Bath Singer Chris Cauley Credits Grandmother For His Love Of Music

Millboro, VA – In Bath County many volunteers have contributed their musical talent to WCHG fundraisers over the years. Faye Cauley of Millboro was one performer who loved to sing and play to support community radio. Faye performed many times both as a solo artist and as part of The 50’s Plus Trio with Jackie Plecker and Joanne Woodzell. We lost Faye last January, but her talent and love of music lives on in her grandson, Chris Cauley.

“I got into music from my grandmother, actually, Faye Cauley; she got me my first guitar,” says Cauley. “I guess my first acoustic guitar I should say. Honestly I’d always been fascinated with what she did, her talent and how she touched people with her music and just made people smile. And she actually picked out my first guitar and she’d show me a few chords here and there. I never dreamed I’d get to travel the world doing it, because it’s something she always wanted to do. So I guess in a way I’m kind of carrying her legacy on. That’s something that I take very serious and I think it’s special.”

“My grandmother always used to say No matter how big you get, don’t ever change your name. Don’t ever come up with a stage name, always keep that Cauley name.’ Which keeps it pretty grounded, pretty quick,” says Cauley. “Which is funny. It’s nice to come to a place like this to isolate yourself from that hectic and sometimes very stressful and, to be quite honest with you, negative world. It’s a tough business. And it’s nice to get away from that and come up here and come back to where your roots are and spend time with family.”

Chris grew up near Atlanta. He’s the son of Jerry and Janet Cauley and his grandfather, Pete, still lives in Millboro. Chris makes his living singing and he calls his musical style soul pop. He’s performed both as a solo artist and with a band. He’s toured the country and the world in stage shows, including a Michael Jackson tribute show called “Man in the Mirror”.

Chris’ career has been on a steady climb since he got his start right out of high school when he signed a small independent record deal. He then went out on a college tour all over the country.

“I was playing probably about 100 schools a year, for a good four or five years consistently,” says Cauley. “And a few of those I actually got my grandmother on stage with me a few schools in Virginia and we got to do a song or two, which was a blast. And currently I just recently auditioned for The Voice on NBC, which is going to premiere February 5th right after the Super Bowl. So I’m very excited about that, so everybody can tune in to see how I do.”

Chris is focusing on songwriting now, both for himself and other artists.

“I released a single, it’s called Everything Easy,” says Cauley. “It’s just a single on iTunes which you can get. I wrote that for my wife. I surprised her on our wedding day. I was just married in September. I surprised her with it and everybody seemed to like it and it seems to be getting played at weddings all over the southeast, which is kind of funny. Yeah, very excited about that one.”

“We spent, gosh, every Christmas every summer coming up here to Bath County and staying with the grandparents,” says Cauley. “You couldn’t get me out of the river. I was a big fan of the river, fishing and all that. I got to go on a few little hunts. It’s funny to get a city boy up here. It totally changed me. I love it.”

Click on the above link to hear music from both Faye and Chris. And to hear more of Chris’ music, check out Chris Cauley Music on Facebook.