined to what colour charts term 'earthy tones'. Still, when one inveterate collaborator meets another, things happen, and having hit it off over a couple of duets for a Hank Williams tribute album (Timeless), Mark'n' Emmylou decided to go all the way.

There's something of an unequal partnership at work, less because 10 of the dozen tracks are penned by Knopfler - Harris has never been a prolific writer - than because nothing and nobody is going to get in the way of Mark's gee-tar. For stretches of the record Emmylou is reduced to supplying harmony for Knopfler's lead vocals, as on the dirge-like 'I Dug Up A Diamond', which Knopfler delivers with the joy of a gardener who has uncovered an old bedspring, or she is simply overwhelmed by twang, as on the sub-Springsteen rock of 'Beyond My Wildest Dreams'.

The best moments arrive on the genuine duets, where the contrast in the pair's vocal styles becomes a strength, and they trade verses like a married couple going through a favourite routine. Mostly these are love-ins; 'This is Us' is a somewhat twee ride down memory lane, 'Red Staggerwing' is a cheery hoe-down (which references Knopfler's favourite cars, bikes and planes), and Harris's 'Love and Happiness' is a straightforward exercise in country sentimentality. The gritty end of relationships fuels the bluesy 'Right Now', while 'Rollin' On' and 'Donkeytown' are a pair of moody blue-collar ballads to remind us of Knopfler's gifts as a narrator of ordinary lives.