Yodellin Greats

A sound heard across mountains in Europe and the Americas, the yodel was incorporated to give an earthy sound to folk music in its recorded form. In America there are many acts whose music was enhanced by the yodel, and 22 such songs are contained in this set available through Nostalgia Music.

Hank Williams, Slim Whitman, Hank Snow and Jimmie Rodgers all feature, the last of these being perhaps the most famous adopter of the means of singing which was based on the syllable ‘yo’ as per its origins in the European Alps. The form is still practised when a mountain-dweller alerts other people of their own presence in the mountains. Indeed Tex Morton’s song included here is called ‘My Sweetheart’s In Love with a Swiss Mountaineer’; in it, he accompanies himself on an acoustic guitar while singing a song about how “I yodel better than he-ee…Longer and stronger!” The test of the yodel is to stretch and bend the syllables, essentially nonsensical noises manipulated by the vocal cords, and make them send a message direct from the heart. Instead of a poem or flowers, Tex boasts of his yodelling, a rather quaint notion. Bill Haley sings a ‘Yodeller’s Lullaby’ about a man attracting maidens with his cooing, initially, but like Tex freestyling in the final minute. He dares you to yodel along with him, a virtuoso of his craft which takes some time to hone.

Slim Whitman’s ‘I’m Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky’ is enlivened by yodels with a touch of echo on them, and as the rope flies skywards he plucks his guitar to a foot-tapping beat. Yodelling thus becomes a great way to replicate physical or emotional yearning, similar to a shout from peak to peak. Hear the finest examples in this great introduction to the art of the yodel!