McGoldrick and McCusker join Mark Knopfler
, one of Manchester's, or Britain's, heck, the world's finest folk musicians has signed up to continue his stint playing in 's band on the tour.
Mike joined Knopfler for the US leg of the tour after being introduced to the Dire Straits legend by - another multi-instrumentalist folk genius - who has been performing with Knopfler for a few years and couldn't do the US dates. Bluegrass whizz also joined the band while in the States.
As the tour continues into Europe, Knopfler has invited both McGoldrick and McCusker to stay with him and perform to vast non-folky audiences in Italy, France, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.
Unfortunately for us in the UK, that means Mike's own band will have to pull out of some festivals, notably (where he'll be replaced by ) and (where he'll be replaced by the ).
Obviously it's a fantastic opportunity for the musicians, and arguably an even better one for the UK folk scene as a whole. The Knopfler set now features some extended spotlights on Mike and John, duelling with citterns in front of audiences who couldn't previously tell you what a was. Now they can, and perhaps they'll seek out folk gigs and albums on the strength of these two great ambassadors for the genre.
Have any of you seen these Mark Knopfler concerts? What did you think of Mike and John's contributions?
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At 13th Jul 2010, The Floorboards wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 27th Jul 2010, Sam Hindley wrote:I'm a big folkie and also love Knopfler, went to one of the Albert Hall gigs in June. I thought Mike's and John's contributions were an essential part of the set, also agree with Jon's comment that it's good to give these great folk musicians a wider audience. From following other web sites to do with M Knopflers tours, It's apparent that John McCusker is now well established with the audience / fans as part of the live band. Good on yer John!
Shame about the lads missing a few folk dates, but they will be back. And if they can make enough doss to give them a bit of freedom for other musical projects, then that's good too in the long run. One of the best things about seeing Mike and John with MK was the total lack of rock star pose, just good musicians getting on with it and enjoying themselves.
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