Charting His Own Path

Outside the hotel, the girls screamed. Fans tried to storm the lobby.

In his room, it must have been a distant echo for Mark Knopfler, who once disdained the arena-rock realm his band Dire Straits had reached, saying, “It got so big, I just wanted to go and run away.”

In Mexico City to open the world tour now in the United States, he heard the screams again. But not for him.

“The Backstreet Boys are doing a big show here, too, and staying at the same hotel,” Knopfler says over the phone. “There’s a lot of little girls everywhere.”

The esteemed British guitarist and writer, 51, speaks of the group as if it were in a different business.

“It’s a show for kids, isn’t it?” he says of the boy band. “It’s not really my thing.”

Indeed, even during Dire Straint’s most commercial heights, Knopfler led his band with sharp writing and peerless guitar playing. That fluid style marked the band, from its first big U.S. hit, “Sultans of Swing,” in 1979 through its most popular album, “Brothers in Arms,” in 1985.

After the 1988 breakup of the band, Knopfler largely concentrated on side groups (the Notting Hillbillies), duet projects (with Chet Atkins, for one) and soundtracks (“Metroland” and “Wag the Dog”). Earlier in his career, he had worked on the soundtracks for “Local Hero” (1983) and “Cal” (1984).

His latest album, “Sailing to Philadelphia,” is only his second solo album, following 1996’s “Golden Heart.”

Now, on the road for the first time in 10 years, the guy who has stayed out of the limelight for a decade is surprised at the strong sales of his tour, which includes stops Sunday at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and Monday at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego.

The album was released last September, but the tour didn’t start until now because of his most recent distraction.

“I’m easily distracted,” Knopfler says. “That’s what the teachers always said about me in high school.

“A few months ago I finished the music for another film set in Scotland,” he says. He calls the Robert Duvall film “A Shot at Glory” a “circle back around to ‘Local Hero.’ I really enjoyed doing that.” Likewise, he enjoyed doing the soundtrack to the 1997 political film “Wag the Dog,” “because one of the things I’m very interested in is the story of America.”

“Sailing to Philadelphia” is a kind of story about the new country as well, with songs including “Do America” and the title track.

A Briton Compelled by America’s Story

“I wasn’t conscious of it when I was writing it,” Knopfler says. “But I think the story of America is one of the most compelling of the last millennium. It’s certainly been something of an influence on my life, musically speaking--and millions of other kids.”

With its musical and pop culture explosion of the 20th century, “America was a colony that ended up colonizing the consciousness of the entire world virtually,” Knopfler says. “So in terms of a culture, I think the whole thing is fantastically interesting. A lot of the music that originally came from Europe or other places went through the machine in America and came out and was re-presented to us in Europe as America.”

Which in turn influenced America, as British Invasion rockers embraced American blues and sold it back to the States. “That’s part of the joy of the process.”

The title track to the new album is the story of Mason and Dixon, the British astronomer and surveyor called upon to map the land in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

“I was reading the [Thomas] Pynchon book [1997’s “Mason & Dixon”] and changing planes in Philadelphia a lot at the time, to do recordings for one of the films,” Knopfler recalls. “And coming into Philadelphia in a plane one time, I was just coming to a bit in the book [with] Mason and Dixon arriving in Philadelphia by ship. That’s what got me on to that.

“As a book, I think it’s an amazing piece of work,” he says. “And I suppose in a way the song is a three-minute take on a 3-inch-thick book.”

Knopfler promises to include a lot of the Dire Straits hits in the show, including “Romeo and Juliet” and “Walk of Life.”

“I enjoy playing a lot of those songs that were signposts for people’s lives,” Knopfler says. But, he adds, “I can’t listen to the old records. I like playing the old songs, but I don’t like listening to the records for some reason. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve learned more or what it is.”

Whatever it is, “I suppose I’m only now getting to the stage where I can make a record that I can listen to,” Knopfler says. “I think ‘Sailing to Philadelphia’ is a record I can play without leaving the room.”

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* Mark Knopfler plays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Greek Theatre, 2700 Vermont Canyon Road, Griffith Park, L.A. $25-$45. (213) 480-3232. Also Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego. Sold out. (619) 235-0804.