John Jacob Niles (April 28, 1892 – March 1, 1980) was an American composer, singer and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers,"[1] Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Odetta, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan, among others, recording his songs.
Biography
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Niles learned music theory from his mother, and began writing down folk music as a teenager. He became a serious student of Appalachian folk music by transcribing traditional songs from oral sources while an itinerant employee of the Burroughs Corporation in eastern Kentucky, from 1910 to 1917. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I, in which he was injured, he studied music in France, first in Lyon, then in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, also meeting Gertrude Stein. Returning to the United States in 1920, he continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music working there with Ralph Lyford.[2] He sang opera in Chicago and folk songs on early radio. In 1925, he moved to New York City and held various jobs in the entertainment industry. In the 1930s, he toured Europe and the United States with contralto Marion Kerby. He performed at the White House in 1938, and on occasion at the Newport Folk Festival during the 1950s.
Lt. John Jacob Niles
In the 1920s, Niles began publishing music. He made four extended trips into the southern Appalachians as an assistant to photographer Doris Ulmann, again transcribing traditional songs from oral sources, including the ballads "Pretty Polly", "Barbara Allen", and "He's Goin' Away". On other occasions, he transcribed songs he heard sung by African Americans and by fellow soldiers in World War I.
Niles was also a noted songwriter. His songs, many based on traditional sources, include "Venezuela," and the haunting Christmas song "I Wonder As I Wander." Henry Miller's Plexus includes a powerful tribute to Niles's recording of this song. Niles composed "Go 'Way From My Window" when he was just 16 years old, but did not perform it until 1930. Marlene Dietrich recorded it and sang it on stage. Bob Dylan quoted its first line in his song "It Ain't Me Babe." His original new melody to the traditional folk song "Black Is the Color (Of My True Love's Hair)" was similarly influential in the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Later in life, Niles published compositions in a more classical style, including works for choir and art songs for voice and piano. The latter include the Niles-Merton Songs, a collection of 22 art songs setting the poetry of Thomas Merton.
From 1938 he recorded a number of his compositions and transcribed songs, performing the material in an intense, dramatic manner. He employed a trademark very high falsetto vocal range that he described as the "electrifying effect of the male C# alto," and accompanied himself on his own self-constructed Appalachian dulcimers, which are instruments traditional to the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1936, he married Rena Lipetz. They settled on the Boot Hill farm in Clark County, Kentucky, with two sons, Thomas Michael Tolliver and John Edward, where they spent the rest of their lives.
Niles died in Lexington, Kentucky on March 1, 1980, at age 87. He is buried at the nearby St. Hubert's Episcopal Church in Clark County, KY. The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky displays a number of traditional instruments he handcrafted.[3]
