Introduction; 1: A Jodl Is a Jodel Is a Yodel?; 2: Who Duh Lay Hee Who; 3: Germany and Austria; 4: Where Yodels Are Jodeled Beyond the Alps; 5: From India to Down Under; 6: African Yodeling beyond the Rainforest; 7: Transmission and Transition; 8: The Hillbillies are alive with Yodeling; 9: A Cowboy's Yip to a Yodel; 10: Modern Epiglottal Frontiers; 11: Be On Your Avant Garde, Yodelers!
Bart Plantenga is a widely published author, having written journalism, fiction, and non-fiction. His writings have appeared in Reggae, Rasta Revolution:Jamaican Music from Ska to Dub , and he has contributed to many musical and pop culture journals, including the American Music Research Center Journal. He lives in Amsterdam.
"The hills are alive with the ululations of centuries of yodelers,
whose echoes persist undyingly. Bart Plantenga shows how yodeling,
which may be encoded in our DNA, is humanity's most open secret,
linking Swabian and Farsi, mountain and atoll, cowboy and jazzbo.
Like an errant carnival ride, his book is fun, head-spinning, and
ontologically profound." -- Luc Sante
"How did an ancient Swiss mountain tradition evolve into an
American country-music staple? That's only one of the questions
Plantenga seeks to answer in his solid, exhaustive look at
yodeling, a high-pitched ululation good for herding cows, marketing
Tarzan, and inflicting Martian brain melt in a Tim Burton film.
Moving beyond the kitsch factor, the author credits Jimmie Rodgers,
the tubercular Singing Brakeman, for siring Nashville's infatuation
with this Alpine cry; notes that real cowboys probably didn't yodel
before Gene Autry; and tracks the warble as far as Bollywood and
New Zealand. Grade: B
." -- Entertainment Weekly
"For 150-year-old academic publisher Routledge, a major release is
usually a heavy classroom tome. But this fall it found itself with
an uncharacteristic hit: "Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of
Yodeling Around the World" ($20), by radio deejay Bart Plantenga,
which has attracted an audience of hipsters that, says Marketing
Director Frederic Nachbaur, has helped it sell more copies than
many Routledge titles do in an entire run. The book traces the
singing style to such unlikely places as Central Africa and Mexico,
and dishes on its various adherents. "Everyone from Sly and the
friggin' Family Stone, the Fugees, De La Soul . . . to even the
Velvet Underground have used yodels," Plantenga says.
." -- Washington Post
"For 150-year-old academic publisher Routledge, a major release is
usually a heavy classroom tome. But this fall it found itself with
an uncharacteristic hit: "Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of
Yodeling Around the World" ($20), by radio deejay Bart Plantenga,
which has attracted an audience of hipsters that, says Marketing
Director Frederic Nachbaur, has helped it sell more copies than
many Routledge titles do in an entire run. The book traces the
singing style to such unlikely places as Central Africa and Mexico,
and dishes on its various adherents. "Everyone from Sly and the
friggin' Family Stone, the Fugees, De La Soul . . . to even the
Velvet Underground have used yodels," Plantenga says.
." -- Washington Post
"Writing like the manic, gonzo son of Nick Tosches, Plantenga here
crams into his text just about everything one would ever want to
know and then some about yodeling and yodelers. A DJ and amateur
musicologist, he intends to trace yodeling from its Swiss origins
to the upper registers of country, funk, folk, and pop, among other
genres. As a thoroughly entertaining, throttle-at-the-red-line ride
through the history of the various discrete styles of yodeling,
this book scores a ton of points. The bibliography is thorough, and
the annotated listening lists are highly eclectic and full of
insight. Highly recommended for all public libraries and for
academic libraries with significant popular culture or world music
collections
." -- Library Journal Reviews, Nov. 2003, James E. Perone
"Both a serious study of the history of yodeling, and a fun look at
how this unique sound has worked its way into popular
culture...promises to be a classic for fans of music and pop
culture
." -- BookSense, Dec. 2003
"Plantenga cracks the secret history of yodeling wide open." --
Vanity Fair, Dec. 2003
"Solid, exhaustive look at yodeling." -- Alanna Nash, Entertainment
Weekly
"The British-Irish folk music/American country link is common
knowledge, but the provenance and, goddammit, appeal of the yodel
in country (and, claims, Plantenga, rap, reggae, ambient and rock
music) remains a mystery. Tackling his subject manfully and opting
for humor over academia, he wrangles it into a Rough Guide-like
format, with pull-outs on key figures and artifacts and a useful
glossary (epiglotissary?) of terms
." -- Sylvie Simmons, Mojo Magazine
"Like its subject, this history of the yodel is both goofy and
heroic. Plantenga unearths loads of historical data about the
yodel, from its origins in Appalachia to its secret presence in
modern pop, with stops in Germany, Latin America (where Tarzan's
yell receives an entertaining sidebar) and, of course, American
country music. Plantenga's style is breezy and ingratiating and he
wisely refuses to treat yodeling or yodelers as a joke. An
excellent treatment of an underdiscussed subject
." -- Michaelangelo Matos, Rolling Stone Magazine
"Solid, exhaustive look at yodeling." Alanna Nash, Entertainment
Weekly
." -- Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly
"Plantenga cracks the secret history of yodeling wide open
." -- Vanity Fair, Dec. 2003
"The British-Irish folk music/American country link is common
knowledge, but the provenance and, goddammit, appeal of the yodel
in country (and, claims, Plantenga, rap, reggae, ambient and rock
music) remains a mystery. Tackling his subject manfully and opting
for humor over academia, he wrangles it into a Rough Guide-like
format, with pull-outs on key figures and artifacts and a useful
glossary (epiglotissary?) of terms." -- Sylvie Simmons, Mojo
Magazine
"Like its subject, this history of the yodel is both goofy and
heroic. Plantenga unearths loads of historical data about the
yodel, from its origins in Appalachia to its secret presence in
modern pop, with stops in Germany, Latin America (where Tarzan's
yell receives an entertaining sidebar) and, of course, American
country music. Plantenga's style is breezy and ingratiating and he
wisely refuses to treat yodeling or yodelers as a joke. An
excellent treatment of an underdiscussed subject." -- Michaelangelo
Matos, Rolling Stone Magazine
"It is all fascinating reading." -- Matt Rogalsky, Musicworks
"It is all fascinating reading
." -- Matt Rogalsky, Musicworks
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