David Ackles- any fans?

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darquegk
#1David Ackles- any fans?
Posted: 1/17/19 at 1:08pm

Between Jacques Brel and Randy Newman, the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s who most famously blurred the lines between writing popular and writing theatrical or cabaret material, there was David Ackles, a fascinating failure who inspired Randy Newman and Elton John immensely, recorded only four (brilliant) albums, and then vanished from the industry to write mostly-unproduced musicals and teach.

I've been revisiting his "American Gothic" (complete with a Brecht-Weill inspired character study of the unhappy couple in the famous painting), and wondering about the missing pieces. When Ackles retired from recording and started writing musicals, did his songs from this album wind up in any of the shows? Some of them are hard to see as anything other than a very specific kind of show tune.

Also, a few years ago there was to be a deluxe expanded re-release of his entire discography on two stuffed discs, "There Is a River." Press copies were sent out, but the official release never came for undisclosed reasons. Were any of you lucky enough to get a copy of this lost album?