Wilfred Arthur Charles Carter (December 18, 1904 – December 5, 1996), professionally known as Wilf Carter in his native Canada and also as Montana Slim in the United States, was a Canadian Country and Western singer, songwriter, guitarist, and yodeller. He wrote over 500 songs. In 1971, Wilf Carter was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Widely acknowledged as the father of Canadian country music, Carter was Canada's first country music star, inspiring a generation of young Canadian performers. Early years Carter was born in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, Canada. One of nine children, he began working odd jobs by the age of eight in Canning, Nova Scotia. He began singing after seeing a traveling 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, at age 18, after working as a lumberjack and singing with hobos in boxcars, Carter moved west to Calgary, Alberta, where he became friends with Pete Knight and found work as a cowboy. (In 1979, Carter served as the grand marshal at the Calgary Stampede.) He made extra money singing and playing his guitar at dances, performing for tourist parties, and traveling throughout 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". Radio years (1930–1940) Carter performed his first radio broadcast on CFCN Alberta 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, he was hired as an entertainer on the maiden voyage of the British ship S.S. Empress. Later that year, he stopped off in Montreal and made his first recording: "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" and "The Capture of Albert Johnson". After signing with the Canadian branch of RCA Victor, "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" became the first hit record ever by a Canadian country performer. That same year, Carter also wrote and recorded "Pete Knight, The King of the Cowboys," which also became a hit. For seven years (1934-1940) he hosted his own CBS country music radio program in New York City. His announcer was Bert Parks. CBS