While cowboy songs and poetry are unique to the cattle ranching culture, the term western music includes a much broader subject matter. It was composed by and about those who settled and lived in the U.S. and Canadian west and included ballads and songs about mountain men, miners, outlaws, gunfighters, and of course cowboys.
It was flavoured by Mexican music and shared similar roots to what was originally called hillbilly music from the Appalachia region of the U.S. For a long time, these two types of music had their own performers and listeners and it was not until the mid-20th century that the two were amalgamated into the modern term country music.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, western music grew in popularity, especially after the heavily romanticised cowboy movies caught the imagination of the public. While stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers had been cowboys in real life, others like Bing Crosby, who recorded numerous cowboy and Western songs and starred in the Western musical film Rhythm on the Range (1936), was totally unfamiliar with ranch life. During this era, the most popular records and radio shows involved Western music.
In the midst of the popularity, two Canadians with unlikely backgrounds soared to the top of the music charts.
Wilf Carter was born in Port Hillfored, Nova Scotia and left home at the age of 15. In 1923, after working as a lumberjack and singing with hobos 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, and traveling throughout the Canadian Rockies. In 1935, Carter moved to New York City, where he hosted a CBS country music radio program. It was during this time that someone called him Montana Slim, and the name stuck. In 1937, Carter returned to Alberta, where he purchased a ranch. He continued to appear on both American and Canadian radio shows, as well as performing live concerts. Wilf Carter recorded more than 40 original and compilation LP records for RCA Victor and its affiliates and, in 1979 served as the grand marshall of the Calgary Stampede.
Clarence Eugene “Hank” Snow, also from the Maritimes, was born in the small community of Brooklyn in Queens County, N.S.. At the age of 12, he ran away to sea as a cabin boy to avoid an abusive home life. After four years at sea, Snow returned home determined to make a living by singing. His first public performance involved playing for free on a Halifax radio station. He began to earn money singing in halls and nightclubs throughout Nova Scotia and became “Hank” Snow because he liked the cowboy sound of the name. In 1936, he signed with RCA Victor in Montreal, from where he moved to Nashville and achieved stardom as Hank Snow, the Singing Ranger. After singing at the Grand Ole Opry in 1950, (where he introduced a young Elvis Presley in 1954), his song I’m Moving On stayed as number one on the country music charts for a world record 21 weeks. Snow had a career covering six decades during which he sold more than 80 million albums.
Ken Mather is a Spallumcheen author. He can be reached through www.kenmather.com.