American Gothic - David Ackles : Electra.

Reviewed by Redmer Yska

David Ackles' first record in two years has been well worth waiting for. A cycle of twelve songs drawing on a wide variety of musical styles, it achieves a coherent unity comparable only to the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper. Ackles' rediscovery of himself through his contemplation of vanishing America is the theme of the record.

Billy Whitecloud is typical of Ackles strangely droll humour. It is a song about an Indian brave who grows up to bomb his high school: When we found him, he was dancing on his tom-tom. The arrangement is a boogie-woogie blues that is almost straight Jolson.

Aaron Copeland the well-known American composer, seems to be the influence on Montana Song, a ten minute 'symphonic poem' — the major work on the album. It deals with a man returning to the land of his ancestors to learn about himself and his heritage.

Drawing together the many images on this record, Ackles is showing us the face of America. I see Montana Song as the whole album in miniature in terms of what he is trying to say. Ackles contrasts the paucity and superficiality of the contemporary experience with the solid foundations that existed: the good if austere life his pioneer forefathers lived and believed in Ackles' realisation and revelation is achieved:

I went out to Montana
With a bible on my arm
Looking for my fathers
On a long abandoned farm
And I found what I came looking for.

Bernie Toupin was the producer and Ackles himself is responsible for the flawless arrangements. This is an impressive and original record that deserves a wide audience.

Boomer's Story - Ry Cooder: Reprise Willis Alan Ramsay — Willis Ramsay: Shelter Records.

Reviewed by Stephen Matthews

For all you country music freaks — another album from session man Ry Cooder and a first release from Shelter Records' new protege, Willis Alan Ramsay. Both these musicians sacrifice innovation for purity and therefore their style tends to be a little more traditional than the many American rock groups getting into country music.

Cooder's strength lies in his impeccable guitar and mandolin picking, and the songs, many of which are dull and boring, are really only vehicles for his excellent instrumental work. His voice is weak (apparently Sleepy John Estes sings one of his own compositions on the album, in fact the whole LP lacks the guts and variety of 'Into the Purple Valley'.

In contrast, Willis Alan Ramsay's album is packed with interesting, if not predictable compositions (eg. 'Boy from Oklahoma' — the token tribute to Woody Guthrie) and easy backing from Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, and assorted Area Code 615 musicians. The impression is that of a confident, almost smug kid who musically knows exactly what he wants, even if a lot of it has been done before. My only fear is that he will suffer the fate of other Shelter recording artists who have faded into the background to become yet more of Leon Russells 'friends'.

Quite the reverse has happened to Ry Cooder who, at this stage, is more effective as a session man.

"The Academy in Peril" by John Cale. RS 2079.

Reviewed by P.F. O'Dea

Charlie Burton, writing in Rolling Stone about the Stooges' second album, "Funhouse", asked : "You. Out there. What are you doing? Do you long to have your mind blown so wide open that it will take weeks for you to pick up the little, bitty pieces? Do you yearn for the oh mind? Do you ache to feel all right"?

John Cale (no relation to J.J.), a member of the now-defunct Velvet Underground and the producer of the first Stooges album, has his own album out in this country now, a worthy successor to his "Vintage Violence". If you are interested it answers that question.