Love in a Fowlhouse
Garner and his teenage daughter were out by the chook house one day in 1965 and the roosters were chasing the hens. She was feeling sad about a boy at school and he told his daughter that the chooks had problems too.
To cheer her up he started making chicken noises and "Love in a Fowlhouse" was born.In a decade when some other Kiwi song-writers and poets were abandoning their children and then writing self-pitying lines about their unfulfilled lives, Wayne was listening to his daughter and was using humour to cheer her up and guide her.
Behind his funny clucking and rooster crows was good parental advice on what to look for in a partner. "Look for a boy who thinks you are nicer than any other girl, who loves you and wants to marry you, who will support you and stay with you for life, and raise a family with you."
A fowlrun at the rear of a corttage in Kelburn. Wellington, in the 1920s
Garner Wayne
Garner Wayne was born in 1922, lived his life in Ashburton, and died there in 2007. "Love in a Fowlhouse," along with other hits like 'Birthday Wishes' and 'I Love the Land', ensured that Garner had a long career in country music, first with Viking Records and later with Music World.
Wayne was one New Zealand country music's most prolific writers and performers, writing more than 100 songs. And with the Saddle Pals he recorded over 300 songs. But despite his string of trophies, it was Wayne's family that was most important to him, and so he turned down several overseas recording opportunities to spend most of his adult life in Ashburton.
He once said that he liked some modern country but not all of it: "It's got too much rock, they're trying to get too much into style and are getting away from the story side, the people, the land and the things that have happened. Today all they can think about is noise and beat and the action on stage, it's a shame."
1963 was the Year of the Fowlhouse in NZ literature
The same week our chooks were stolen, Daphne Moran had her throat cut.
(Ronald Hugh Morrieson, "The Scarecrow: a novel," 1963)He took an arc-like track through the scrub and came to the fowl-run. They had twenty fowls, including a dozen new pullets bought two months ago. He slipped silently into the run gently making clucking noises to calm the hens and deftly grabbed one, and holding her tightly, snibbed the gate and retired to the scrub. He had a thick piece of wire, which he pushed through the bird's throat. He pierced it several times and twisted her neck, but prolonged the death as long as he could. He wrapped the wire round her neck and holding the other end of the wire, swung the bird round and round till she was dead.
(Bill Pearson, "Coal Flat," 1963)The garage is used as a fowlhouse
The door is just seven feet wide
And our car is a big station-wagon
We never could get it inside
(Dave Jordan, "The State House Song," 1964-65)
Love in a Fowl House on Record
1966, Love in a fowlhouse; A fowlhouse wedding, Fowlhouse honeymoon; Twin chicks; 45
1993 When the Cat's Been Spayed, Down the Hall, CD
2003 Great Kiwi Country Boys Rajon Music Group, CDIn 2008, this song was still getting airtime by radio stations worldwide.