The two hundred and fifty-ninth album: #259 David Ackles - American Gothic
I hadn't heard of David Ackles before, despite him being a celebrated songwriter in the community. The folk rock-inspired Americana album has some of the feeling of a Bob Dylan album, mixed in with some music hall elements where I can imagine him on the stage, a piano playing next to him. In that sense, it's a lot more optimistic and happy than folk can feel. Add to that Ackles' ability to tell a story in a song, with Midnight Carousel as much a story as a song, and it feels like an album that comes together in every sense, its focus on feelings and what it's trying to saying rather than a sound working incredibly well here.