Da Yoopers - History

History

Da Yoopers was founded in 1975 by drummer Jim DeCaire and guitarist Rodney "Joe" Potila, along with keyboardist Lynn Anderson and bass guitarist Jim Pennell. The band took their name from the word "yooper", a common term for people of the of the "U.P.", an abbreviation for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and "Da" came from the Yooper dialect pronunciation of "the". The band toured throughout Michigan's Upper Peninsula for several years, before recording their first album, Yoopanese, in 1986 on their personal label, You Guys Records. This album included nine songs, all written by Potila and DeCaire.

A second album, Culture Shock, was released a year later. This second album featured several comedy songs, including "Second Week of Deer Camp" and "Rusty Chevrolet" (the latter a parody of "Jingle Bells"), both of which became local hits, including airplay on stations in Chicago and Milwaukee. In addition, "Second Week of Deer Camp" would later be played on several Dr. Demento shows. "2nd Week of Deer Camp" has also received heavy radio air-play in North Central Pennsylvania annually since 1995 in late November and early December during deer hunting season. This album also featured humorous dialogue and skits between songs, a feature later duplicated both in concert and on subsequent albums. Several local guest musicians also performed on this album.

By the release of Camp Fever, the band's third album, Pennell left and was replaced with Joe DeLongchamp. In addition, Lynn Anderson married Jerry Coffey, who joined as a vocalist and percussionist. It also included the first song of the band's career not to be written by Potila or DeCaire, as DeLongchamp wrote the title track. Yoop It Up, their fourth cassette, was released in 1989. This was the first album to feature DeCaire's son, Jesse.