Y-Z Posts: Yodeling and Zydeco, part 2

Source: duchessa

I like to think that I have an eclectic taste in music, that I am broad-minded.  Hey, I was in college during the 1960s and 70s, man.  But that is so not true. 

My music education pretty much ended in the early 1980s.  Somehow I cannot get beyond Zanadu Xanadu with Olivia Newton John.  Was it the trauma or was it Boy George?

I don’t know, but the last 15 years or more are scarcely dotted with memorable music, except for Whitney Houston and anything Irish music related (of course).

In recent years, I was exposed to something called “Zydeco”.  And I haven’t been the same. 

Can’t help it, my feet want to dance.  I feel the beat and the words—and this is from a person who struggles to clap and sing at the same time.  Maybe I was born down in Louisiana, stolen by pirates and brought up-river to where my folks were buying catfish from a guy down on the levee off the ‘Ssippi. 

What IS it?  It is like gumbo, with every nation tossing a bit of its culture into the pot, adding lots of spice.  And I like it.

Just listen, see what you think.

And that concludes this year's A to Z 2013 Challenge, on a high-note with Yodeling and a dance with Zydeco!  Now, take it away......  

Y-Z Posts: Yodeling, part 1

Music comes down from the tall Alpine mountain, echoing through the valleys, and into the villages that dot the valley floor.  Vigorous and melodic, the music continues for miles.

Yodeling is a form of singing that exists in countries worldwide.  It started as a forming of ‘yelling’ for lack of a better word.  The word ‘yodel’ came from a German Bavaria word jodeln, with the jo given the yo sound. 

per Wikipedia

It was a way of communicating through long distances in the Alpine valleys, since the high-low-high-low sound bounces around and off the rocks.  Think of riding in a school bus, and you can see how the yodel would travel through the valley.

The letter Y is for “yodeling”.  Can you think what Z will bring?