Mark Knopfler is one of my favourite musicians…he’s a great singer/songwriter as well as being a great rock guitarist, one of the best in fact with his own very distinctive style of playing. He is of course the lead singer/guitarist and founder, with his brother David, of rock band Dire Straits which they had much success with from the early 70s through to the late 90s. Mark was born in Glasgow in 1949 but the family moved to Blyth, his mother’s home near Newcastle -on-Tyne when he was three or four…thus making him a Scots/Geordie lad…the best of all worlds! Mark was a trainee journalist before the rock career took over his life and his storytelling skills are evident in much of his songwriting…for instance in this one Sailing To Philadelphia. I’m posting two videos …first a short explanatory dialogue about the origin of the song with fellow Geordie Brian Johnson, followed by Mark performing the song live…