Sailing to Philadelphia

Knopfler wrote every song on Sailing to Philadelphia, and Chuck Ainlay co-produced it in Nashville. The title song takes its story from Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, about the surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, and James Taylor duets on it. Van Morrison sings on The Last Laugh, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze sing on Silvertown Blues, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings sing on Prairie Wedding and Speedway at Nazareth. Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Jim Horn on saxophone also play.

It had sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide by 2002, and reached number four in the UK and number one in Norway, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. David Wild of Rolling Stone gave it three and a half stars and called it a welcome flashback. Ruhlmann at AllMusic gave it three, and wrote that song after song seemed to start from a familiar genre that he then extrapolated upon.

The 2001 tour ran from Mexico City on 27 March to Moscow on 31 July, with 80 concerts. Geraint Watkins on piano and accordion and Mike Henderson on guitar, mandolin, violin and harmonica joined the usual band. The Madrid show of 2 July was filmed but never released. The Massey Hall concert in Toronto on 3 May was recorded, and four tracks came out, including Speedway at Nazareth and Who's Your Baby Now as B-sides.