Archive collection from the Folk singer. In the 1950s, while audio recording was still an astronomically expensive art, limited to the laboratory-like environment of the professional studio, a few forward-thinking artists began to experiment with the idea of home recording. Sun Ra in Chicago and Les Paul in New York made history away from the studios. And deep in Appalachia, John Jacob Niles recorded a series of EPs in the place where he was most comfortable singing: his living room.