John Jacob Niles
Tim Herrick
Newsletter!
We are thrilled to announce the long-awaited CD release of "I WONDER
AS I WANDER ~ CAROLS AND LOVE SONGS" by John Jacob Niles. This
legendary 1957 Tradition recording has been digitally remastered and
will be available on CD for the first time January 10, 2006. Includes
folk classics Go 'way From My Window, Black is the Color of my True
Love's Hair, Venezuela, I Wonder As I Wander, and many others, plus
original linear notes by JJN and cover photo by Liam Clancy. On Sale
Now! http://www.JohnJacobNiles.com/wonder
We would also like to invite you to visit the new JJN forum. Join the
forum today for your chance to win a copy of I WONDER AS I WANDER!
http://forum.JohnJacobNiles.com
We will have more exciting JJN-related news for you soon. Until then,
here's wishing you a happy, healthy and music-filled New Year!
Scott Whitman
Webmaster
Tim Herrick
>AS I WANDER ~ CAROLS AND LOVE SONGS" by John Jacob Niles. This
>legendary 1957 Tradition recording has been digitally remastered and
>will be available on CD for the first time January 10, 2006. Includes
>folk classics Go 'way From My Window, Black is the Color of my True
>Love's Hair, Venezuela, I Wonder As I Wander, and many others, plus
>original linear notes by JJN and cover photo by Liam Clancy. On Sale
(http://www.JohnJacobNiles.com/wonder)
Hey, I am quite excited about this.
But it is worth noting, RMD, the dylan newsgroup, i.e., us, can take some
credit for this. After NDH, we created the john jacob niles buzz, or help
create. That snippet was incredible, and he was like the only performer whom we
did not know about. hell, we all got some woody and joan baez and muddy waters
and gene vincent records, and all heard about bobby vee (a friend, not a
musical influence) , but who the hell was john jacob niles.
Well, we shall soon find out.
Dylan adding highlands to the setlist, sony releasing live 1975 are the
other examples of how RMD threads and such resulted in some action. This is
another example. in my humble opinion.
What have we not gotten yet? bootleg series live recording of a christian
show 79-80, dvd releases of eat the document, and of course, the holy grail.
Renaldo & Clara Gentlemen (and gentle women) start thou threads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tim Herrick
This is the freakiest music I’ve ever heard.
John Jacob Niles, the forgotten folkie who stile the NDH show.
Anyway, so over the weekend, I gets the email that finally there’s a CD
being reissued. Release date Tuesday, because as the lord has deemed, all new
records come out on Tuesdays. I had to do some work in NYC this week, Monday and
Wednesday.
So, I go to the Barnes & Noble, on Monday when I had a few minutes to kill,
go to the music section, where they have a pretty decent FOLK section of CDs.
I ask the guy, are you going to get a CD tomorrow by a guy named John Jacob
Niles. The fellow’s eyes go wide, “from No Direction Home?”
So, we relate how intense that snippet of footage was, and how we had never
heard of this guy. A conversation I had with several other folks as well. The
guy made an impression, not only cause of the bizarre style and some what
bizarre appearance, but he was such a new name. I never bought a Clancy brothers
record, but shoot, I knew of them, and of course, like, Woody, Joan Baez,
Van Ronk, you spend some time diggin Dylan and those folkies enter it into and
who the heck can escape seeger or dem weavers. The Harry Smith Anthology
seems like the end of it. But John Jacobs Niles? It’s like discovering the
Gnostic gospels.
Anyway, back to my little story. So, he looks up the CD, it is indeed coming
out, but Barnes & Nobles, which features it on its website, will not be
carrying it, only for “home delivery.”
So, twixt Tuesday and Wednesday, I begin calling some record stores. Tower—
sold out. Best Buy Sold Out. Virgin. Yes, they have some in stock. I go there.
What an awful store, well awful cause I never dug casino atmospherics. So,
it takes 20 minutes to find out that they do have it, but they can’t find it.
Finally, had to journey down the isle of manhatt to JR Music, which put it
aside for me. John Jacobs Niles is the hottest CD in New York Town. But, it
was only ten bucks. Not bad.
Why can’t it come out on Starbucks. At least those are easier to find than
record stores.
Anyway, I’m not sure this is folk music. Can’t sing along to it. It’s not
just this voice, that is both tuneful as tuneful gets, melodic, yet also
spoken, switching from high pitched falsetto, to operatic soprano like high pitched
falsetto. It’s Roy Orbinson. The dulcimer follows the voice, in a strum that
is like avante garde jazz, all over the place.
It is not linear, if that makes sense. It is Appalachian. It is like Brahms
or Bach, like choral. And, it is like weird. But haunting and eerie. It’s not
like you listen to it and say, hey I hear the roots of Dylan, like you do
with so much pre-60s folk music. It is so damn compelling. You hear it in the
spine. As I hoped, that snippet was just a clue of what he is all about.
There is this extremely surreal song called The Sea Witch, where the rhymes
are all formed by saying O, the sea witch uses the captain’s broad sword as
an oar to row to the Shore-o. The sailors were sad and filled with despair-O.
Go Away From My Window, the song he sang in NDH, which dylan copped the
opening lines for It Aint Me Babe, is really bizarre, with a spoken intro about
having written this song when he was 16. I think my favorite is the version of
Froggie went a Courtin, which has all these weird yelps. I have versions of
this song by Dylan (GAIBTY), Elvis on one of them box sets, and believe it or
not, Ronnie Hawkins. This version is the most, well, artistic. There’s also
some weird songs about Jesus. Good. But good lord, I can only think of the word
weird at this point. Other worldly. The other song that is familair is this
one I wonder as I wander. I know I’ve heard this before, but can’t remember
where.
Do I like it, no, I think I love it. But, it has to be the most FASCINATING
and UNCATERGORIZABLE. Let the renaissance begin. In fact, maybe that is where
this style may come from come to think of it.
Kurt Schroeder
From: The Bob Dylan Discussion List
[mailto:HWY...@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Herrick
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 7:54 PM
To: HWY...@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: John Jacob Niles
This is the freakiest music I've ever heard.
John Jacob Niles, the forgotten folkie who stile the NDH show. ...
=================================
Having been taken aback when I first saw NDH by the previously unknown
(to me) John Jacob Niles, I got the new CD (I Wonder As I Wander) this
morning, and just finished the first listening. It is indeed astounding
music, very odd, yet compelling. The falsetto singing, backed by an
unobtrusive dulcimer, floats through the air, but you don't forget it's
there -- it seizes your attention. If the musical DNA of Bascom Lamar
Lunsford and Burl Ives were combined and filtered through a conservatory
education, it might sound like this. As it is, it sounds like nothing
else.
(In addition, as a collector of Christmas music, I was interested to
find a few carols here, although most of the songs concern other
subjects.)
Thanks, Mr. Herrick, for alerting us to the CD's release -- I'm glad I
have it.
--Kurt
Will Dockery
Tim Herrick wrote:
> This is the freakiest music I've ever heard.
> John Jacob Niles, the forgotten folkie who stile the NDH show.
> Anyway, so over the weekend, I gets the email that finally there's a CD
> being reissued. Release date Tuesday, because as the lord has deemed, all new
> records come out on Tuesdays. I had to do some work in NYC this week, Monday and
> Wednesday.
> So, I go to the Barnes & Noble, on Monday when I had a few minutes to kill,
> go to the music section, where they have a pretty decent FOLK section of CDs.
> I ask the guy, are you going to get a CD tomorrow by a guy named John Jacob
> Niles. The fellow's eyes go wide, "from No Direction Home?"
> So, we relate how intense that snippet of footage was, and how we had never
> heard of this guy. A conversation I had with several other folks as well. The
> guy made an impression, not only cause of the bizarre style and some what
> bizarre appearance, but he was such a new name. I never bought a Clancy brothers
> record, but shoot, I knew of them, and of course, like, Woody, Joan Baez,
> Van Ronk, you spend some time diggin Dylan and those folkies enter it into and
> who the heck can escape seeger or dem weavers. The Harry Smith Anthology
> seems like the end of it. But John Jacobs Niles? It's like discovering the
> Gnostic gospels.
> Anyway, back to my little story. So, he looks up the CD, it is indeed coming
> out, but Barnes & Nobles, which features it on its website, will not be
> carrying it, only for "home delivery."
Sounds fantastic... gotta lay hands on one.
--
The Netherlands/Shadowville cross cultural exchange
project <http://www.kannibaal.nl/shadowville.htm>
Greybeard Cavalier [Dockery/0x0000/Follicle]:
<http://tinyurl.com/7r7gj>
Zuke
On Fri, 13 Jan 2006, Will Dockery wrote:
>
> Tim Herrick wrote:
>> This is the freakiest music I've ever heard.
>> John Jacob Niles, the forgotten folkie who stile the NDH show.
>> Anyway, so over the weekend, I gets the email that finally there's a CD
>> one I wonder as I wander. I know I've heard this before, but can't remember
>> where.
>> Do I like it, no, I think I love it. But, it has to be the most FASCINATING
>> and UNCATERGORIZABLE. Let the renaissance begin. In fact, maybe that is where
>> this style may come from come to think of it.
I'm guessing his style came from not being able to sing in a traditional
way, like John Fahey's instrumental style came after his first album
was vocal and he thought no more of that or Bruce Springsteen doing
that straining screaming style all of the time.