Yodel-Ay-Ee-OOoo
what the world is saying about the book:
- Nolan Porterfield, author of JIMMIE RODGERS:
The Life
and Times of America's Blue Yodeler
"YODEL-AY-EE-OOOO is an amazing, wild, and wonderful book. If there's
anything to be known about yodeling since the dawn
of recorded time, Bart Plantenga knows it, and he
knows how to write about it - wisely, humorously, and stylishly."
- Luc Sante, author of Low Life
"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."
- American Book Review, June 2004
"Plantenga - novelist, journalist, avant-DJ, Unbearable, and
self-confessed Beer Mystic - has in this subject found something of
an ideal match for his idosyncratic talents, and the results of his
detective work are seldom less than completely engaging. Plantenga
here does for the yodel what John McPhee did for oranges. Beginning
with a brief technical analysis of how the true yodel is produced
Plantenga spins off into a circumglobal musicological foray that is as
captivating as it is unlikely. It's to his credit that Plantenga's
focus on the form doesn't simultaneously give him tunnel vision; he
gives great attention to fixing the yodel's place within various times
and cultures. Plantenga's enthusiasm for world-class ululations is
infectious, and should go a long way toward bringing new listeners to
modern yodel-tinged music. And in this knockout of a book, Plantenga
has come close to providing the last yodel on the subject."
- Library Journal Reviews, Nov. 2003:
"Writing like the manic, gonzo son of Nick Tosches, Plantenga here
crams into his text just about everything one would ever want to know a
nd 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."
- Baconizer Hot 2000:
"Yodel-ay-ee-oooo is currently #46 on the Amazon.com 2000 of hot and
hip books."
- Musicworks, Toronto, May 2004:
"Bart Plantenga's sprawling and entertaining book is all fascinating
reading."
- orientalia.com in association with amazon.com, June 2004
"YODEL-AY-EE-OOOO is listed at #29 in the Top 100 Best selling folk
and traditional music books at Amazon.com."
- The Guardian (UK), Feb. 2004:
"A splendid adventure down obscure musical pathways. Having nailed
exactly what yodeling is, Plantenga's style is loveable in its
descriptive ambition."
- Shuffle Boil, Jack Collom:
"[an] exploratory tone that never ceases throughout this wonderfully
researched opus written with a hipness and humor which might be termed
'postyodelism' - except that he, with tireless scholarship and verve,
puts a multi-convincing case forward that yodeling is an ur-alt human
vocalization. This is really a terrific unprecedented book. Yodel in
hand, we may ullulate out a toast to Bart Plantenga, for creating a
totally unexpected book that imitates its subject in being a
high-energy miscellany with fearless juxtapositions."
- Utne Reader Indie Culture 2004:
"A Few Great Reads / Books that help make sense of culture and art:
Yodel-Ay-Ee-Ooooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World is
one of the most comprehensive books on anything ever published.
Plantenga tells the strange story of how a vocal tradition from
Switzerland ended up in American country music - but along the way he
explores yodeling in Central Africa, Hawaii, Scandinavia, New Guinea,
Mexico, Belgium, American hip-hop, opera, Hollywood soundtracks...
well, everywhere."
- Austin (TX) Chronicle, Feb. 2004:
"Yodeling aficionado Bart Plantenga manages to present a strong case
for the throaty singing style, even to the most grimly determined
anti-yodel types. Plantenga has obviously done his homework. Plantenga
manages to make the yodel fascinating in a wry and insightful read."
- Reuters, Nov. 2003:
"DJ Seeks to Put the Yo! Back in Yodelling" Feature by Jill Serjeant.
- The Wire (UK), Feb. 2004:
"Plantenga has compiled a book that will be exceedingly difficult for
future yodel researchers to improve upon. Calling on his wide-ranging
musical knowledge and extensive research, Plantenga has gone far
beyond the usual haunts - the Swiss Alps, American hillbilly music,
Tarzan flicks - to root out yodeling's origins and musical offshoots
everywhere a vocal cord has ever vibrated, including such unlikely
places as India, Brazil, and central Africa. Irreverent and often
self-deprecating, he nevertheless makes a powerful case for the vast
(if "secret") influence of yodeling on a large number of the world's
vocal styles. What makes Plantenga's book a page-turner is the huge
number of sidebars and specialised discographies sprinkled generously
throughout the text. It contains as much information as you'd expect
in a serious scholarly study, but also reads as the work of a
completist tracing musical family trees and sonic obscurities around
the world; its glossaries, word games, and Eccentrics' Corners make
it eminently skimmable."
- Rolling Stone, Feb. 2004:
"Bart Plantenga receives Three Stars and a Buy This Book mention.
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."
Washington Post, Jan. 2004:
"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."
- Midwest Book Review Reviewer's Choice, March 2004:
"Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo is a lively reference unparalleled in the
music industry."
- Booklist, American Library Association, Jan. 2004:
"His fascination with yodeling is contagious, making this a honey of a
folk-and-pop-fans' browse."
- Mojo, Feb. 2004:
"Tackling his subject manfully and opting for humour over academia,
he wrangles it into a Rough Guide-like format, with pull-outs on key
figures and artefacts and a useful glossary (epiglotissary?) of terms."
- Lancaster (PA) Sunday News, Jan. 2004:
"Plantenga's 342-page paperback is a work of musicological
scholarship, written in a hip, breezy style and loaded with
eyebrow-raising references to popular music."
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