Bob Dylan and Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler will head out on the road for a North American double bill this fall. The pair, who recently toured together in Europe -- with Knopfler opening -- have announced the initial dates of their late-summer tour, kicking things off on August 19th in Lloydminster, Alberta and winding things down on September 1st in Big Flats. New York. Vintage Vinyl News reported that Knopfler will be releasing his new solo album in September, called Privateering, and only performed two Dire Straits tunes during the European run -- "Brothers In Arms" and "So Far Away."

Knopfler told us that with his new material, he never knows how well it'll hold up until he runs it through with other musicians: "What happens with a song is it sits in a notebook, and then when you start running it down with a band and stuff, it's when it starts to slide off your notebook and go out into the world. It's a great feeling, actually, when it's happening. In some ways, bits of it don't belong to you anymore, I suppose, or there's a sense in which it doesn't belong to you anymore."

Rolling Stone associate editor Austin Scaggs says that both on and offstage, Bob Dylan has always remained an enigma to his core fan base: "Maybe he doesn't know his audience -- maybe he doesn't want to know his audience. Maybe he wants to challenge this mass of people in front of him. And I think he wants to challenge them with, y'know words -- but with rhythm."

NEWLY ADDED: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler tour dates (subject to change):

August 10 - Lloydminster, AB - Exhibition Grounds
August 11 - Lethbridge, AB - Enmax Center
August 12 - Cranbrook, BC - RecPlex
August 14 - Missoula, MO - Big Sky Brewery
August 17 - Rapid City, SD - Barnett Arena
August 18 - Sioux Falls, SD - Sioux Falls Arena
August 19 - Fargo, ND - Fargo Civic Center
August 24 - Fort Wayne, IN - Parkview Field
August 25 - Indianapolis, IN - White River State Park
August 28 - Youngstown, OH - Covelli Centre
August 29 - - Johnstown, PA - Cambria County War Memorial
September 1 - Big Flats, NY - Tag's Summer Stage