Over the last 30 years, Mark Knopfler has experienced an unusual career arc — but one that befits him, actually.

Mark Knopfler plays the Michigan Theater on Tuesday.

The 1st phase of his career, of course, was as the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for Dire Straits — a group that started fast, notching a hit single right out of the blocks with the endlessly seductive “Sultans of Swing,” from its 1979 debut album. After 3 more critically hailed albums, they got huge in 1985 on the strength of “Money for Nothing,” “Walk of Life,” “So Far Away” and other smash hits from their mega-selling “Brothers in Arms.” They played to enormous crowds at football stadiums, until, in Knopfler’s mind, things “just got too big.”

So, Knopfler slowly downscaled Dire Straits’ public profile, finally breaking up the band in 1995. And ever since the group split, Knopfler has been content to work on a smaller scale as a solo artist — focusing on his craft, and not worrying about the pop charts.

Every time he releases an album it gets glowing reviews, thanks to his tasteful, supple guitar work and his intelligent, finely observed songs. And with every tour, he’s quite happy to play much smaller venues than he played at the peak of his Dire Straits fame. His current tour brings him to the Michigan Theater on Tuesday.

That seems fitting, given that his songs are also “smaller,” in that he generally favors languid, atmospheric songs — and writes lyrics that demonstrate a subtlety that now seem a lifetime away from the broad strokes of “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life.”

Knopfler’s latest disc, released in 2009, is “Get Lucky,” and as usual, it’s a deft, organic intermingling of folk, blues, country and Celtic styles — except this time the Celtic element is more pronounced. And his guitar work, still the focal point, continues to be fluid, lyrical and winsome.

Listen to the Mark Knopfler album “Get Lucky”:

As a songwriter, Knopfler still demonstrates his talents as a miniaturist, giving us brief glimpses of regular folks and everyday events — like the Glasgow lorry driver in the opening track, “Border Reiver,” or the fairground worker in the title song, or his wistful recollection of the big freighters in “So Far From The Clyde.” Meanwhile, “Monteleone” is a tribute to a real-life master luthier, and he ruminates about his Uncle Freddie, who Knopfler never knew, in the atmospheric lament “Piper To The End,” which is appropriately carried aloft along by the heart-tugging sounds of pensive Celtic pipes.

Knopfler’s uncle was a piper in the Scottish infantry, and he carried his pipes into battle — and was killed on the battlefield in Ficheux, in 1940, when he was just 20 years old.

“I didn't know him, of course, but I was close to my uncle Kingsley, my mum's brother,” said Knopfler in an interview on his website. “(Kingsley) first taught me to play the boogie-woogie piano, and Freddie was Kingsley's older brother. The pipes always made sense to me…..In my grandmother's home, there were Jimmy Shand records, so the sound of Celtic music always seems familiar to me.”

Indeed, many of the themes and characters on the album are viewed from Knopfler’s childhood point of view. He comes by the Celtic inspiration naturally, as he was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and lived there until his family moved to Newcastle, England when he was 8. “Do we ever get away from our childhoods?,” he mused in the interview. “Some of the things we're attracted to when we're very small stay with us all our lives.”

For example, “at the bottom of Salters Road in Newcastle, there was a little record shop,” Knopfler continued. “One day there was this Fender Stratocaster in the window, and it was just a thing of magic. I was literally nose to the window. I think I was still in short trousers, and that's it, a little boy coming home from school, being completely fascinated by it. I still cross the road now to look into a guitar shop.”

One high-profile and dedicated fan of Knopfler’s work is Igor Larionov, the former Detroit Red Wings great who also knows a little something about the virtues of finesse: Larionov was one of the finest playmakers in the league, due to his intelligence, deft stick handling and the overall artistry of his game.

“I first heard Mark play when I saw him on TV with Dire Straits in 1978, when I was in Sweden while playing for the Russian junior team,” says Larionov, who last year moved back to the Detroit area after living in Los Angeles for 3 years. “I quickly became a big fan of Dire Straits.

“The way he plays guitar is amazing,” says Larionov. “It’s hard to find many people in the world who make music that sounds like it really comes from inside their soul — music that makes you think, and makes you feel — but he is 1 of them. I’ve never (gotten) tired of listening to his records, whether it’s his Dire Straits albums or his solo albums.

“When I was still in the NHL, I would listen to Dire Straits albums in the summertime, when I was working out, for inspiration. I once had a chance to meet him, when he was playing Pine Knob, and we spent about a half an hour talking about music and sports.”

Larionov is hard-pressed to choose a favorite Knopfler / Dire Straits album. “It’s like trying to pick my favorite gold medal, or my favorite Stanley Cup,” says Larionov. “I can’t pick one. But Mark is definitely 1 of the greats — that’s why he’s been around so many years.”

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.

Mark Knopfler performing “Sailing To Philadelphia” last fall: