Re: John Jacob Niles
The thing about folk revivalism, the revival’s been going on almost as long as the original. Niles retained something turn of the century, a pre-WWI consciousness, Romantic, nostalgic and academic compared to the activist folk of Guthrie et al. A number of his songs have entered the standard folkie repertoire, but I’d never actually heard him before; I don’t think his recordings were widely available in the 60s, though his name was well known, and his style still echoed in Joan Baez’s early renditions of the traditional ballads. The clip gave some impression of what a character he was. There was even a hint of his pop contemporary, Rudy Vallee, in the pre-microphone vocal approach. He seems affected to us today, and he was criticized by purists for “improving” on songs he collected, but when considered in the larger context of “folk” music made by folks who ain’t exactly folk, he seems about as authentic as the next.
|
The thing about folk revivalism, the revival’s been going on almost as long as the original. Niles retained something turn of the century, a pre-WWI consciousness, Romantic, nostalgic and academic compared to the activist folk of Guthrie et al. A number of his songs have entered the standard folkie repertoire, but I’d never actually heard him before; I don’t think his recordings were widely available in the 60s, though his name was well known, and his style still echoed in Joan Baez’s early renditions of the traditional ballads. The clip gave some impression of what a character he was. There was even a hint of his pop contemporary, Rudy Vallee, in the pre-microphone vocal approach. He seems affected to us today, and he was criticized by purists for “improving” on songs he collected, but when considered in the larger context of “folk” music made by folks who ain’t exactly folk, he seems about as authentic as the next.
- alex 9-30-2005 5:22 am