Singing and yodelling ‘because I love it’
As a boy, Gore’s Max McCauley loved to sing but hated to be seen doing it. He was so shy he sometimes sat in trees singing and yodelling to avoid anyone’s eye.
‘‘I was happier there than in front of people ... they couldn’t get to me.’’
At the age of 8, a teacher at East Gore School asked him to sing in class.
McCauley agreed to do it as long as he could stand behind a blackboard.
But at 16 or 17 he joined a theatrical society where the team environment helped him grow in confidence.
Now 80, McCauley is recognised throughout Australasia for his yodelling and country music singing. He was named Best Yodelling Performer at the New Zealand Country Music Recording Artists Awards in 1980.
His album, 20 Golden Yodels, was honoured with a Gold Disc Award for exceeding 50,000 sales in the early 1970s.
Two years ago, the NZ Transport Agency used McCauley’s yodelling in a television commercial to try to stop drink-driving.
McCauley and his wife Coral look forward to June every year when the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards are held in Gore at Queen’s Birthday Weekend.
Coral is in her 20th year on the awards committee. Max was on it for 11 years and had the task of booking overseas artists.
In 1987, he received a Gold Guitar appreciation award for his contribution to country music.
‘‘The awards are nice to have, but I do it [sing and yodel] because I love it,’’ McCauley says.
He has never competed at the awards because recording artists were not allowed to enter. However, despite the rule being abolished five or six years ago, McCauley prefers to be in the audience.
Most of his singing now is at rest homes in Gore, Invercargill and Balclutha.
‘‘If people want me to sing, I will.’’
In the 1960s, he did a South Island tour with Maria Dallas, who had Kiwi hits Tumblin’ Down and Pinocchio. He joined Tex Morton for concerts at Tapanui and Balclutha.
Other big names in New Zealand country music he sung with included Howard Morrison, Suzanne Prentice, Rusty Greaves, John Grenell and Peter Posa.
McCauley was a guest on television music programmes The Country Touch and Have A Shot in the 1960s.
McCauley was employed for most of his working life at the Conical Hill sawmill (11 years) and Mataura meat plant (30 years).
He sang at work. However, he had to transfer from the weighing office to the chambers at the meat plant because the background radio music was too distracting.
McCauley had a job recording the weights of carcasses.
‘‘I’d hear the music ... it was distracting me from concentrating on my job.
‘‘It got to the stage where I just wanted to listen to the music.’’
McCauley has recorded 10 songs and five or six yodels from the many written by him.
He has made four extended-play records (EPs), four long-play records (LPs) and two compact discs (CDs).
‘‘I probably should have made a lot more but cost [is a factor] when you’re married and bringing up a family.’’
Back to the Mountains, which is a composition of yodelling songs, is his favourite recording.
His father, Gordon, and mother, Dorothy, sang and played the accordion. Gordon also played a mouth organ, while Dorothy yodelled and harmonised.
‘‘I was 3 when I started singing and yodelling and I’ve done it ever since,’’ McCauley says.
He learnt to play the guitar during 10 and a half weeks of compulsory army training at Burnham in 1955. The tuition came from another attendee of the training.
McCauley’s daughters, Karen Cook, of Mabel Bush, and Lynette Peters, of Alexandra, are good singers and they gave him an unforgettable 50th birthday treat. They sang and harmonised together.
‘‘I’d never heard them harmonise together until then ... I was blown away; their singing was beautiful,’’ McCauley says.