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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Difficult to believe nobody has bothered to review this stunning album until now.
The sadly deceased David Ackles had a rich brown baritone with a husky frailty to it as well as a bitter strength that comes through most obviously on his `social comment` songs, a choice example or three of which are on STTC.
This is perhaps the Cinderella of Ackles` four wonderful albums - oh, if only he`d lived to make more; he died in 1999 aged 62 - and is often overlooked, due to his first LP containing such relatively well-known songs as the great Down River, and Road to Cairo (a single for Julie Driscoll 40 years ago); and his third, American Gothic, being something of a concept album, as well as being produced (a tad muddily) by Bernie Taupin.
All his albums contain a mix of Brecht/Weill-like songs, often about highly dubious members of smalltown communities (as on Candy Man and Mainline Saloon here), heartbreaking ballads (That`s No Reason to Cry) or deceptively bright, piano-led songs like the title track - which was covered with sensitivity and grace by none other than Harry Belafonte (it`s one of the bonus tracks on the CD of Ackles` last superb album Five and Dime).
What makes this arguably his most successful album - though at times the most `difficult` - is its clear, gleaming production and a certain coherence. The former is best heard on the title track (one of his very best songs, I think) which is a gorgeous paeon to getting away from the city and finding fresh air! I say `difficult` as, both musically & lyrically, songs like Mainline Saloon, Candy Man and Inmates are - well, they`re not `easy listens`. But what terrific - I use the word advisedly - stories they tell.
I`ve left Out On The Road till last. A magnificent six-minute blast of defiant wanderlust which draws DC`s most searing vocal from his guts and leaves one as drained as he must have been.
If you love Randy Newman or Nick Cave or Tom Waits or, more to the point perhaps, Jacques Brel, then you should appreciate this ever-undervalued singer-songwriter - who also played piano like a dream.
All his four albums are essential. This one`s (all too evidently!) for connoisseurs.
The sadly deceased David Ackles had a rich brown baritone with a husky frailty to it as well as a bitter strength that comes through most obviously on his `social comment` songs, a choice example or three of which are on STTC.
This is perhaps the Cinderella of Ackles` four wonderful albums - oh, if only he`d lived to make more; he died in 1999 aged 62 - and is often overlooked, due to his first LP containing such relatively well-known songs as the great Down River, and Road to Cairo (a single for Julie Driscoll 40 years ago); and his third, American Gothic, being something of a concept album, as well as being produced (a tad muddily) by Bernie Taupin.
All his albums contain a mix of Brecht/Weill-like songs, often about highly dubious members of smalltown communities (as on Candy Man and Mainline Saloon here), heartbreaking ballads (That`s No Reason to Cry) or deceptively bright, piano-led songs like the title track - which was covered with sensitivity and grace by none other than Harry Belafonte (it`s one of the bonus tracks on the CD of Ackles` last superb album Five and Dime).
What makes this arguably his most successful album - though at times the most `difficult` - is its clear, gleaming production and a certain coherence. The former is best heard on the title track (one of his very best songs, I think) which is a gorgeous paeon to getting away from the city and finding fresh air! I say `difficult` as, both musically & lyrically, songs like Mainline Saloon, Candy Man and Inmates are - well, they`re not `easy listens`. But what terrific - I use the word advisedly - stories they tell.
I`ve left Out On The Road till last. A magnificent six-minute blast of defiant wanderlust which draws DC`s most searing vocal from his guts and leaves one as drained as he must have been.
If you love Randy Newman or Nick Cave or Tom Waits or, more to the point perhaps, Jacques Brel, then you should appreciate this ever-undervalued singer-songwriter - who also played piano like a dream.
All his four albums are essential. This one`s (all too evidently!) for connoisseurs.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
I bought this on vinyl when it came out and I was a student. Still got it, but the technology has moved on and I have nothing to play it on, so I downloaded it. Piano playing, singer-songwriter with melodic lines and a way with words. Original ideas behind the songs. At times tender, grand, sad, disturbing. Each track seems to create a back story and they seep into your your mind at unexpected times.
It's sad that David Ackles was and stayed relatively unknown, but then some quality, distinctive artists never do connect with the mass public.
It's sad that David Ackles was and stayed relatively unknown, but then some quality, distinctive artists never do connect with the mass public.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
David Ackles' second album pretty much defines "sophomore slump." Though it features some exceptional songs, and Ackles continues here to refine his Jim Thompsonesque ability to inhabit the lives of characters ranging from the down-and-out (the title track) to the outright creepy ("Candy Man"), overall "Subway to the Country" just doesn't click the way his debut LP and his third - the epic "American Gothic" - do. But only in comparison with his other records does this one fall a little short - he left us with such a small body of work, and everything David Ackles did is well worth hearing.
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