Mark Knopfler – Brothers In Arms

In preparing the Mark Knopfler guitar lesson that I just launched the other day, I was looking through a few clips on YouTube for inspiration and I came across Mark Knopfler playing “Brothers In Arms” at the Montserrat concert in London back in the mid to late 90s. I remember buying this DVD when it came out and being blown away when he plays Brothers In Arms (this sounds incredible in surround sound by the way) – so I was happy to see that some generous soul out there posted this. I’ve always loved this approach to playing in which you sing a line, then play a line – kind of a call and response thing between the vocal and guitar, and Mark does a great job in this video.

The licks he uses are subtle but powerful and there’s one in particular that still remains one of my all time favorites of his,

right after he finishes singing “mist covered mountains”. I’m not 100% sure what you’d classify that lick as, it’s somewhere between a pedal steel country sound, with a little jazz and blues thrown in – but it’s always exciting to find little gems like that and learn them. Even though that lick sounds very simple, there’s more to it than meets the eye, and for whatever reason, that one jumps off the page at me every time i hear it. If there are guitar licks out there that jump out at you like that, please share them. It’s always interesting to see what catches another persons ear.