Monster Lick Alert

This one’s for the guitarists out there, and music lovers in general. There’s a new CD out called “All the Roadrunning”, by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. On it there’s a song called, “If This Is Goodbye” about cellphone calls made on 9/11 from the World Trade Center. It’s quite a tune, and captures the true personal loss of that day much better than other 9/11 songs I’ve heard. The song finishes with a Mark Knopfler guitar solo – tasty, emotional as you would expect. As a Dire Straits song once said, “Yeah, the boy can play.” Just about at the end Mark pulls out a lick that had me rewinding the videotape over and over. (Perhaps I should explain, I had videotaped Imus in the Morning from MSNBC, and he played the CD cut this morning.) Guitarists, this is a Monster Guitar Lick Winner. Things happen in studios. Magical little moments. Maybe a great guitarist like Mark Knopfler could play this again without even trying, but I suspect it was one of those times that just happened once. Don’t let my focus detract from your enjoyment of the rest of the song, but somewhere down the road, listen for Mark’s soulful, soulful guitar bit. Imus used the G word as in “Genius.” Maybe, maybe not, but it is definitely brilliant. This has been your Monster Lick Alert.