JEFFERSON, Iowa, August 31, 2011 — There has been a wide variety of music performed for bicyclists during the annual “Trails & Trills” rides between Jefferson and Cooper on the Raccoon River Valley Trail.  And this Saturday, Sept. 3, that variety grows again, as the Iowa State Fair’s two-time yodeling champion Marissa Miller joins a line-up of local musicians who will play and/or sing along the trail.

“This sounds like fun,” said Miller, 16, of Cascade in northeast Iowa, a sophomore at Dyersville Beckman High School, when she learned about the “Trails & Trills” ride.  “I’ll look forward to yodeling there and maybe doing some other singing, too.”

She is the reigning state fair champion, having won the contests in both 2010 and 2011.

Marissa Miller, of Cascade in northeast Iowa, is shown here performing during the 2011 yodeling contest at the Iowa State Fair. Miller, a sophomore at Dyersville Beckman High School, will be performing Saturday during the “Trails & Trills” bike ride, in both Jefferson and Cooper in Greene County.

There’s another newcomer among the musicians, too – Von Ketelsen, the farm broadcaster from KWMT radio in Fort Dodge.  Ketelsen, who often performs for farm audiences on guitar and vocals, is also a veteran bicyclist who has ridden across the United States and on several RAGBRAIs across Iowa.

Saturday’s event is the seventh annual “Trails & Trails” ride, which normally draws about 100 cyclists from across the state.  It has become the oldest, continuously-held tradition on the trail, and is sponsored now by three organizations — the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, the Committee for a Super Cooper and the Cyclists Of Greene.

The musicians are scattered along the trail to do performances as the bicyclists pedal up, stop & listen for a time, and then continue on to Cooper.  There’s also music during the lunch in Cooper, where the menu this year features ribeye steak sandwiches grilled by the Greene County Cattlemen.  The public is welcome to listen in on the musical performances and visit with the cyclists, and they can purchase a lunch in Cooper.

Here is the schedule for Saturday’s events:

8:30 to 10 a.m. – Music begins at the Jefferson Depot, with Rick Morain of Jefferson playing piano on the depot plaza.  Meanwhile inside the depot will be registration for the bike ride, free coffee and coffeecake.   Registration includes new “Trails & Trills” T-shirts, the lunch in Cooper, the music and the organization of the event.  Bike riders are urged to wear helmets.

9:40 a.m. – Yodeling champion Marissa Miller performs briefly at the Jefferson Depot.

10 a.m. — The bike ride actually starts at 10 a.m., and the musicians start performing along the trail.

The following are confirmed, and more may be added:

At “Train Wreck Rock,” Jefferson-Scranton High School sophomore Beth Teusch on flute.

At Winkleman Switch, Von Ketelsen of KWMT radio on guitar and vocals.

At the Fall family farm, south of Bull Head Farm, the children of the Fall family will be running a lemonade stand.  They will also be singing the distinctive music, in the Mennonite tradition, that they use in services at their Old Order River Brethren Church.

At 290th Street, a mile north of Cooper, Larry Dowd of Scranton on guitar and vocals.

At the Cooper Way Station, yodeler Miller performs from 11 a.m. to 12 noon while lunch is underway.  Part of her performance will be attempting to teach a few of the cyclists – and maybe others in the crowd – how to yodel.

“Until about four years ago, I don’t think I’d ever seen or heard anybody yodel other than on TV,” Miller said.  “But then I saw something about it on the Internet, started looking into it and wound up teaching myself how to do it.”

She said she has closely followed the career of Taylor Ware, who is also 16 and is billed as “America’s Yodeling Sweetheart” when she performs on the Grand Ole Opry and other venues in her native Tennessee.

But Miller does much more than just yodeling.  She is a soprano in vocal groups at Beckman High School, and enjoys singing all kinds of music – from country to spiritual to opera.  She also plays flute in the school band, and piano.  And she runs cross-country.

“Marissa decided to enter the yodeling contest at the 2010 state fair kind of at the last minute,” said her mother, Donna Miller. “She’d been in the Bill Riley State Fair Talent Search a week earlier, and then she decided to try the yodeling contest just for the experience and for fun.  She was the youngest person in the contest and, when she won, she was caught completely off-guard.”

Marissa said her family has never seemed particularly musical, but after winning her first state fair championship, she was surprised to learn that several earlier members of her extended family had been yodelers, too.

The Millers, who have six sons and Marissa, operate a family farm four miles outside Cascade.  Marissa is very active in 4-H and is on the 4-H Teen Council.

After her performance and lunch in Cooper, the bike ride back to Jefferson is at the cyclists’ leisure, as most of the musicians will not be on the trail then.  However, the Fall children do plan to have their lemonade stand open then.

For more information, you can contact RRVT Association board member Chuck Offenburger at (515) 370-2650 or chuck@Offenburger.com.

Here’s another photo of Marissa Miller winning the championship in the Iowa State Fair yodeling contest this summer. Many TV stations and other media have posted video clips of her performing.