Yodelin' Slim Clark, the Performer

 

I grew up with Slim and his family, and my family and his are still very close. I had the pleasure to grow up listening to him, hunting, fishing, camping, bluegrass festivals, and listening to him perform at my elementary school. I think that yodeling is an awesome sound, and very hard to do. At least I haven't figured it out. He has so many good songs that it was hard to pick just two samples. The one below is a long one, but it showcases different songs. Take a minute and scroll through it.

Raymond LeRoy Clark was born in Massachusetts on December 11, 1917. He started it music career at the age of 15. While doing a radio show in 1936 he was renamed Yodeling' Slim Clark from the Wyoming Buck. When he moved to Maine he continued with radio shows, but also started being televised as well. In 1946 Slim signed on with Continental records where he mainly recorded traditional cowboy songs and folk tunes. Before Slim died on July 5th 2000, he made a lot of accomplishments. He won the World Yodeling Championship in 1947, inducted into the Yodeler's Hall of Fame, member of the Western Music Association's Hall of Fame, has a star at the Country Hall of Fame and Museum, inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island Country Music Hall of Fame.

Rhythm:

Slim's genre of music would be cowboy, country yodeling, and country. For the most part of his career it was usually just Slim, his guitar, and his voice. The majority of the cowboy genre was written in a 4/4 tempo. Once in a while you will hear a waltz, which is a 3/4 tempo. 

Tone color:

I am going to use the yodeling for this part because it is so unique. As humans we have two different registers, one from the chest and the other from the head. The lower tones come from the chest and the higher pitch from the head voice. When falsetto is used it is a forced register of the vocal cords not involving chest or head air for support. Passaggio is the range of overlap between registers and this is what yodelers can do. They can change the register quickly in a short period of time at a high pitch. 

In my opinion it is very important for people like Slim that keep music and styles alive from the past. Like others like him they brought the history of music to the present. By doing this they could get younger musicians or soon to be musicians interested in this genre and style they never heard before. By doing that it keeps that style of music alive for generations to come. I really thinking yodeling is awesome to hear and would love to learn how to do it some day. 

Resources:

"Yodelin' Slim Clark." Wikipedia, 01 October 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodelin%27_Slim_Clark

"Yodeling." Wikipedia, 23 October 2021,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodeling

"Western Movie Music & Genre: America's Love Affair With The Old West." stock music.net, 30 November 2018, https://stockmusic.net/blog/western-movie-music/