Sure to be a popular thread: anyone want to talk about John Jacob Niles?

holy shit guys

this stuff is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpaAeqBhwrM

haha well i guess i was dead on with the title then

if i keep bumping this someone will eventually care? maybe?

probably not

oh, i didn't see this the first time around. I love John Jacob Niles!

yeah i had no idea that he wrote "I Wonder As I Wander", which has to be one of the weirdest fucking christmas songs ever.

somehow i thought you might be on board ian!

This dude is amazing. I don't know what percentage I have of his stuff (1 cd and the "Folk Balladeer" LP), but it's just so brilliant and strange.

not much to contribute here, but love, love this dude.

oh yeah I could talk about this dude all day

not right now but I'll get back to ya

i love this guy

maybe what we need is some kind of general american folk revival thread
there's a lot of people I would like to discuss

tadah!

General american folk revival thread

I have a note in my phone that just says "John jacob niles". Dunno why or when I wrote it. Must have heard his music out at a store or on tv or was he in the Dylan documentary? I watched part of that over new years. I'll do a lil checking him out now.

o hey, just watched that clip upthread and it's from the dylan doc. awes. he sorta reminds me of jimmy scott

to state the obvious, Go Away From My Window was the springboard for It Ain't Me Babe

yeah he was in the dylan doc, some talk about him here

Who Is Watching (Anticipating) The Scorsese/Dylan Epic On Monday?

listening to this on spotify.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/john-jacob-niles/sings-folk-songs/american-folk-childrens/music/album/smithsonian

i have my precarious life in the public domain on cd; that came out after the scorsese doc and says as much in the copy on the back cover.

this music is scaring me right now, spooky

what's funny is he was kind of hated by the folk music cognoscenti of his time - he was considered a braying showman who rewrote folk tunes, or even worse took credit for writing them

those niles clips in the dylan doc were taken from a TV special called folk sound, USA. would love to see that entire show. niles does "wonder as I wander" and "go 'way from my window", and it has this stuff, too:

Joan Baez sings "Virgin Mary"; Casey Anderson sings "Muleskinner Blues"; the Tom Scott Singers sing a medley of traditional American songs; Cisco Houston sing "Hard Travelin'"; Peter Yarrow sings "Wally, Wally"; John Jacob Niles sings "I Wonder As I Wander" and "Go 'way From My Window"; John McCurry narrates Weldon Johnson's "Go Down Death"; Baez sings "Joys of Love"; Frank Warner sings "Blue Mountain" and "Peanuts"; blues singer-guitarist John Lee Hooker sings "Tupelo Blues"; Mildred Anderson sings "Hello, Little Boy"; Hooker sings "Maudie"; Mildred Anderson sings "Don't Deceive Me"; Yarrow sings "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?"; and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys sing "Salty Dog Blues," "Earl's Breakdown," and "Before I Met You."

http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=folk+sound&p=1&item=T84:0155

what's funny is he was kind of hated by the folk music cognoscenti of his time - he was considered a braying showman who rewrote folk tunes, or even worse took credit for writing them

― son of telegram sam (Edward III), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 2:09 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's definitely not like something that would seem like it would have gone over well w/that crowd, so weird and theatrical...he reminds me of klaus nomi kinda

he reminds me of the scary preacher from poltergeist ii

legend has it during live performances he'd be acting out parts and rolling around on the floor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpaAeqBhwrM

also, lol

John Niles 3 years ago

to all of you who have or who will watch the clips of my father John Jacob Niles please be assured that he was my BIOLOGICAL father. His high voice does not in any way indicate that he was "missing anything." Trust me, everthing was there.

John Edward Niles
Silver Spring, Md.

my favorite part of that clip is the norms standing there while niles blasts his phantom falsetto in their faces, how many stifled the urge to flee

yeah i find this dude kind of terrifying. in a good way! mostly.
and lollll at his son on youtube.

xxpost ppl used to assume the same thing about Alfred Deller.

(Who JJN kind of reminds me of a more batshit version of)

yeah this is the guy from poltergeist ii he reminds me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qomzZ8Fm-oA

In the clip on the Dylan docu, he is playing some kind of lap slide lute or something?

appalachian dulcimer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_dulcimer