The best show I saw all summer was Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler at the Gibson Amphitheater. The sound was crisp and real, the video screens worked, and perhaps best of all, the whole thing was being shot for a forthcoming DVD, which I'll be first in line to buy.
They did some Dire Straits, some Emmy, some songs from their collaboration "All The Roadrunning," and it was all breathtakingly good; it really was. So cool to see two mature artists (plus a great band of Nashville heavies) doing what they do unpretentiously and proudly. Cool too to see Knopfler fade into the band on Emmy's tunes, and Emmy segue into backup singer/duet partner as called for. It was more his night than hers if you count by whose tunes dominated, but their mutual respect and lack of spotlight-hogging made it all charming and low key, from "Romeo and Juliet" - still as powerful as it was in 1984 - to "Red Dirt Girl" which has the knack of drawing you in to its short sad reality almost before you realize it's over.
