MONROE - A Monticello native born decades after songs like "My Girl" and "Rock This Town" were new, hoppin' hits wants to bring rockabilly back to be appreciated once more.

Andy Yaun has also been known as the Rockabilly Kid for about two years. The description fits him. The 19-year-old started playing rockabilly, which was music popularized by performers like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, soon after he learned to play guitar about nine years ago. The genre is a style of rock mixed with country or "hillbilly" music, and Yaun wants to introduce it to audiences anywhere he can.

"Everybody likes rockabilly. They just don't know they like rockabilly," he said.

Ready to play for the Angels Among Us of Green County event on Saturday at SLICE arena, Yaun said the set list will include popular music everyone has likely heard and some not so familiar tunes that he is certain will entertain. The event includes a 5K run and walk hosted by Tyler's Team Foundation and Jacob's Swag Foundation in Monroe.

Yaun noted he usually plays smaller venues but was happy to be asked to perform for the charitable event looking to promote suicide prevention. He has attended awareness events hosted by both foundations in Monroe with his family. He said he looks forward to the performance this weekend.

Music began for Yaun at a young age. He picked up a trombone in the fifth grade and learned the basics. Before that, he was hooked on Guitar Hero, a popular video game based on playing the title instrument. Though soon he grew tired of buttons and traded them in for strings.

Now he rocks the Gretsch Hot Rod he affectionately dubbed "Green-Eyed Lady" and learned all of the rockabilly he plays by ear, a side effect of never learning notes on a treble clef scale. Not only does he rock a guitar, but he picked up skills at the keyboard as well, throwing in drums and some piano.

Yaun was inspired to learn more about the genre that began in the early 1950s after a night around the campfire with his family in which a snippet of a song popularized by the band Stray Cats was played.

"My dad used to play so I handed him my guitar, and I'm like, 'you play something,'" Yaun said. "And he plays the beginning to 'Rock This Town,' just the opening chord and he just stops and goes, 'that's all I could ever learn.' So I was like, I guess I'll learn that song, show up my old man. And then when I learned that, he started bringing out these Stray Cats CDs and I just fell in love with that stuff."

Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats has grown to become Yaun's favorite musician. While the walls of his room display photos of Elvis and Jim Morrison, the Gretsch Hot Rod guitar he plays is an exact match to the one used by Setzer.

For Yaun, busy summers include two or three shows a weekend for Yaun. Generally, he plays locally but has also been invited to shows like Buddy Holly's 80th birthday celebration at the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Arnolds Park, Iowa, in October. Yaun has played a number of shows in Clear Lake, Iowa, as well. Organization of events is a family activity, with his mother, Sal, and his sisters helping to schedule performances.

Within a year, Yaun hopes to move out of southern Wisconsin but is not quite sure which city to reside in as he hones his musical talent. Nashville is an option, but recent trips to Minneapolis have also increased his fondness for the Twin Cities area. California is another choice, Yaun said. While the goal is to find a market more willing to embrace the rockabilly style, for now Yaun is happy to play in the area for events like Angels Among Us and to continue to rock his hometown.