Mark Knopfler is the best finger-picking rock guitar soloist I’ve ever heard.  Okay, he’s the only finger-picking rock guitar soloist I know (I don’t think Derek Trucks counts because he plays with a slide).

To appreciate a bit of what he does, here’s the master track of his guitar playing on the 1978 tune “Sultans of Swing.”  It really gets going five minutes in:

Interesting how he alternates between chord strumming and soloing. Normally the lead sounds too exposed when the chords stop, but somehow he (and the studio engineer) pulled it off.