Sailing to Philadelphia

Sailing to Philadelphia is the second solo studio album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released on 26 September 2000 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album contains featured vocal performances by James Taylor and Van Morrison.

The title track is drawn from Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, a novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the two English surveyors who established the border separating Pennsylvania and Delaware from Maryland and Virginia in the 1760s. This border later became known as the Mason–Dixon line and has been used since the 1820s to denote the border between the Southern United States and the Northern United States.

Critical reception
In his review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann gave the album three out of five stars, writing that "in one song after another on this album, you get the feeling that he started out playing some familiar song in a specific genre and eventually extrapolated upon it enough to call it an original." In his review for Rolling Stone magazine, David Wild gave the album three and a half out of five stars, writing that the album is "a welcome flashback" to Knopfler's earlier work with Dire Straits. Wild continued: "Knopfler duets with James Taylor on the title track, which deftly explores the relationship between Mason and Dixon; Van Morrison trades lines on the soulful "The Last Laugh." With Sailing to Philadelphia, Knopfler has taken a break from the rootsy side projects and soundtrack work that have occupied him for the last seventeen years, and has evoked some of the grandeur of prime Dire Straits."

By 2002, the album had sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide. In some territories—Western Europe for example—the album was released as an HDCD and a 5.1 Surround Sound DVD-A.

Touring
In 2001, Knopfler supported the release of the album with his Sailing to Philadelphia Tour, which started on 27 March 2001 in Mexico City, Mexico, included 80 concerts in 68 cities, and ended on 31 July 2001 in Moscow, Russia. The tour consisted of three legs: Mexico and South America, North America, and Europe and Russia. The tour lineup included Mark Knopfler (guitar, vocals), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Richard Bennett (guitar), Glenn Worf (bass), Chad Cromwell (drums), Geraint Watkins (piano, accordion), and Mike Henderson (guitar, mandolin, violin, harmonica).

The Madrid concert on 2 July 2001 was filmed but never released. The Toronto concert at Massey Hall in May 2001 was also recorded, but only three tracks were officially released: "Speedway at Nazareth" (the B-side of "Why Aye Man"), "Who's Your Baby Now" (the B-side of "Boom, Like That") and "Brothers in Arms" (available on a limited edition version of the album The Ragpicker's Dream).

Track listing
All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.
 * International version


 * United States version

Personnel

 * Mark Knopfler – vocals, guitar
 * Richard Bennett – guitar
 * Jim Cox – piano, Hammond organ
 * Guy Fletcher – keyboards, backing vocals
 * Glenn Worf – bass guitar
 * Chad Cromwell – drums
 * Danny Cummings – percussion
 * Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar
 * Frank Ricotti – marimba
 * Aubrey Haynie – violin (1,10)
 * Jim Hoke – autoharp, harmonica
 * Wayne Jackson – trumpet
 * Mike Haynes – flugelhorn
 * Harvey Thompson – tenor saxophone
 * Jim Horn – baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone
 * James Taylor – vocals (2)
 * Van Morrison – vocals (5)
 * Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – vocals (8,10)
 * Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford – vocals (International 6)
 * Duane Starling – vocals
 * Gillian Welch – vocals
 * Chris Willis – vocals


 * Production
 * Mark Knopfler – producer
 * Chuck Ainlay – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Chubba Petocz – engineer
 * Jon Bailey – assistant engineer
 * Graham Lewis – assistant
 * Mark Ralston – assistant
 * Aaron Swihart – assistant
 * Denny Purcell – mastering
 * Jonathan Russell – mastering assistant
 * Andrew Williams – portrait photography
 * Eric Conn – editing
 * Sandy Choron – art direction
 * Harry Choron – design
 * Jose Molina – photography (front cover)
 * James Gritz – photography (back cover)
 * Andrew Williams – photography (portrait)
 * Ben Mikaelsen – photography (additional)

What It Is
"What It Is" was the first single from the album. An extended version of the song released in Mexico contains an additional verse:
 * And the highwayman stands blowing on his fingers by the green
 * I've walked inside his shoes before so I always buy his magazine
 * He's with a local mystery with blood stains on her hands
 * I like the way she winks at me but I leave her with the highwayman

The instrumental portion of the song serves as the theme music for the CBC Radio One radio show, Dispatches.

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.
 * Track listing

Sailing to Philadelphia
"Sailing to Philadelphia" was the second single from the album. The song is a duet between Knopfler and American singer-songwriter James Taylor. The song is written in an autobiographical style, and is the story of Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason, a "Geordie boy" and an astronomer, respectively, who sailed to America from the United Kingdom. Dixon (Mark Knopfler) predicted that there was a "land of opportunity" to the west, which Mason (James Taylor), the "stargazer" does not believe. Towards the end of the song, the lyrics suggest that Dixon was correct.

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.
 * Track listing

Silvertown Blues
"Silvertown Blues" was the third and final single from the album. It was released as a commercial single in the Netherlands and Belgium only, but it received radio airplay in several European countries, notably in France. The song was not performed live during the Sailing to Philadelphia Tour.

Silvertown is an industrial district on the north bank of the River Thames in London, and the song partially deals with the construction of the financially unsuccessful Millennium Dome. It was constructed on a site contaminated by toxic sludge from East Greenwich Gas Works that operated from 1889 to 1985.
 * From the poisonous drains a vision appears
 * New circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
 * A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
 * Above the church and the homes where all the silver is gone

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.
 * Track listing