RARE 1952 SIGNED John Jacob Niles AMERICAN FOLK LOVE SONGS Praised by Bob Dylan
$
77
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Description
Recorded in Niles' home studio in 1952, this is the first (and only, I believe) rare printing of his "American Folk Love Songs to Dulcimer Accompaniment."
The album cover is signed in thick white ink by Niles and dated 1960. There is some sort of inscription above his signature that has faded away over time.
The album is 10" mono. The album cover shows some light sun fading and small openings at the creases. I do not own a turntable and cannot comment on the condition of the LP but I do not see any major scratches.
"Niles (1892-1980) was nontraditional, but he sang traditional songs. A Mephistophelean character out of [Kentucky]...,he hammered away at some harp-like instrument and sang in a bone chilling soprano voice. Niles was eerie and illogical, terrifically intense and gave you goosebumps. Definitely a switched-on character, almost like a sorcerer. Niles was otherworldly and his voiced raged with strange incantations.”
~Bob Dylan, Chronicles I
"Over coffee and liqeurs we would sometimes listen to John Jacob Niles [who sang in] a clear, high-pitched voice with a quaver and modality all his own. The metallic clang of his dulcimer never failed to produce ecstasy…. Like a psalmist, he intoned his verses in an ethereal chant which the angels carried aloft to the glory seat. When he sang of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph they became living presences.”
~Henry Miller, Nexus
"In the 1950s, while audio recording was still an astronomically expensive art, limited to the laboratory-like environment of the professional studio, a few forward-thinking artists began to experiment with the idea of home recording. Sun Ra in Chicago and Les Paul in New York made history away from the studios. And deep in Appalachia, folk singer John Jacob Niles recorded a series of EPs in the place where he was most comfortable singing— his living room. Niles's decision may have seemed strange to people around him; he was internationally known, had released music on RCA Victor, played Carnegie Hall, toured extensively in the US and been to England. But to Niles, it must have been a natural choice, as his life was a direct product of the things he made—he built his own dulcimers, farmed his land, carved the big doors at his Boot Hill farm. Niles then went one step further, and started his own label, Boone-Tolliver, literally a mom-and-pop affair (his wife Rena was in charge of mail order). The label released two EPs: John Jacob Niles: American Folk Love Songs and Ballads by Niles, before larger folk labels, like Tradition, came calling. While an independent, artist-owned label in the 1950s proved too difficult for Niles to run, by shying away from the studio and surrounding himself by family and friends, he succeeded in producing some of the best recordings of his career."
Called the "Dean of American Balladeers," Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Odetta, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Bob Dylan, among others, recorded his songs.
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