As the nation celebrates its 250th, Undermainarts.org presents the stories of selected Kentucky artists whose works have gained national recognition.
March, 2026
John Jacob Niles: The Singer, the Song, the Sound
John Jacob Niles with Dulcimer (Photo by George Kossuth)
By Ron Pen
Contributing Writer
John Jacob Niles frequently prefaced his stories with the admonition, “Never let the dull facts get in the way of a good yarn.” While he might have been a little reckless with the facts at times, the fabric of his personal story itself is woven from the pristine fabric of unimpeachable veracity. So, here is the yarn: an extravagant “Forrest Gumpian” narrative encompassing ballad collecting in the Appalachian Mountains; flying biplanes in World War I; accompanying noted photographer Doris Ulmann on numerous expeditions; performing in the world’s most celebrated concert halls; reading his poetry in Gertrude Stein’s Parisian salon; composing operas as a regular patron at the famed Algonquin Round Table; creating and arranging nearly 1,000 songs; making pioneering radio broadcasts and recording on Victor’s prestigious “Red Seal” label; playing harpsichord for Frederick’s Circus and Wild Animal Show in France; writing and publishing dozens of books and articles; building a house and devising furniture and musical instruments; collaborating with several Metropolitan Opera divas and stars; rendering paintings and penning poetry; raising crops on a 33-acre farm; and even leading a “normal” life as a husband and father for over four decades on the banks of Boone Creek in rural Clark County, KY
John Jacob Niles posed among his interests (Photo by Louisville Courier-Journal staff photographer. John Jacob Niles Photographic Collection, PA82M9220)
City Kid and Farm Boy
The story traces its beginnings to the tail end of the 19th century in Portland, KY (now incorporated within Louisville), when John Jacob Niles entered the world April 22, 1890. Located at the falls of the Ohio River, Portland was a flourishing city that sang loudly of river traffic and commerce, with the great iron lungs of the Fischer-Leaf foundry, [Note 1] the splash of steamboats plying the locks and docks, the racket raised by the Louisville cement quarries scattered across Shippingport Island and the clatter of locomotives hauling cars through the railyards across the bridge to New Albany, IN. [Note 2]
Growing up in a shotgun house in a low-lying section of the city bordering the Catholic Cemetery, Niles attended the nearby Duncan Street School. At age five, he recalled, “I was treated so badly by the big Irish boys of the community that I have never been able to forget it. They hated me because my father was a Republican and a Protestant …. I was odd. I was strange, and being different is dangerous.” (Niles “Autobiography,” 44-46.) Although school was not a pleasant experience, he received a valuable education from his mother, who homeschooled him in literature — both in German and English. She also taught him music and at nine, he made his first folkloric recording by transcribing the tune and text of the song “Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head” from the Graham Family at Vine Grove, KY. Several years later, he found the scrap of music in his piano bench and rearranged it, completing the tune and adding some lyrics in the form that would be published in 1922. It still claims a prominent place in the Christmas vocal repertoire. [Note 3]
In 1902, when Niles turned ten, the family moved to Inverness Farm in rural Jefferson County. It must have been a challenging transition for the boy — exch
“Two early-model Cadillac automobiles arrived in Louisville … Not far from the Confederate monument on south Third Avenue, the first of the Cadillacs stopped suddenly and the second one crashed into it with a resounding bang … About sundown that afternoon I went out with an apple and a carrot to bait my rabbit traps. They were box traps, the kind with a small door sliding up and down at one end. The automobile accident I had observed a few hours earlier flashed before my eyes. I realized I could contrive a lightweight wooden box quite like my rabbit trap, put an oil lantern in it, provided with a red lamp shade, which would be covered by the lowered door in normal driving and exposed in emergencies by attaching the fulcrum to the foot and/or hand brake. Later that evening I explained my plan to my father, who encouraged me to make such a signal box and send it to Mr. R. E. Olds, who was then one of the leading auto makers in the country …about a month later a letter arrived from the great Mr. Olds. …He said the invention showed real thinking on my part but said there would never be enough automobiles on our highroads to make such a refinement valuable or necessary.” (Niles “Autobiography,” 104-105) [Note 4]
Sketch for a brake light invented by Niles and drawn in a field notebook (1905). Personal Series: Journals, Notebooks, Sketchbooks, 45/1/7, John Jacob Niles Collection, 82M9