Beschreibung:
Ron Pen, associate professor of music and director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music and the Appalachian Studies Program at the University of Kentucky, is the editor of The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles and of Jean Ritchie's Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians.
Louisville native John Jacob Niles (1892--1980) is considered to be one of our nation's most influential musicians. As a composer and balladeer, Niles drew inspiration from the deep well of traditional Appalachian and African American folk songs. At the age of sixteen Niles wrote one of his most enduring tunes, "Go 'Way from My Window," basing it on a song fragment from a black farm worker. This iconic song has been performed by folk artists ever since and may even have inspired the opening line of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe."