I Wonder as I Wander: The Life of John Jacob Niles

Chapter 13. Consolidation of a Life in Music

13 Consolidation of a Life in Music By the mid-1950s the white-haired Niles, at the retirement age of sixtyfive , was characterized as the “dean of American balladeers.” His collecting days were long past, his concert schedule had slowed somewhat, and he was regarded by a younger audience as something of a curiosity with his high voice and dramatic articulation. At this point Niles began to consolidate his life’s work in recordings with Tradition, Disc/Folkways, and Boone Tolliver and in publication of The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles and The Songs of John Jacob Niles. Post–Red Seal Recordings Although RCA declined to make any new recordings, the firm did elect to reissue a number of them in the new 33⅓ rpm format as both long-play and extended-play albums. Unfortunately, RCA expended little time or money on the production—the old recordings were simply “enhanced” electronically, and the packaging was generic and rudimentary, devoid of program notes, photos, or biographical material on the sleeve or inserts. After the prestige of being a Red Seal artist, it must have been difficult for Niles to see his music released in this string of low-budget offerings, which included John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk and Gambling Songs, Six Favorite Folk Songs, Folk Songs of Christmas, Folk Songs of Christmas Volume II, and John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs. When Niles’s final Camden release, the 50th Anniversary Album, was issued in No- 246 I Wonder as I Wander vember 1956, it marked both fifty years of his performance career and the culmination of his first recording period—eighteen years as a Red Seal and RCA Victor artist. However, the album was really only a “spring cleaning” collection of material from the vault that had been recorded in 1939–1940, with the addition of nine selections that had not been previously released on the earlier 78 rpm discs. Back in the 1940s, when RCA declined to make any additional original recordings, Niles chose to record with Moses Asch, on a new label that seemed more supportive of his role as a folk artist. There was a certain cachet in being the lone folk artist on the Red Seal label, but on Asch’s Disc label, he was embraced as part of “the folkways of the world on records ,” along with artists associated with the early urban folk revival, such as Richard Dyer-Bennet, Woody Guthrie, and Leadbelly.1 All three of Niles’s albums for Disc, recorded in 1946, were released in 1947. His John Jacob Niles—Early American Folk Carols and John Jacob Niles Vol. 2—American Ballads and Folk Songs were both issued as albums with three ten-inch discs, while John Jacob Niles—Child Ballads was released as an album containing two twelve-inch discs. A review of the 1947 release of Early American Folk Carols lauded Niles’s knowledge but avoided any discussion of his characteristic performance style: “Mr. Niles is perhaps the greatest American authority on folk songs, and has spent many years collecting, codifying, singing, and recording these curiously interesting and musically unique expressions of the people from many lands, particularly those of England and the United States.”2 Time briefly praised it as the “most beautiful of this year’s Christmas albums. Nativity music sung simply and sweetly to a dulcimer by the dean of American balladeers.” In this off-handed way, Time created the sobriquet “dean of American balladeers,” which followed Niles for the remainder of his career.3 Unfortunately, Asch was more visionary than pragmatic, and the Disc label folded one year later in 1948. Suddenly Niles was bereft of a label again, so John Jacob and Rena decided to control the recording business themselves. Four years later they established Boone Tolliver Recordings to record and distribute Niles’s music. Niles recorded four sessions at Boot Hill Farm on February 5, 7, 11, and 12, 1952. The acoustics in the large stone room were resonant but clean, and Dr. A. E. Clark of Consolidation of a Life in Music 247 Electronic-Recording Studio in Lexington was able to get a master with which RCA was pleased. According to Rena Niles, “The recording was done under the most favorable conditions. Although every session was followed by great fatigue, every one enjoyed it greatly. It seemed that the tape of [the ballad] “Earl Brand” was the most...