Customer Reviews

American Gothic

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

God knows I love this record. I got interested in David Ackles after reading about him in Mark Brend's book "American Troubadours". I bought "American Gothic" without knowing what to expect. I still remember the day I first listened to it. Personally I don't have the patience to listen through a whole album the first time I put it on. That wasn't the case with this one. I was already stunned after the first song (the title track) thinking that if the rest of the album is half as good, I have bought a masterpiece. The songs only got better and better...

Although traces of soul, rock, folk, gospel, blues and country can be found througout the record, the songs go well beyond the normally accepted boundaries of "pop music". Avant-garde and classical influences pervade Ackles's elaborate arrangements, and his background in musical theatre casts its shadow over everything. But even though it's complex music it's very melodic and so indescriably beautiful. It's such a tradegy that this record is so forgotten (and his other albums for that matter).

I'd put "American Gothic" in the same league as "Pet Sounds", "Revolver" and "Astral Weeks". Get this record today and be changed forever!

One of the two brilliant albums the late David Ackles produced in the 1970s (the other being "Five & Dime" on Columbia, just released on CD in Oct 2004 by Raven), "American Gothic" offers some of the most insightful, touching, and humorous songs of the past 40 years. Love songs don't get any better than "Love's Enough" or "One Night Stand." "Waiting for the Moving Van" really captures the heartbreak of divorce. " Oh, California!" and "Blues for Billy Whitecloud" foreshadow the satire of "Surf's Down" on "Five & Dime." "American Gothic" and "Ballad of the Ship of State" are as timely today was they were during the Viet Nam War. It's a shame that "American Gothic" has not been more widely heard; it's a great shame that Mr. Ackles died of cancer on March 2, 1999.

No wonder people scratched their heads over this one back in the early '70s. Ackles' musical sources are mostly non-rock - Jacques Brel, Brecht-Weill, Aaron Copland, and Charles Ives, among others - while lyric-wise he explores the same American-grotesque territory mapped out by Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe. And it's GREAT - moving, funny, creepy, inspiring, haunting by turns. And very American in its concerns, its cranky individualism, and its insistence on plundering good ideas wherever they may be found.

Utterly wonderful. If Sinatra had only heard Love`s Enough, he would certainly have recorded it, had a huge hit, and earnt Mr Ackles some richly deserved dosh.
This man was a genius. Don`t forget him. Along with Tims Hardin & Buckley he wrote & sang songs to die for.

OK, we all know that Piano Bar Lounge Singers are at the bottom of the food chain, mostly loud, boring and untalented. Bill Murray aped them very well during his Saturday Night Live days. When I listen to American Gothic, I can picture David Ackles playing these songs in a piano bar, and finding myself completely captivated by the performances. The songs feel close and personal, almost embarrassingly so, especially little gems like "One Night Stand," and "Waiting for the Moving Van." These songs are not all hummable, nor will the melodies necessarily stay with you. It is the overall performance that cuts through any initial resistance to his style of presenting songs. He is more a showman than a folksinger.
But if you listen, and close out the outside world, he has you. I end up wanting to hear more. Montana Song is a great magnum opus for closing this album - makes me want to go revisit the farm where I grew up. This is a kind of music that doesn't fit any popular classification, but if you let it in, you will somehow feel enriched.

This is one of those albums that is destined to be a critic's favorite but not a best seller. It is distinctly American in its subject matter, but to me sounds more European in its formality. It is a classic. It has elements of blues, country, gospel, and especially classical, but is probably too varied, idiosyncratic and intelligent to be number one on the charts. Montana Song is a song that could be make made into a movie; it addresses the universal longing of finding one's roots on a farm that is now foreign to the city boy who writes about it. It's music is sophisticated, classically based and is romantic in its poetry of finding lost generations in a place removed from the present reality. "California Song" sounds to me like it should be in a musical of some sort. "Love's Enough" is one of the prettier songs you will hear about the subject of being in love. There does tend to be a theme of loneliness throughout the songs, but there is also humor and hope to bring some emotional balance. If you are one into songs that are piano based, formal, sophisticated, varied, and yet still accessible, Ackles may be your man. It certainly is a great work looking for a broader audience, and deserves the critical praise it has received over the years.

Like one of the other reviewers here, I first heard of Ackles, from reading about him in the book "American Troubadours". He was singled out as the only singer-songwriter in the book whose recorded output was consistently of the highest quality. Unfortunately, he never found a large enough audience as the foremost practicioner of what can only be called Ackles-rock. I would hope with the slough of films about obscure pop, rock or miscellaneous musicians, that have come out recently, someone will decide to tackle Ackles (this rhyme was accidental). His music and vision seem as literary as they are musical, and are satisfying as both. His music is like the little ant you see crawling on what had just a second-before been a wholesome and joyful pancake, drenched in glossy syrup. I think every song on this album is great, he seems to have quite a gift for deepening and extending a song's peak. I especially like the piano ballads which lure you in, and maybe on your second or third listen you'll realize that the shadow and lights in his world are given in equal proportion, and the lyrics have a wise and weary cynacism.

Ackle's penultimate album contains the consumate rural romance,'Montana Song', whose 10 minutes alone makes this a rewarding collection. It's not the expressive voice rising directly from its rural source. It's the urban striving to recuperate a faded vision,filtered through a city sophisticate's sensibility. Richie Unterberger, writing the liners, is right on the pulse in describing Ackle's vision as a blend of 'rock instrumentation with a Brecht-Weillian theatrical sense and dark Americana. 'Montana Song's' mini-operatic reach appropriates themes from Aaron Copeland's,'Appalachian Spring'. Despite announcing at the outset that he's found what he went looking for, we sense the narrator's desperation as he seeks ancestral connexions on a remote and ruined farm, armed only with the family bible as a guide to the C19th. Ackle's voice, in great shape throughout, hits some of its tenderest notes as this anxious journey discloses generational repudiation of the land in favour of fin de siecle city lights. A poignant roarness emerges as the grandmother, Leantha McKinnon, becomes resigned to widowhood in 1921, echoing her husband's regret when his sons departed. The narrator is soothed by his discoveries. The bible entries are made more meaningful as he moves about in the prairie breeze. No matter how close the strings and horns follow the narrative, Ackle's emoting is closer to us and a little apart, so that the music swells, rolls, clouds and clears as landscaspe in dialogue with the narrator's conscience. His shifting tonalities save the story from cinematic schmaltz: a remarkable performance that will always live for me. This is an album of considerable rear vision.'Family Band', the eerie,'Ship of Fools','Another Friday Night', 'Waiting for the Moving Van' - the varied themes of each are shaped by a profound sense of loss. The raucous,'Midnight Carousel', and the cruel lament for,'Billy Whitecloud', with its cabaret mockery, expand Ackle's take on small town American misfits. He's successfully animated the woodworms in Grant Wood's stuffy, iconic skeletons, pressed close to us on the cover.

One of a kind record. Lyrically brilliant! David Ackles' portrait of life will captivate you from the moment you begin to listen. His musical influences are from an era seldom heard in contemporary music. How refreshing!

David Ackles' music didn't sound like anything else I'd ever heard. His influences were mostly from non-rock sources which are easier to appreciate now than when I first heard the album -- music always seems headier when you can't connect it to anything you know. I listen to this album about once a year and as I've got older it makes a lot more sense. I am grateful that all Ackles' albums eventually came out on CD and I was able to get clean copies of them. I'm not sure the music will make much of an impact with younger people, but this album is worth a taste if you're looking for something to stretch your musical palate. Then hang onto it and listen to it every now and then, and see if by the time you're 50 you don't think David Acles was some kind of genius.