Shangri-La is the fourth solo album by Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

, released on 28 September 2004. The album features Knopfler's signature storytelling

Storytelling

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...

 style of songwriting. The album's first single, "Boom, Like That

Boom, Like That

"Boom, Like That" is a 2004 single by Mark Knopfler, from his album Shangri-La. It is - with "Darling Pretty" - one of the only two Mark Knopfler solo singles to reach the UK Top 40, hiting no. 34.-Lyrics:...

", was inspired by Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc

Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American fast food businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime...

's autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 Grinding It Out and the starting of McDonald's

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

, using many of Mr. Kroc's exact words. "Song for Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston

Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...

" is a song about the famous boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 of the same name. "Donegan's Gone" is about the Scottish musician and singer Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...

. "5.15 AM" tells the story of the 1967 "one-armed bandit murder

One-armed bandit murder

The one-armed bandit murder was a criminal case in the north east of England. The case involved the murder of Angus Sibbet in 1967. The following trial resulted in life sentences for Dennis Stafford and Michael Luvaglio...

". "Back To Tupelo" is about the life of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 and his acting career. The album was released on HDCD and in 5.1 Surround Sound on Super Audio CD

Super Audio CD

Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...

 (SACD) and DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....

.

Track listing

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.

1. "5.15 A.M." – 5:54
2. "Boom, Like That
   Boom, Like That
   "Boom, Like That" is a 2004 single by Mark Knopfler, from his album Shangri-La. It is - with "Darling Pretty" - one of the only two Mark Knopfler solo singles to reach the UK Top 40, hiting no. 34.-Lyrics:...
   
   " – 5:49
3. "Sucker Row" – 4:56
4. "The Trawlerman's Song" – 5:02
5. "Back to Tupelo" – 4:31
6. "Our Shangri-La" – 5:41
7. "Everybody Pays" – 5:24
8. "Song for Sonny Liston" – 5:06
9. "Whoop De Doo" – 3:53
10. "Postcards from Paraguay" – 4:07
11. "All That Matters" – 3:08
12. "Stand Up Guy" – 4:32
13. "Donegan's Gone" – 3:05
14. "Don't Crash the Ambulance" – 5:06

Credits

Music

• Mark Knopfler
  Mark Knopfler
  Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
  
   – vocals, guitar, producer
• Richard Bennett
  Richard Bennett (guitarist)
  Richard Bennett is a touring sideman, session veteran, and record producer. As a touring sideman, he performed with Neil Diamond for 17 years, and Mark Knopfler since 1994. As a session player, he has worked with artists ranging from Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand to Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill...
  
   – guitars
• Jim Cox – organ, piano, harmonica
• Chad Cromwell
  Chad Cromwell
  Chad Cromwell is an American drummer, best known for his work with Neil Young and with Mark Knopfler.- Personal life :Cromwell was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and three years later moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee...
  
   – drums, percussion
• Glenn Worf
  Glenn Worf
  Glenn Worf is one of the premier Nashville session bassists. He was born in Dayton, Ohio but grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and has concentrated on the bass guitar since he was thirteen. He majored in music at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Inevitably his talents forced him to abandon the...
  
   – bass guitar, bass
• Paul Franklin
  Paul Franklin (musician)
  Paul Franklin is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a steel guitarist. He began his career in the 1970s as a member of Barbara Mandrell's road band; in addition he toured with Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed. He has since become a prolific session musician in Nashville,...
  
   – pedal steel guitar
• Guy Fletcher
  Guy Fletcher
  Guy Wilson Fletcher is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his position as the keyboardist in the British rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his involvement in nearly every part of Mark Knopfler's solo work to date.-Biography:Fletcher was born into a...
  
   – organ, piano, clavinet, harmonium, engineer

Production

• Chuck Ainlay
  Chuck Ainlay
  Chuck Ainlay is a record producer. He has worked with Mark Knopfler on much of Knopfler's solo work, in addition to some Dire Straits material....
  
   – producer, engineer
• Rupert Coulson – assistant engineer
• Bob Ludwig – mastering

Album charts

Year	Chart	Position
2004	Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...  Albums Chart	1
2004	Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...  Albums Chart	3
2004	Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...  Albums Chart	3
2004	Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....  Albums Chart	3
2004	Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...  Albums Chart	4
2004	France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...  Albums Chart	4
2004	Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...  Albums Chart	4
2004	Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...  Albums Chart	4
2004	Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...  Albums Chart	6
2004	Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....  Albums Chart	7
2004	Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...  Albums Chart	10
2004	UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	11
2004	Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...  Albums Chart	14
2004	Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...  Albums Chart	21
2004	Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	66

Certifications

Organisation	Level	Date
BPI – UK	Silver	September 27, 2004
IFPI – Switzerland	Gold	2004
BVMI – Germany	Gold	2005

Tour

From February to July 2005, Mark Knopfler set out on a world tour to promote the album, performing both solo material and old Dire Straits numbers.

The setlist remained nearly unchanged and was as follows:

• "Why Aye Man"
• "Walk of Life"
• "What It Is"
• "Sailing to Philadelphia"
• "Romeo and Juliet"
• "Sultans of Swing"
• "Done With Bonaparte"
• "Song for Sonny Liston"
• "Boom, Like That"
• "Speedway at Nazareth"
• "Telegraph Road"

Encores

• "Brothers in Arms"
• "Money for Nothing"
• "So Far Away"

Other songs

• "The Trawlerman's Song" (a couple of times, after "Sailing to Philadelphia")
• "Donegan's Gone" (very often, after "Song for Sonny Liston")
• "Rüdiger" (very often, after "Donegan's Gone")
• "All That Matters" (a couple of times, after "Rüdiger")
• "Baloney Again" (rarely)
• "A Night in Summer Long Ago" (only once, in Johannesburg, after "Done With Bonaparte")
• "Our Shangri-La" (approx. 50% of the shows, after "So Far Away")
• "The Mist Covered Mountains" & "Wild Theme" from Local Hero (approx. 50% of the shows, as a 2nd encore)