Ex- Dire Straits [ tickets ] frontman and guitarist Mark Knopfler [ tickets ], who issued his third solo release last October, has mapped more than a month of North American summer dates to back the album.

The outing will visit a mix of theaters and small amphitheaters in June and July.

"I like the idea of playing in places where you can see people and they can see you," Knopfler said in his label biography. "I've had plenty of experience of the bigger thing, and when it got as big as it got, that was when I thought I should turn around and start walking back from there."

Knopfler's touring band will feature former Dire Straits member Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Danny Cummings on drums, Marcus Cliffee on bass, Jim Cox on keyboards and Richard Bennett on guitar, as well as multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin.

Knopfler's new album, titled "The Ragpicker's Dream," topped out at No. 38 on the Billboard 200 album chart last October.

"The record has a kind of an acoustic feel to a lot of it, but I've really been writing about the things I've always been writing about," Knopfler said of the set. "The things that broke my heart as a kid continue to do so now, nothing really changes. ... I find myself writing about work, ordinary people and what they do, changes to places over time, and songs about leaving. I suppose because in my life there's been a fair bit of movement and I've always been interested in that, and in the fact that the music travels, so it's a sort of transcontinental blues in a way."

Knopfler recently was in Nashville to record a duets album with Emmylou Harris, according to his website.