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Artist
Montana Slim
12+ albums
countryCanadian
about
Wilf Carter, also known as Montana Slim, was a Canadian country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and yodeller. Widely acknowledged as the father of Canadian country music, Carter was Canada's first country music star, inspiring a generation of young Canadian performers. Wilfred Arthur Charles Carter was born December 18, 1904, in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, Canada. One of nine children, Carter began working odd jobs by the age of eight in Canning, Nova Scotia. He began singing after seeing a travelling Swiss performer named "The Yodelling Fool" in Canning. Carter left home at the age of 15 after a falling out with his father, who was a Baptist minister. In 1923, after working as a lumberjack and singing with hoboes in boxcars, Carter moved west to Calgary, Alberta, where he found work as a cowboy. He made extra money singing and playing his guitar at dances, performing for tourist parties travelling in the Canadian Rockies. It was during this time that he developed his own yodelling style, sometimes called an "echo yodel" or a "three-in-one." Carter performed his first radio broadcast on CFCN in 1930. Soon after, he was heard locally on CFAC and nationally on the CRBC. Two years later, he was entertaining tourists as a trail rider for the Canadian Pacific Railway, who promoted horseback excursions into the Canadian Rockies. Carter soon became very popular in the region. In 1933, Carter began recording for RCA Victor in Montreal. His first 78 recording, which included
