The first, warbling falsetto notes of The Mockingbird Yodel are unmistakeable.
It's not a long-ranging ballad; the part-lament, part-ode to the songbird runs just shy of three minutes and is typically accompanied by little more than an occasionally-plucked acoustic guitar.
Even those avowed philistines who turn their nose up at country music (orderly lines, if you please, I'll deal with you one at a time) have to concede the impressive vocal gymnastics of British yodeller Harry Torrani's 1937 classic.
Yodelling, in the technical sense, involves the singer rapidly bouncing from a low-pitch chest register, to a whistling head-register, and originated in the Central Alps as a herding call for 16th Century European farmers.
Later, it became rooted in the country music of the United States, arguably following German immigrants to Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Historians have also suggested the technique has African origins and came from the "field hollers" and work songs of African slaves in the 1850s.
It's an uncanny kind of music - at once so delicate on the high notes you might think the singer's voice would break, but tensioned like vocal steel - and it's impressive every time you hear it.
The Mockingbird Yodel has been covered only a handful of times since it was first recorded, perhaps most notably when Parkes country musician Dianna Corcoran performed an ethereal rendition at the 2004 Australian Country Music Awards in Tamworth.
But there is one rendition you're unlikely to hear unless you're lucky. It was meant to be performed by a young Irish-Indigenous singer who grew up in the Upper Hunter, only a few years after it was first recorded, on Australia's Amateur Hour.
Gwendoline Casserly was a teenager when she snagged her spot on the national radio talent show in 1944. She was born at Georgetown at her grandmother's house in 1928, but grew up surrounded by music in Singleton and Muswellbrook.
As a teenager, she sang on the local 2HR radio station (it's called 2HD now), and was spotted by the radio show that would go on to air such names as Jimmy Little, Johnny O'Keefe and Chad Morgan, when she was 16.
She turned up ready to sing Torrani's Mockingbird, but her voice was so powerful that there was no way to record her ringing falsetto.
She settled and ultimately performed a cover of Buddy Williams' 1940 tune Under the Wattle Tree to place second in the competition.
(Just incidentally, Buddy Williams - who was born in Cessnock, and who Gwen would go on to perform and tour alongside in her later musical career - became Australia's first natively-born country music recording artist when he cut a Private Process disk of two songs, Where The Jacarandas Bloom and They Call Me The Clarence River Yodeller, in 1938. Williams had a storied life in the Hunter, orphaned and later adopted into a family near Dorrigo that was tied up in an unusual and little-known sect of the church, we're told, before running away as a teenager starting his music career busking outside Civic Theatre, and eventually buying an old circus tent that he used to tour the country and perform.)
Gwen Casserly's life and career as the Hunter's "Yodelling Sweetheart" will be celebrated on Wednesday, May 24, when she will be inducted into the Stars of Fame at the Jesmond Bowling Club from 2pm.
The Stars of Fame pays tribute to Australian country music performers and promoters, especially those people who have supported the development of other artists, and was launched by Phil Mahoney in the '90s when he was then centre manager of the Wallsend Plaza.
The Stars roll includes Slim Dusty, Jimmy Little and Rex Dallas among a plethora of other artists, and was resurrected by Mr Mahoney in March when he inducted 15 new names, including poet and friend of Topics Bob "Minmi Magster" Skelton.
"There were only ever a few people who were awarded at Tamworth," Mr Mahoney said yesterday, "But there were a lot of other good performers in the country and I wanted to make sure they were given a chance to recieve an award.
"Newcastle actually was the birthplace of Australian country music. Tamworth didn't start in country music until the 1970s, but Newcastle started in the '30s with Buddy Williams.
"He had heard about the big crowds in Newcastle and ... he had this beautiful balladeer's voice and would run between the Civic Theatre and the Strand Theatre and perform outside both."
These days, the Stars of Fame roll will be listed online, and was resurrected on Facebook during the COVID years by Mr Mahoney and his son.
Ms Casserly, who died at Woodberry in 2013, will be inducted posthumously among nine other artists on Wednesday at the ceremony expected to be attended by members of her family, Mr Mahoney said.
- Gwendoline Casserly will be posthumously inducted into the Stars of Fame roll at Jesmond Bowling Club today, among nine other Australian country music artists, from 2pm. Tickets run at $10 at the door and proceeds will be donated to Camp Quality. So far, the ceremonies have donated around $2000 to the charity.
MILE AUDIT: A BREAK IN THE CASE
Forster's Ian Reynolds points out that last week's Mile Audit (Short Takes, 23/5) has less to do with the length of the beach as initially presumed, and more to do with how far the beach is from the post office.
Happily, I concede that Forster gets a late pass; One Mile Beach is, in fact, about a mile from both post offices as the crow flies (if you round down a bit).
Nine Mile Beach as well appears to be roughly nine miles in a straight line from the former Newcastle Post Office on Hunter Street.
The more you know ...
