Are Two of My Favorite Musical Sounds Disappearing?

Within the past week or so, I’ve suddenly realized that two of my favorite musical sounds seem to be disappearing: the yodel and the harmonica!

Yodel

The yodel came to my attention in one of the recent re-runs of Mike & Molly when a few of the guys were up on the roof singing the John Denver song, Calypso, about the Jacques Cousteau documentaries, and Carl’s grandmom popped up doing the yodel at the end. I realized then how much I miss that sound. I grew to love it back in the early days of TV, with the old black & white westerns with the singing cowboys. Along the way, I loved hearing Eddy Arnold and even Dolly Parton, and yes, John Denver. Miss that sound, I do.

Harmonica

Again, I fell in love with the many facets of the sound of the harmonica. I heard it a lot on the old time radio shows, then on early TV, and onward. I remember the Harmonicats. I remember sounds that ranged from wild and funny to hauntingly beautiful like one version of Ruby (No, not the Kenny Rogers song!). And I still love the sound of what I call a really “mean” harmonica.

(Sigh)