Kerry Christensen (born October 6, 1954) is an American

yodeler Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from ...

. He yodels in both western and Alpine styles. He also plays the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, the

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...

, and the alphorn and is very good at imitating

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s. Christensen was born in 1954 and was raised on a potato farm in

Grace, Idaho Grace is a city in Caribou County, Idaho, Caribou County, Idaho, United States. The population was 915 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History The area of Grace was once inhabited by the Shoshone Indians. The Oregon Trail passed w ...

. A performer from the age of three, he has sung everything from western ballads to barbershop music. While living in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

from 1974 to 1976, he discovered the folk music that would be his life. Kerry's first yodeling performance was in 1977, at a

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

orientation assembly where he received a standing ovation from 15,000 students. In 1984, Disney World in Orlando,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

hired him to work at the German Pavilion of the

Epcot Center Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...

in 1984. He was the Disney World Yodeler from 1984 to 1990 and the leader of the night band for the last four of those years. In 1990, Christensen became a freelance yodeler and performs worldwide. He has recorded 12 albums, including ''U 2 Can Yodel'', a course for people wanting to learn yodeling techniques. In 2009, he was signed to yodel for the surrealist cartoon Living Evil, written and directed by Dadaist and Surrealist artists the Hive of Dukes. Yanni Osmond, co-founder of the Hive, is an avid music historian and professed "weird music fan", and when he saw Kerry yodeling on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, he found his phone number and hired Christensen on the spot. In 2012

McClatchy-Tribune News Service Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Se ...

reported that he would ''"...use his mouth to perform music from a range of cultures: American Indian, German, Swiss, Cajun, and the 'cattle call' of the American West among them."''Lamberson, C., 2012, Sep 23. Spotlight: Master yodeler to play Bing. ''McClatchy - Tribune Business News.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christensen, Kerry 1954 births Yodelers Living people People from Grace, Idaho Musicians from Idaho