It’s Music Appreciation Time (Vol. 1)
Hey hipsters everywhere, listen up!
The music you’re listening to today was inspired by other people other than The Cure and The Smiths, trust me.
I watched a documentary about Bob Dylan and this John Jacob Niles character stuck out to me.
Niles was a collector of folk songs. To the children of the 21st century it’s easy for this to sound like a glorified bar gig where covers are the only thing played, but this was the early 1900s. There were no mp3 players, no streaming music, no way to really spread music to the people. The only real means of redistribution of music was through collecting these folk songs from the last generations and singing them. Folk music was nothing more than a story and a pain about the people who were singing it and Niles went on to be a curator of these things.
As a weapon of choice Niles wielded an Appalachian dulcimer. That instrument paired with his unique voice make for a familiar yet hauntingly foreign sound.
Read for yourself here and here.
Notes
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