Not Far From It Now

In A Shot at Glory, Robert Duvall plays the inspiring manager of a lower-division Scottish football (soccer, to us Americans) team. Management wants to make major changes to the team to keep it financially viable such as taking on a star player for more visibility and even moving to another city. In order to prevent the move, the manager has to find a way to become the best team in the nation, despite the odds stacked against him and problems at home with his own family.

The film seems to be a perfect match for Glasgow-born Mark Knopfler, and brings him full circle back to his Scottish roots with Local Hero and Comfort and Joy. To date, this is the only soundtrack Knopfler has written in the 2000s.

All Music Guides William Ruhlmann summarizes the original music: The soundtrack albums of his films usually are so closely identified with him that it's a dilemma where to shelve them in the record store, and this one is no exception; it is billed on the cover as a Mark Knopfler soundtrack There are some Scottish themes in keeping with the movie's setting, a couple of slow-moving instrumentals in which Knopfler fingerpicks an acoustic guitar, and three vocal tracks. Chalk up another Mark Knopfler soundtrack that finds him repeating himself, however pleasantly.

So no one mistakes this for an album of overly traditional Scottish pieces, Tracksounds.coms Steve Townsley explains: Knopflers score does not stay in the Rob Roy/Braveheart vein of traditional Celtic sound, however, and often picks up a very contemporary beatan edgy, modern rock feel with guitar and percussionwhile maintaining the fiddles and pipes of Irish music, perhaps more recently heard in the music of musicians like Ashley MacIssac, or Ronan Hardimans music for the Lord of the Dance show.

Jim Kerr of the San Diego Union-Tribune notes that the film affords Knopfler the chance to once again dabble in authentic Celtic sounds, and the result is a rewarding hodgepodge of styles. A highland bagpipe solo, smoky jazz vocal, accordion, whistle and harp are all thrown into the mix. Highlights include the very Dire Straits-sounding He's the Man; an infectious fiddle stomp, Four in a Row; and the tender instrumental themes Sons of Scotland, It's Over and Wild Mountain Thyme."

Finally, Derek Elley of Daily Variety compliments Mark Knopfler's busy, Celtic-flavored score (which) whips some badly needed energy into the proceedings at key moments.

Knopfler has spent the first years of the new millennium focusing on his solo career, working as a guest performer with other artists, and wrapping up his long-awaited duets album with Emmylou Harris entitled All the Roadrunning. While this may prevent him from taking on new film assignments in the near future, theres no telling what we may expect in years to come but hopefully film scores are still a possibility.

A CD soundtrack was released by Warner Bros. in 2002 and is still in print (#48324). All eleven tracks written or adapted by Knopfler appear, including the three new vocals All That I Have in the World, Hes The Man, and Say Too Much.

Mark Knopfler is a singer, songwriter and guitar player touring in 2006 with Emmylou Harris to promote their new album "All the Roadrunning." For Mark Knopfler news, biography, photographs, and tour information visit the site: http://www.knopfler.info

AP - The BBC on Wednesday indefinitely suspended two of its most popular broadcasters, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, for leaving a series of lewd phone messages on an actor's answering machine.

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