Criminally underrated is probably an overused term but I’m going to use it anyway to describe one of the greatest singer songwriters I have ever heard, David Ackles.
Born in 1937 in Rock Island, Illinois, my first encounter with him was in Crouch End music library in North London, a place I once visited frequently to stock up my itunes. Every time I went there this interesting reddish-brown sleeve with an indistinct figure seen through a broken window, simply titled ‘David Ackles’, looked back at me. I used to leave with jazz and folk but never ‘David Ackles’.
One day I’d rented all the Fairport and Sun-Ra they had, so I finally took a chance on ‘David Ackles’. When I got home and listened to it, it was like I was playing the perfect music – the opening track ‘The Road to Cairo’ with it’s slow swinging rhythm and that late 60s deep clicking bass line sound was so evocative. By the time I got to ‘Blue Ribbons’ and then ‘Down River’ with it’s out-of-tune bar room piano part, I was having a musical epiphany! His voice was so rich and dramatic and at other times understated.
That experience immediately caused me to buy the other 3 albums of the 4 he recorded between 1968 -73, Subway to the Country (1970) American Gothic (1972) and Five and Dime (1973). Of these three American Gothic was probably his most acclaimed, recorded in England and produced by Elton John co-writer Bernie Taupin, it was described as ‘The Sgt. Peppers of Folk’ by The Sunday Times when it was released. It contains tender ballads and social comment delivered with Jacques Brel/Kurt Weill undertones that give a hint of his background in musical theatre.

In all his work he has a unique ability to perfectly represent the lost, the lonely, the disaffected, the disconnected and the broken-hearted, even though he was a happily married, family man for nearly 30 years. When I heard the lyrics ‘I’ve been loved, so I know I’m alive’ from ‘I’ve Been Loved’ the second track on ‘Five and Dime’, the hair stood up on my arms and the tears stung the corner of my eyes, especially as I was watching my own mother descend into Alzheimers seemingly living out her days with no purpose, having lost my Dad.

He is sometimes described as ‘an artist’s artist’ and he can count Elvis Costello and Elton John among his most vociferous supporters also Phil Collins included ‘Down River’ in his Desert Island Discs. I would also cite him as a major influence.
David Ackles succumbed to cancer in 1999 and while we are all just men and women in physical form he is someone I truly wish I had met.
Introduce yourself to his music…