Search - Montana Slim :: I'm Hittin the Trail

This CD -- WAY BETTER than I thought it would be !!!!!

George Stancliffe | Toppenish, WA | 02/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I only got this because a friend was needing to get a copy of her favorite childhood song "Little Yoho Lady," but I kept listening to the whole CD over and over again for about a full week!! I couldn't quit listening to it. The more I listened, the more I liked Carter's lyrics and especially his voice (including his yodeling).



Wilf Carter ("Montana Slim") is a great singer/song writer.



--George Stancliffe"

A Good Old Canadian Cowboy Sings Again!

James Yelvington | USA | 05/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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If you're looking at this CD review, chances are you're (1) an old-timer, (2) a serious fan of cowboy/western music, or (3) a student of the history of cowboy/western music. This inference stems from the fact that "Montana Slim," known in Canada by his real name, Wilf Carter, is little heard of these days except among the above groups. But this was not always the case: in the 1930s and 40s he was very popular, both in the U.S. and Canada, for his many recordings, radio performances, and personal appearances. And though I personally have no childhood recollection of hearing his songs, I'm sure I must have heard them, for when I became aware of him in the 1960s there was from the start a sort of "deja vu" quality to his songs and his way of singing and yodeling. No doubt many others of a certain age will share that feeling of familiarity on hearing this music.



Wilf Carter (1904-1996) left his Nova Scotia home as a youth and hopped a train west to Calgary, Alberta, where he worked as a cowboy, among other odd jobs. In his spare time he practiced the singing and yodeling he'd loved and worked at since as a child he'd heard a travelling Swiss singer called "The Yodelling Fool." He also taught himself to play simple guitar accompaniments, and before long was picking up extra money with his music. By 1930 he was good enough to sing, yodel, and strum his cowboy songs weekly on the local Calgary radio station (CFCN). He was soon hired by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to entertain tourists on trail rides within the Canadian Rockies, where he was a favorite. In 1933 while passing through Montreal, he recorded two of his original songs for RCA, and the disk, which included "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby," was a best seller by the following year. From then on his musical activities, financial success, and popularity snowballed until a serious auto accident sidelined him for nearly all of the 1940s. With his eventual recuperation he resumed his career and continued it up into his eighties, releasing his last recordings at age 84.



Starting out as a solo act, singing, yodeling, and accompanying himself on the guitar, he began to work with small bands around the 1950s with variable success, his popularity now definitely on the wane. Unlike his fellow cowboy singers Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, and Rex Allen, he never had a film career, but sustained himself and his family on the proceeds of his many records and radio and tour appearances. He died in the U.S. a few days short of his 92nd birthday, a largely forgotten figure.



During his heyday in the 1930s and 40s Montana Slim distinguished himself by his fine, straightforward singing, his expert yodeling, and his simple, but effective guitar accompaniments, in addition to his considerable talent as a song writer. (Of the 26 songs on the present CD, he is credited with 20, and he arranged two others from traditional sources.) His recorded output is impressive: the Bear Family has issued three collections of his singing, one of which alone contains 8 CDs with 159 songs! Some of his more popular songs are: My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby, The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan, The Capture of Albert Johnson, Old Shep, There's a Love-Knot in My Lariat, The Blue Canadian Rockies, The Prisoner's Song, Hang the Key on the Bunkhouse Door, When It's Springtime in the Rockies, There's a Bluebird on Your Windowsill, My Little Yoho Lady, The Smoke Went Up the Chimney Just the Same, It Makes No Difference Now, and A Little Old Log Shack I Always Call My Home.



This CD is made up mostly of Carter's earlier recordings, in which he sings and yodels to his own guitar accompaniment the songs which he personally wrote or arranged. At least 8 are among his more popular items. Only three were recorded after 1940. Much of the charm of this music lies in its simplicity and sincerity, its celebration of the simple, wholesome, hard-working life of the cowboy in the natural beauty of the wide-open spaces of the West. And if occasionally a song or two seems a bit formulaic or stereotyped, well, it never presumed to be art of the loftiest character: its folk-like nature tells us it is music made for no more serious purpose than to entertain common people. But more than a few do go beyond mere entertainment to bring us something more lasting and meaningful. They seize us with a yearning to be out there by the campfire with our fellow wranglers singing and trading tales at the end of a hard day, getting into the relaxed mood for a peaceful night of sound sleep. Is there anyone so immune to the cowboy legend that he can resist this invitation to participate in it vicariously? Not me!



ASV Living Era does a very good job of transferring these songs from the mostly 78 RPM disk sources. Their philosophy is to tamper as little as possible with the sound, and it pays off in the quality of the result. Though a few flaws will be heard, there is no suggestion of phoniness or gimmickry, but only the honest sound of a cowboy, his voice, and his guitar. The liner notes are informative, and the recording particulars, including date, of each track are given. For the money, you can't do much better musically than this CD. And if there's any trace of the cowboy in you, you'll agree with me that it rates 5 stars.

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