Montana Slim - Put My Little Shoes Away ~1936

Wilf Carter (who during his CBS years from 1934-1940 would start going by Montana Slim at the station's request) was born in 1904, and uncharacteristically for a country star...in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, Canada. One of nine children, he began working odd jobs at the age of eight to help provide for the family, but became interested in singing after seeing a traveling Swiss performer named "The Yodeling Fool" come through town. Sadly, he would leave home at 15 after a falling out with his father. By 18, he was working as a lumberjack and hopped trains to go west to Calgary, Alberta where he found work on the Davis Ranch as a cowboy. He would make extra money singing and playing guitar at dances and socials and even some traveling gigs through the Canadian Rockies, finding his style and his own unique yodeling sound.
His popularity grew over the years and he would perform on his first radio broadcast on CFCN Alberta in 1930. He would also be broadcast nationally on CRBC. To make ends meet, he took to entertaining tourists as a trail rider for the Canadian Pacific Railway and promoted horseback excursions in the Rockies. In 1933, he was hired as an entertainer on the maiden voyage of the British ship S.S. Empress, and more importantly for us, began his recording career in Montreal with "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" and "The Capture of Albert Johnson", the latter becoming the first hit record ever by a Canadian country performer. As mentioned earlier, from 1934-1940, he hosted a CBS country music program in New York City, and to appeal to the American public, CBS changed his name to "Montana Slim". He would travel back and forth between NY and Canada, still performing on WABC radio and buying a ranch in Alberta in 1937. His CBS contract would not be renewed after 1940. Worse still, Carter was involved in a car accident, ironically in Montana, leaving him unable to perform for nearly a decade, although he was still able to trickle out recordings, keeping his name and popularity alive. He would resume touring in 1949, sold his ranch and moved his family to a 180 acre farm in New Jersey. Touring and traveling in both the US and Canada, he attracted huge audiences wherever he would go whether it was 50,000 people a day at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto or his first time playing at the Calgary Stampede, he was consistently a popular act even into the 1980's!
Wilf recorded for RCA-Victor for most of his recording career, including the song you're hearing here, "Put My Little Shoes Away", a song put together by Samuel N. Mitchell, Charles E. Pratt, and A. B. Sebren. The recording took place way back in June 24, 1936 and wasn't released until this record was on August 14, 1942 for Bluebird. He would move to Nashville and switch to recording for Decca from 1954 to 1957. During that time he would use a backing band that featured up-and-comers Chet Atkins and Grady Martin. In total, there are over 350 individual releases listed in DAHR, and Wikipedia claims 40 LPs in total, so it's safe to say Wilf was quite prolific through the years and knew how to play the music game. To stay relevant from the 1930's up to his last album released in 1988 is something VERY few artists can claim. His last concert appearance was in 1991 at age 86. He would retire the following year and lived to 91 years of age.

[@CrampedGrampy]

To use a very old expression: This is a real tearjerker, I write this with respect to the author and for the singer. How sweet.