I Wonder as I Wander: The Life of John Jacob Niles (review)

In this first full-length biography of John Jacob Niles, Ron Pen offers a sympathetic but honest account of an artist whose controversial methods, musical liminality, and “affected showmanship” have often garnered criticism and rendered him suspect as a scholar (201). Along with the carefully constructed and well-documented text, an extensive section of notes reflect the depth, duration, and thoroughness of Pen’s research. A long bibliography and a list of sound recordings also allow interested readers to develop firsthand acquaintance with Niles’s work.

Pen acknowledges the idiosyncrasies and practices that have caused some academics to dismiss Niles as a “poplorist,” but suggests that they be reconsidered within the context of Niles’s long and fascinating life. In his chronological consideration of Niles’s life and work, Pen offers insight into his complex and sometimes contradictory character, but does so without attempting to deny his shortcomings. Some interesting insights into the artist’s personality become clear. For instance, Niles—for all his onstage energy and confidence—seems to have relied heavily on a number of others, often women, to help him organize his efforts and achieve his purposes. Marion Kerby, his first performing partner, introduced Niles and his music to those who already knew her work. His employment as Doris Ullman’s photography assistant allowed him to collect music on their trips across Appalachia that later became very important to his repertoire. It was a bequest from Ullman, with whom he was also romantically involved, that allowed him the financial security to concentrate on his music without needing outside employment. Rena Lipetz Niles, who married Niles soon after Ullman’s death, ably managed her husband’s business affairs and allowed him to remain active and creative into his eighties.

The biography illuminates the ways in which Niles noticed and sought opportunities that other collectors of folk music missed, some of which were important contributions to American music. Not the least of them was his oft-noted introduction of African American and mountain music to new audiences, and the contribution of several folk-inspired songs now ingrained in the national repertoire, including “Go ’Way from my Window” and “I Wonder as I Wander.” In fact, the only opportunity Niles seems to have missed involved coal-protest music. Pen notes the irony in this, observing that Niles and Aunt Molly Jackson shared a philosophy regarding “transformation of tradition” (177). “They both,” he writes, “believed that the extension of tradition through original artifice actually demonstrated a respect for that tradition” (177). Pen makes a case to skeptics for a paradigm shift, contending that Niles crossed genre boundaries with deliberate intent because he “wanted his music to transcend categories and markets—to be accepted simply as music, not just folk music” (237). Additionally, Pen asserts that, in this respect, “the fact that a number of the most important opera stars of the time chose to perform his songs was vindication for Niles” (237). A respected musicologist himself, Pen makes a convincing case for the technical virtues of Niles’s rendering of songs—traditional and original—by offering extended analyses throughout the text, including his collaborations with poet Thomas Merton, his choral arrangements, and his attempts to write an opera.

Readers who already consider Niles “The Dean of American Balladeers” will enjoy this well-crafted, highly detailed biography. More importantly, it presents compelling reasons for a reconsideration of Niles by those who have previously dismissed him.