An Evening With John Jacob Niles

Listening to John Jacob Niles can radically change your ideas of what American folk music can be. This Kentucky-born artist’s elegant yet emotionally intense vocal style had little in common with that of Woody Guthrie and similarly rough-hewn balladeers. During his exceptionally long and fruitful career, he both rescued traditional songs from obscurity and reworked others into strikingly original tunes. An Evening With John Jacob Niles offers an eclectic sampling of the carols, English ballads and African-American spirituals that made up his concert repertoire. Nativity tunes like “The Seven Joys of Mary” contrast with gambling ballads like “Jock o’ Diamonds.” What unites these selections is Niles’ uncanny high-tenor singing, invoking both Appalachian traditions and still more ancient European modes. He conveys the whimsy of “The Frog In the Spring” and the pathos of “You Got to Cross That Lonesome Valley” with equal authority. In Niles’ hands, these timeless songs seem both homespun and divinely given, treasures from a long-lost world. An Evening With John Jacob Niles is a truly transporting experience.