In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Canada plays second fiddle to the United States in almost everything, but they’ve certainly produced their share of great yodelers—Wilf Carter and Hank Snow come immediately to mind. But it’s not all hand-medown Swiss or cowboy stuff. Eskimo (Esquimaux) is the collective name for the indigenous Arctic Circle groups: the Yupik, Inuit, and Aleut. They inhabit a cold swath covering Canada, Siberia, Alaska, and Greenland and yodel for fun. The Inuit have playful vocalizations reminiscent of yodeling, hocketing, a raspy clearing of the throat, and throat singing. They, mainly groups of women,1 rely on short, sharp, rhythmic inhalations and exhalations at communal gatherings where their vocal jousts carry on long into the winter nights, while their husbands are away, hunting. Inuit competitors face off, holding each other’s arms while alternating hocketed, guttural— frogs in a pond—vocals punctuated by sighs, expressive breathing, and rapid glottal stop activity with the loser being the one who breaks the rhythm or starts laughing .2 It’s not really singing, perhaps closer to hollerin’ or the vocal games of Pygmies, “‘games in which one makes noises,’ as the Inuit would say.”3 The more melodious ones traditionally functioned as lullabies. Katadjak (katajjait, throat singing) was banned in the nineteenth century by local Christian priests, but is experiencing a revival, with renewed interest especially among younger generations, who believe that learning it from their elders connects them to Inuit traditions. This interest also means recognizing the expansive heritage in their own vocals—Tuvan, Sami—while also accepting poppier influences. The Mètis (mestizo) are of mixed Native American– European ancestry numbering , in western Canada and the northern Plains states. They sing in Michif (French nouns, Cree verbs). Mary B. Mark, of Lafond, Alberta, describes how, during the Depression , students raised money by producing Christmas concerts: Henry Scheper and the Siemer brothers would sing well-loved Gennan melodies, their voices brimming with emotion. The Mètis boys were much applauded . . . They would strum guitars and banjos and with dark eyes flashing, sing and yodel cowboy songs popular at the time: “Strawberry Roan,” “Lonesome Cowboy,” “When the Work’s All Done This Fall,” and the tearjerking “My Father Was a Drunkard.” These sons of the Mètis settlers who lived in the district, and whose small brothers and sisters were our classmates, seemed to us romantic characters. Everyone knew that the dances could not Yodelers in the Great White North  have taken place without them, as they provided the music, the square dance caller, and a lot of the action on the dance floor.4 In the s, Ti-Gus and Ti-Mousse (née Réal Béland and Denise Émond) entertained Quebec with their Folies Bergère–style comedy routines and yodeling on numbers like “Tyrolienne du régiment.” Lucille Starr (Lucille Marie Raymonde Savoie, –), a French-English singing Manitoban, had an early hit with “The French Song.” Starr worked mostly solo, although her most memorable work is with guitaristhusband Bob Regan. They were known as the Canadian Sweethearts. With a dramatic Piaf torch song trill, she interprets “Indian Love Call” as “Yodel Love Call” (Canadian Sweethearts, ). Starr sang on American TV variety shows Shindig! and Hullabaloo and toured the world, becoming popular in Europe, especially the Netherlands. She also served as the yodeling voice for the Cousin Pearl character on The Beverly Hillbillies. In , the queen of the Saint-Tite Western festival , Quebecoise yodeler Manon Bédard, released an allyodel CD that includes “Tyrolienne du Régiment” and “Hello Jupiter Hello,” which mixes three individual yodeled voices. Moreover, her “Yodeling” by Yodel-Inc. () basically features Bédard in a techno-yodel setting . This may seem odd for someone known for her cowboy-hillbilly-crossover style, but she’s an intrepid, underrated yodeler who isn’t shy around pumped-up styles. Other yodels: “Il m’a Montré Yodler,” Le Chant Tyrolien de Papa,” “Le yodel des prairies” “Suisse Yodle Chanson .”  THE LANDS OF YO Paul Dutton: Way Beyond Celine Dion Paul Dutton (–), renowned wordsmith-vocalist, became fascinated with his own voice in his late twenties, “when I first encountered sound poetry. Up to that time my voice had always been something that I took for granted. I sang—a little bit for my own pleasure, a little bit for friends, a little bit for money.” He has since employed any media available for over forty years to project his unique vision, a dynamic syncretic crunch of intellect and...

Share