Mark Knopfler & the Notting Hillbillies - BBC Sessions (1988-1990)

I previously posted a live album of Mark Knopfler and the Notting Hillbillies. Between that and this BBC sessions album, you should get a good sense of what the band was all about. I prefer both to the band's lone studio album, in 1990, "Missing... and Presumed Having a Good Time," which was a little overproduced and lacked many lead vocals by Knopfler.

I posted the live album before this one because I wanted to start out strongly and that album has better sound quality overall than this one. That's not to say this one has bad sound quality, but it's taken from five different radio sessions, and some sound better than others. They appear chronologically, and it just so happens that the first one sounds the worst and the last two sound the best. So if you're disappointed with the sound quality, keep at it, it gets better.

I explained about the Notting Hillbillies when I posted the live album. Suffice to say that it was a true band, not just Mark Knopfler and a backing band. For instance, he shared lead vocal duties, and only sings lead on about a third of the songs here. But at the same time, Knopler was the clear star, due to his fame from his previous band Dire Straits, and the main people listen to this is to hear his singing and lead guitar work. Don't worry, while he doesn't sing all the time, his guitar is all over this.

Everything here is officially unreleased. The first two songs actually come from a 1988 BBC session, which I think is before the band officially became the Notting Hillbillies, but it was the same group of musicians. The rest are from 1990. Most everything else is from various BBC TV or radio sessions, except for the last five songs. Those come from a concert broadcast on a different British radio station, Radio Clyde. That features highlights from a concert the band did in Glasgow, Scotland, in April 1990. 

"Tennessee Blues" has "[Edit]" in the title because there was a spot near the end of the song where a few seconds of music were missing. Luckily it was during a repetition of the chorus, so I patched it up with a part of a chorus from earlier in the song.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Weapon of Prayer (Notting Hillbillies)
02 Please Baby (Notting Hillbillies)
03 Feel like Going Home (Notting Hillbillies)
04 That's Where I Belong (Notting Hillbillies)
05 Blues Stay Away from Me (Notting Hillbillies)
06 When It Comes to You (Notting Hillbillies)
07 Tennessee Blues [Edit] (Notting Hillbillies)
08 The Next Time I'm in Town (Notting Hillbillies)
09 Bewildered (Notting Hillbillies)
10 Setting Me Up (Notting Hillbillies)
11 Down the Road Apiece (Notting Hillbillies)
12 Let's Have Some Fun Tonight (Notting Hillbillies)
13 One Way Gal (Notting Hillbillies)
14 talk (Notting Hillbillies)
15 Running On Down This Road (Notting Hillbillies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16026070/NottngHillbllies_1988-1990_BBSessons_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is the same as the one featured on the cover of the band's only studio album. However, that version was in black and white, and only filled up the middle section of the cover. I was lucky to find a color version of the same photo.