Well now....this was interesting in that I wanted to know how his voice sounded after the comments here.   I went to youtube and hear, I WONDER AS I WANDER....very interesting voice and it could be an aquired taste.   When singing the "R"....it can stand out too much.   Then I didn't know that he wrote this song.  I've loved and performed this song often on the harp and will do so this year too.  I listened to Joan Baez and another one sing it.  Such a beautiful song with a message of great worth.  aloha, irene

Several people asked to see the article, so here it is.

Niles was a colorful character and arguably an important American artist. It is interesting he remains controversial a half century after his death.

Niles final revision.pdf  •  88KB

Some were pretty strange looking.  He seemed to enjoy monkeying with fretting patterns on dulcimers.  I had to ignore the fretting pattern on a Nathan Hicks dulcimer he glommed onto in order to reproduce a Hicks dulcimer for our "Banjimer".  I'm not sure what the original Hicks pegs looked like either, since J.J.Niles threw some violin-family pegs in the mix.

I've seen photos of some of Niles's creations so get what you're saying, Strumelia.  

A lot of the instruments he made over his lifetime were inventive hybrids of various instruments or instrument parts (like in one case using a cello body) in varying combinations. He was a big experimenter in design.

Many also had very creative fret pattern arrangements.  I think if an instrument has a diatonic (or partially diatonic) fret pattern, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a 'dulcimer'.  

Many of his hybrid instruments were quite showy, clearly intended to impress. Certainly JJNiles was well known for making 'grand flourishes'-  in his concert music performances, in his writings, his luthier output, even in the multitude of composed (and posed) photos taken of him. He was a unique person.

@Banjimer Greg, I think I can only take JJNiles's singing in homeopathic doses.  :) Yet would like to hear, on a good recording, how he used plucked zithers. 

Try Googling "John Jacob Niles You-Tube".  There are a few selections from his recordings available there.  Be forewarned.  His singing will need to be listened to in small doses.  It's not for everybody.  

I sampled three or four of his songs and didn't hear much dulcimer playing.  Although the dulcimer may have not recorded well considering the emphasis was on his voice.

Personally, I couldn't take his singing, so there may be some dulcimer playing buried in the available recordings.  Good luck if you intend to listen to the recordings all the way through.  

I'm interested in hearing plucked dulcimers used in various contexts.  And know Niles made some wild instruments. . . I'm up for hearing some wild.  :)

The Grumpy Old Men got a private showing of Niles' instruments last spring during our Gathering in Berea, when we took a road-trip to Lexington.  Dr. Revell Carr, director of the John Jacob Niles Galley and the Center for American Music, and his staff, graciously removed all those instruments and more from their display cases so that we had a room full of dulcimers to fondle and measure.  Yes Niles played the "dulcimer" but many of his instruments were larger than a dreadnaught guitar body and carried as many as 10 or 12 strings!!

Folks who attend the second First Annual Berea Traditional Dulcimer Gathering, May 16-19, 2019, may also have an opportunity to visit the Gallery and Center and see those instruments.

Robin, virtually all John Jacob Niles's recordings have his dulcimer-playing on them. He used his dulcimers strictly for song accompaniment. They were huge, low-tuned instruments and he played rhythmically free arpeggios, strumming across the strings with either his thumb or fingers.

After starting this discussion, I followed up on the suggestions, writing Ron Pen, visiting him and Niles's instruments at the University of Kentucky, meeting and spending a day with Jan Potts touring the area, and writing a piece about Niles and his dulcimers for The Dulcimer Players News. It was published a couple of summers ago. Unfortunately the version which made it to print had some errors. If anyone would like to see the corrected version, drop me a line.

Robin, I'll need to pull that CD out and look it over.. it's been quite a few years now since i wrote that review.  I can do this tomorrow around midday.   :)

@Strumelia Was there much play of Niles's dulcimers on the cd you reviewed some years back? 

Thanks, Dan, I plan to do that.

...and then you could always write a letter to Ron. He would be an incredibly informative "Pen" pal!! lol

ron.pen  (at)  uky.edu

Well, thank you kindly, Jan.

Well, if you have a free weekend, come on!  You can sleep on my couch!

Thank you all for your replies. I may need to go visit Dr Pen. "Santa Claus wearing flip flops," eh? Sounds like a long-lost cousin. Lexington is a little off the beaten track for me, nowhere close to Fuji Machi, Nishi Tokyo, but I've made similar journeys in the past. 

And no matter what time of year you visit Ron, it will be like meeting Santa Claus wearing flip flops!

Never pass up an opportunity to jam with him--it's quite an experience!

Jan

You could always plan a trip to University of Kentucky and visit Ron. He has many of the instruments there and a boat load of stories about JJ!

I wrote a review of a JJNiles reissue cd for the Oldtime Herald magazine a few years ago (they paid reviewers the princely sum of $20).  I did a lot of reading before I wrote the review, because I wanted to be fair and not listen to his music out of context.  It was an interesting adventure. 

JJNiles is an acquired taste, I think. ;) 

The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles only contains a single mention of both dulcimers and the Ritchie family, according to a quick check of the index.  

I have long been something of a Niles fan, although I realize he is not to everyone's taste. I recently read "I Wonder As I Wander," a biography of him by Ron Pen and there was some interesting information about how he came to use dulcimer for accompaniment, including his encounter with the Richie family when Jean was a child. But there wasn't much specific about his instruments, technique, or tuning.  Does anyone know of any articles or book chapters with details about these topics? Or have I found a new research project for myself?