Booklist
Wait a minute. Yodeling spans the globe? Not only Alpine sheepherders and American cowboys do it (or, if they're gentlemen, don't)? Guess its history is secret, even if its performance never could be. Plantenga, a novelist and DJ rather than an academic, starts his survey, predictably, in Switzerland and Alpine Germany and Austria, but then proceeds to (often) lower elevations: the Low Countries, Central Europe, the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Italy; then India, Hawaii and the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand (figures: they got cowboys, too); then Africa and Latin America--all before getting to Anglo North America. For each place, he describes the kind of yodeling done there and, in generous sidebars, notes great practitioners, especially those who have been recorded. The last two chapters are concerned with yodeling's crossover into funk, rap, and techno. Who'da thunk? Plantenga's presentation is rather scrappy, sometimes reading like downloaded, spell-checked research notes, but his fascination with yodeling is contagious, making this a honey of a folk-and-pop-fans' browse. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo is the first book to address the question: How did a centuries-old, Swiss mountain tradition make its way into American country music? Along the way, the reader discovers that yodeling is not just a Swiss thing--everyone from Central African pygmies, Nashville hunks-in-hats, avant-garde tonsil-twisters like Meredith Monk, hiphop stars De La Soul, and pop stars like Jewel have been known to kick back and release a yodeling refrain. Along the way, we encounter a gallery of unique characters, ranging from the legendary, such as country singer Jimmie Rodgers, to the definitely different, including Mary Schneider ("the Australian Queen of Yodeling") who specializes in yodeling Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, and the Topp Twins, a yodeling lesbian duo who employ the sound in their songs aimed at battling homophobia. The book is both a serious study of the history of yodeling around the world and a fun look at how this unique sound has worked its way into popular culture. Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo promises to be a classic for fans of music and popular culture.
