This song by a couple of well-worn, old music legends (one a little older than the other) is based upon the endeavor of two Englishmen, surveyor Jeremiah Dixon and astronomer Charles Mason, assigned by the Royal Society at the request of colonial governments, to establish a border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia in the 1760s that became known as the Mason-Dixon Line. By the 1820s, the Mason-Dixon Line had come to denote the border between all Northern and Southern states east of the Mississippi River.
Sailing to Philadelphia, is Mark Knopfler’s second solo album and features in addition to James Taylor, Van Morrison.
Steve D.