Wilf Carter
b. 18 December 1904, Port Hilford, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Carter's father, a travelling Baptist minister, was born in Switzerland and his mother in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. Rejecting his mother's wish to be a preacher, Wilf was working on a farm with a team of oxen and ploughing at the age of 13. After hearing a vaudeville artist called the Yodelling Fool, he was so impressed that he knew he had to seek a similar career. Soon afterwards he left home, living with tramps and hobos and working as a lumberjack and teamster before finding work as a cowboy. He learned to play the guitar and, writing most of his material, he was soon singing locally. In 1924, he joined the Canadian rodeo circuit, where he mixed competing with singing. Around 1926, he auditioned for a Calgary radio station and was told to ‘stick to milking cows’ but in 1930, after singing at the famed Calgary Stampede, he got his radio show. He also found employment with Canadian Pacific Railways, who used him as an entertainer on organized trail drives through the Rocky Mountains. They also sent him as a singer on their cruise ship S.S. Empress Of Britain to the West Indies. In December 1933, RCA-Victor in Montreal, noting the success of Jimmie Rodgers and his blue yodels in the States, decided to record Carter, who had become known as the Yodelling Cowboy. His first session produced his now classic Swiss Moonlight Lullaby (written when he was a trail rider in Alberta) and a song about a real life murder hunt in The Capture Of Albert Johnson. When he returned from the cruise, he found the record had been released and was proving popular. This launched a recording career that extended to the '80s and saw him record hundreds of his own songs. Many had a western influence such as Twilight On The Prairie; some were event songs like The Life And Death Of John Dillinger; others were nostalgic ballads of mother and home as witnessed in My Little Gray Haired Mother In The West. Several referred to his rodeo days and many naturally featured his considerable talent for yodelling, including a speciality speed yodel, which he always referred to as his three-in-one. He worked on CFCN Calgary in 1933 but soon moved to New York, where he played on the CBS network. It was here in 1934 that he was first introduced as Montana Slim, probably to distinguish him from the Carter Family. He said he did not mind what they called him as long as they paid him, and during his long career,he has become equally well known by both names. He was involved in a bad car crash in Montana in 1940, which kept him from touring and doing radio work for nine years, but did not prevent him recording. In 1949, accompanied by his two daughters, Sheila and Carol, he again toured especially in Canada. He went into semi-retirement in Florida in the '60s but continued to make appearances at special events such as the Calgary Stampede. He has been an influence to other artists, particularly Slim Whitman, who has sung several of Carter's songs, and had considerable success in Britain with Love Knot In My Lariat. Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall Of Fame in 1971. He is one of the most prolific recording artists of his era; in addition to the USA and Canada (where some releases had differing liner notes and titles to accommodate both names) his records were regularly released in Britain and Australia. His popularity as a cowboy saw him elected to Calgary's Horseman's Hall Of Fame and there is a life-sized statue of him in the Canadian Wax Museum in Banff, Alberta. In recent years, he appears to have divided his time between his Florida and Arizona homes. He was nominated for the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1982 and though unsuccessful then, he will no doubt be inducted one day.