Yodel in Hi-Fi explores the vibrant and varied traditions of yodelers around the world. Far from being a quaint and dying art, yodel is a thriving vocal technique that has been perennially renewed by singers from Switzerland to Korea, from Colorado to Iran. Bart Plantenga offers a lively and surprising tour of yodeling in genres from opera to hip-hop and in venues from cowboy campfires and Oktoberfests to film soundtracks and yogurt commercials. Displaying an extraordinary versatility, yodeling crosses all borders and circumvents all language barriers to assume its rightful place in the world of music.

Bart Plantenga is a freelance researcher, writer, translator, and editor. He is the author of Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling around the World and the compiler of the CD Rough Guide to Yodel. He lives and works in Amsterdam and is the disc jockey of radio show Wreck This Mess.

“Bart Plantenga has, with Yodel in Hi-Fi, added enormously to his groundbreaking work begun with his earlier book Yodel-Ay-Ee Oooo. The history, musicology, and anthropology of yodeling—from indigenous people all over the planet to film stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers—is covered in astonishing breadth and depth.”—Douglas B. Green, yodeler with Riders in the Sky