Rachel Ana Dobken Needs ‘Acceptance’
She plays drums, guitar, keyboards plus co-produces and sings her own songs in a multiplicity of sub-genres, be it punk-rock, indie-rock or instant classic-rock. Asbury Park’s Rachel Ana Dobken has finally released the Acceptance we’ve been writing about since 2023. Fresh off her invigorating performance in Maryland at the Oceans Calling Festival where she opened for Vampire Weekend and jammed out on “Linger” by The Cranberries with O.A.R. & G Love, the title Acceptance has landed, with the title tune—recorded live at The Brooklyn Bowl—already driving audiences nuts. As she says, “`Acceptance’ is probably our most ripping, show-stopping fan-favorite song. It’s about accepting the circumstances of our realities, embracing transitions and leaning into that—really, we have no choice but to ride it out and let it be, though there’s a comfort and a beauty in this. Acceptance always to what is and what will be.”
With members of Blind Melon and Preservation Hall Jazz Band on hand, its central theme is that journey of self-discovery or, again, as she says, “a combination of frustration, struggle, yearning and beauty that led me to the understanding that whatever we are searching for, whomever’s love and approval we desire, whatever we seek on our journey, all answers come from within. From accepting and loving ourselves wholly for who we are, darkness and all.”