| David Ackles
Recordings
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| David
performed on four albums in the late 60s and early 70s, of which the
first three, on Elektra, were released on CD in 1994, then re-released
in 2000. The fourth, on Columbia, had never been re-issued until a
release by Raven Records, the Australian record label, in 2004. The
Elektra CDs may be difficult to obtain, so second hand shops and
suppliers on the Internet may be your only hope if you wish to complete
your collection. (See Record
Sellers/Values.) I have placed a hyperlink beside each of the album
cover pictures, where the CD is on sale from
Amazon. I do get a small commission if you use this link - enough
to buy perhaps one CD a year, if I'm lucky! His last album was reissued
by Raven Records website, although the last time I checked, they
no longer existed. When you hover your mouse over the "View details" link, full track listings and production information on each album will appear. |
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| Original Studio Recordings - listed in order of release | |||||
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David Ackles a.k.a. The Road to Cairo 1968
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Subway to the Country 1970
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American Gothic 1972
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Five & Dime 1973
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There is a River 2008 - never officially released
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Oh, and there's this: My Name is David (Best of 1968-1973) I'd never heard of it or seen any copies going around, until I spotted the album cover on FaceBook recently. I'm guessing that it's a cash-in compillation from Elektra, released after David moved to Columbia. |
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The Future: Since the release of his albums and
the termination of a recording contract, David wrote and recorded a
number of songs. Prior to his death, David told Mark Brend that he had
started working on these, amending parts of them and adding backing
musicians. I had understood that it was the intention of David's family
and friends to continue with this task, with a view to releasing a
double album that would contain a "Best of" section and a "new
material" section (with songs like the ones that would have been on There
Is a River). However, that was a long process, being done by people
with busy lives, health issues and time-occupying jobs, so it has never
yet reached completion. Further details will appear on this website, if
available, and more information appears in Mark Brend's book, Down River. |
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Singles: Apart from Down River/La Route á Chicago the only other singles that may be available are demos for issue to radio stations. You may be fortunate in finding one with a different version of the songs from that on the albums, recorded specially to satisfy "airtime" regulations. For example, I have copies of Love's Enough/American Gothic on Elektra 45797 and The Road to Cairo/Be My Friend. Beware: every seller on EBay will tell you that their copy of a single is "rare", but wait around long enough and a cheaper one will appear. Regularly, EBay also has for sale the "free" single that accompanied Subway to the Country. Ideally this should only accompany the original album it was given away with. |
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Samplers & Compilations: Down River appeared on the 1971 Elektra sampler Garden of Delights (ESP9001). In addition, Down River, Ballad of the Ship of State and Laissez Faire are on the Elektra anthology, Forever Changing: the Golden Age of Elektra, 1963-73 (Normal and deluxe editions). So long as your French is good, La Route á Chicago is on Great Lost Elektra Singles, Volume 1. I found Sonny Come Home on Cult 60s Singers/Songwriters, available as a download, while the opening track of its follow-up, Cult 70s Singers/Songwriters is American Gothic. Strangely, Sonny Come Hone also has found its way onto Acid Folk and also 60s West Coat Folk & Rock. His Name is Andrew is on a compilation with the name Songs About Boys. In amongst the 97 tracks to download on This Is The 60s, you can retreive The Road to Cairo, which is also on The Beat Goes On, while Classic Singer Songwriters of the 1960s contains Blue Ribbons.. That's No Reason to Cry found its way onto Folk & Blues: 60s Roots of Electra.And probably for no other reason than it's in the title, Oh, California is on the compilation Back to California: Ladies and Gentlemen of the L.A. Canyons. |
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Written by David Ackles, performed by: Brian
Auger & the Trinity (Road to Cairo), Harry Belafonte (Subway
to the Country), Jaime Brockett (Down River), Martin Carthy (His
Name is Andrew), Barry Dransfield (Be My Friend), The
Hollies (Down River), Howard Jones (Road to Cairo), Ricky
Koole (Love's Enough), Kaksi Puolta (Tie Karoon, Finnish version
of Road to Cairo), Steve Ross (Subway to the Country),
Spooky Tooth (Down River), Stacy Sullivan (Your Face, Your
Smile), Linda Thomson (Down River), Alan Trajan (Down
River), Louisa Jane White (Blue Ribbons). And, of course,
there's the Elvis Costello/Elton John duet of Down River on the
interview show Spectacle.
It's worth playing the game on Amazon, Spotify or Apple Music by asking
it to play tracks with a specific title. While you may also get
different songs with the same title, you'll often get songs by people
you've never heard of performing David's music. |
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