More and more bottleneck?

[Love Expresso]

When I gave Tracker another listen this morning I realized how much slide guitar there is on it compared to earlier solo albums and Dire Straits in general. Not playing myself and knowing very little about these things, I wonder: Is it an easier way of playing for him compared to his usual style and could it mean his abilities to play are getting worse with the years? Or am I thinking too much into it? Maybe it is even more difficult to play? You know with the long Marbletown and the new regular sax  and flute and fiddle parts, to the untrained eye and ear, it almost seems that he tries to avoid playing the electric guitar with his fingers as much as possible. Listening to most of the Sultans versions from 2015 could support that opinion... but as I said, I am no player at all...

LE

[dmg]

Not sure about the bottleneck but I agree with you about the rest.  It seems to me that he tries every opportunity to avoid a guitar solo these days, including new arrangements, other songs and new band members.

I have been enjoying the 2015 versions of Sultans though.  Although they are, ahem, "rough", they do have nice phrasing and it's good to see him work for his money! 

[Love Expresso]

Skydiver, Mighty Man, Long Cool Girl,  Lights Of Taormina all feature slide playing prominently if I am not mistaken. Four tracks... I like it, don't get me wrong, but it is definitely increasing from record to record isn't it.

LE

[Love Expresso]

Don't forget your Hat, Miss You Blues, Corned Beef City, Gator Blood, all with Slide.

LE

[holaknopfler]

You're right, it is increasing. I find playing slide less hard work compared to fast solos. If you know the technique it's definitely not harder than a very quick solo IMHO. But I'm speaking for myself right now.

[quizzaciously]

In other hand, playing with slide requires very high action (i.e. strings height) and also increased gauge of strings.
But in other hand, he often play things in such a low tunings (Open Bb), so gauge is not so important anymore.

I think this is more like a choice of style. It's like 'Kill To Get Crimson' was 50% waltzes and 50% played with a pick.

And about tending to avoid the solos... it's just getting old, I suppose. On a guitar, you always play less with age.

[border_reiver]

I like it! 

[Love Expresso]

Me, too, it's just an observation, no criticism.

It struck me that a song I hardly listened to gets more and more of my attention, .38 Special. The banjo is pretty unusual and not my cup of tea normally, but I think the Les Paul sound on this one is as close as it can get to a very fat signature MK sound, I would say the most obvious MK sound on the album. Like it more and more. A typical "grower". Limitates the number of skippers on that album to three. 

LE

[Jarle]

But then again, we've got Kingdom of Gold, which live, in my opinion, is some of his best guitar solo playing for a long time. Not the most notes per minutes, but who cares? Listen to this, for instance:

   

Sorry if this takes the thread in wrong direction, but it is a good example of great guitar work thrown in on the later tours.

[dmg]

Mighty Man has certainly been a grower on me.  Never really liked it at first but now I love it!

[superval99]

I agree that there seems to be more bottleneck, but that's OK with me, because I like it very much, so long as there are other styles mixed in too, as in Tracker.   Maybe it's because MK's fingers are less nimble these days - something that comes to us all eventually.   

 MM was one of my favourites right from the start and still gives me goosepimples! 

[Love Expresso]

Yeah I can relate to the lyrics because of some very personal reasons from day one.
I found it also very touching when he mentioned Mike McGoldrick's Dad when talking about MM recently. and the fixed place in the setlist therefore was a nice idea. I like the idea that he chooses songs also for band members.

LE

[Love Expresso]

But then again, we've got Kingdom of Gold, which live, in my opinion, is some of his best guitar solo playing for a long time. Not the most notes per minutes, but who cares? Listen to this, for instance:

   

Sorry if this takes the thread in wrong direction, but it is a good example of great guitar work thrown in on the later tours.

Nice video, and although a very nice and beautiful guitar, I never got warm with the blue Pensa - live on stage. That sound on LAJADAS was way too loud and too sharp.. I loved the Pensa (Suhr?) he heavily played 1991/1992.. and that sound on the album version of Railroad Worksong...

LE

[ds1984]

But then again, we've got Kingdom of Gold, which live, in my opinion, is some of his best guitar solo playing for a long time. Not the most notes per minutes, but who cares? Listen to this, for instance:

   

Sorry if this takes the thread in wrong direction, but it is a good example of great guitar work thrown in on the later tours.

Mixed opinions for me and this is exactly that what makes me feel sad.

[TJ]

While not really a fan of Mark's slide playing, I did like what was on Tracker better than his slide on previous albums, which I really found boring and frankly not very good.  The tone on the Tracker is much improved, as is the playing in general.  I guess the tone has to  do with Mark using a Strat instead of the Danelectro or whatever it was he was using before.  Or maybe it's Guy's production.  But I did like it much better.