For many years David Ackles was a name I would occasionally hear whispered reverently by music aficionados but whose actual music I never seemed to come across. Others from broadly the same time period and singer-songwriter oeuvre such as David Blue, Fred Neil, Tom Rush and the two Tims (Hardin and Buckley) would crop up fairly regularly on compilation tapes sent by friends, but never any Ackles. Why not? It’s a question that author and musician Mark Brend seeks in part to answer in his newly published book ‘Down River: In Search of David Ackles’ whilst simultaneously providing an in-depth exploration of Ackles’ life and recording career.
A devout fan since stumbling on a copy of Ackles’ 1968 debut ‘Down River’ LP in a second hand record shop whilst in his twenties back in 1985, Brend has previously championed the obscure American singer-songwriter in magazine articles. With this book he has built significantly on those foundations to deliver something that, whilst certainly standing strongly within the myriad ranks of other music biographies, nevertheless also steps sideways outside the pack. There is an inevitability about this, for just as Ackles’ records struggled to be neatly slotted into one easily marketable genre, so his story refuses to conform to the expected Rock norms. There are no great conflicts to explore here, no real grapplings with demons nor scandalous liaisons. No mental health trauma or addiction issues overcome. Instead there is decency, respectability, quiet faith and hard work, related in a sympathetic voice.
Each of Ackles’ four albums released between 1968 and 1973 is dealt with in detail and Brend outlines the writing processes, recording sessions and the individual songs with a well balanced blend of technical objectivity and subjective opinion. The book is well researched and includes detailed notes and appendices with transcripts/descriptions of various unreleased tapes which will, no doubt, please the most dedicated of fans. It is interesting that measured objectivity is to the fore in Brend’s writing, for it perhaps partially explains why Ackles’ music remains as relatively obscure as it does. He is very much a musician’s musician, after all. A writer’s writer. It is telling, I think, that in spite of the likes of Phil Collins, Elton John, Bernie Taupin (who produced what is arguably Ackles’ masterpiece, 1972’s ‘American Gothic’ LP) and Elvis Costello vocally lauding Ackles’ work, their support seems to have had negligible impact. It seems like those who knew already knew, and most of them were musicians and songwriters themselves anyway.
Will this book then raise the profile of David Ackles where the support of Pop/Rock stars failed? I certainly hope so, for the records most assuredly deserve a wider audience. Sadly, however, I suspect that it will not. This is not the fault of Ackles’ story nor of Mark Brend’s telling of it, but a rather a reflection of what is valued in our current cultural climate (and arguably has been since the onset of the age of Pop Culture). There is little that panders to the lowest common denominator in Ackles’ songs and instead there is a quiet belief in the intelligence of his audience. The songs are literary. Theatrical. Full of inventive narrative, character and situational studies as opposed to the ‘confessional’. The songs might be sung in the first person, but they are not about the singer. As with his life, the message seems to be that there are more valuable and important things than the individual and it is hard to think of anything more out of kilter with the prevailing winds, then or now.
Hard to think too of any greater reason for investigating both Ackle’s work and Brend’s book.
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Alistair Fitchett
‘Down River: In Search of David Ackles’ by Mark Brend is published on August 1st 2025 by Jawbone Press.
http://jawbonepress.com/down-river/
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