Wilf Carter Montana Slim

Wilf Carter

born 18. 12. 1904 in Port Hilford - Nova Scotia - Canada. December 5, 1996 in Scottsdale, ArizonaRecord Labels: RCA, Decca, Apex, Starday, Bear Family

Wilf Carter, also known in the USA as Montana Slim, was the first great Canadian country star, even though he had never appeared in the national charts. Carter was strongly influenced by Jimmie Rodgers' music and always successfully used the cowboy image. Wilf Carter began his career in the early 1930s at the radio station CF CN in Calgary, and shortly afterwards accepted an offer from the CBS Network. He recorded his first record in December 1933 at RCA Studios in Montreal. Over the years Wilf Carter has written well over 500 songs and recorded countless records. His father was, as he recently explained in an interview, Swiss-born."

Wilf Carter

Perhaps the consummate Canadian country singer, Wilf Carter (1904-1996) launched his recording career the same year Jimmie Rodgers died. Carter displayed little musical affinity for Rodgers' Blue Yodels, preferring instead his ballads, western songs and pop-oriented material. As a yodeler, Carter leaned towards conventional Swiss styles, a technique he likely learned from records and vaudevillians passing through his native Nova Scotia. Although billed as Wilf Carter in his native Canada, American audiences knew him as Montana Slim, a moniker that stuck when announcer Bert Parks forgot his name during a CBS radio broadcast. Carter recorded his first Rodgers cover, Roll Along Kentucky Moon, during a 1939 Bluebird session in New York. This version of Whisper Your Mother's Name comes from Carter's second tenure with RCA, which mostly generated material for budget-priced Canadian albums. (Dave Samuelson)