Dire Straits is one of the best concerts that I've ever seen. Knopfler is a great guitar player and the entire band was extremely tight. A great, great show! As for his solo work, from what I've heard, the CD Sailing To Philadelphia is a great disk. I just love it. But I haven't enjoyed his other solo disks. The songs tend to be a little too mellow and monotone.

Monotone vocals can work for some groups if the songs are written appropriately for the vocals. Michael Stipe with REM and Brad Roberts with Crash Test Dummies are two that immediately come to mind.

As for bands I like with vocalists that I don't, I don't expect anyone here to know this band, but I recently bought a CD by a band called The Quiet Room. The music is some kick-ass prog metal, but the vocals make my ears hurt. No CMVs, all clean, just an annoyingly screechy voice IMO.

Generally, if I don't like the vocalist I won't listen to a band. The vocals play too big a role. The one exception to this might be Opeth. You can't understand what Akerfeldt is singing anyway (when he's growling) so it stops being vocals and just becomes another instrument to me at that point.