1997 Inductees
 

Clarence E. "Hank" Snow was born tn Brooklyn. Queens County, Nova Scotia, on May 9,1914. He was a great Jimme Rodgers fan as a teenager and in the beginning copied his style. In his late teens Hank moved to Halifax, his goal to sing on radio station CHNS. He became a regular there for several yean and became known as Hank The Yodeling Ranger. While in Halifax he married Minnie Aalders. Their son, Jimme Rodgers Snow, was born there.

On October 10. 1936 Hank went to Montreal and recorded two songs for RCA entitled "The Prisoned Cowboy" and "Lonesome Blue Yodel". Though not hits, the record sold well enough that he was back at RCA in the fall of 1937 and recorded eight more songs. From this session "The Blue Velvet Band" was a major hit and started his rise to fame. For the next several years Hank appeared on the other Canadian radio stations and continued to record for RCA.

In 1945 Hank moved to the Jamboree on WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia, and was very popular there. Around this time he bought has trained horse Shawnee, and for a few years toured each summer with a tent show. In 1948 Hank moved to the Bag D Jamboree in Dallas, Texas. Though he was in the United Stales and becoming popular there RCA refused to release his records there until 1949.

With the help of Ernest Tubb. Hank moved to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM Nashville in January, 1950. His reception there was not exceptional until he recorded "I'm Moving On"  That song was on the country charts a total of 44 weeks and was at #1 for 21 of those weeks. A string of hits followed and RCA kept Hank on the label until 1981.

Hank, along with Ernest Tubb, helped establish the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial in Meridian. Mississippi, the first being held May 26, 1953. twenty years after Rodgers death.  Hank has had many honors bestowed over his long career and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville in 1979.  Hank and his wife now live quietly in the modest home they purchased in 1930 northwest of Nashville.
 

Wilf Carter was born in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia on December 18, 1904. As his father was a minister, the family moved around and it was while in the Canning area that Wilf slipped away to hear a yodeler billed as "The Yodeling Fool." Wilf decided at once to be a yodeler, against the wishes of his parents.

As a young man, Wilf move to Alberta where he worked on ranches and continued to develop his singing and yodeling style. His first radio work was on CFCN Calgary where he performed Friday nights for five dollars. He was later hired to entertain the Canadian Pacific trail rides out of Banff, Alberta.  CP hired Wilf to sing on the maiden voyage of their cruise ships Empress of Britain. On his way to catch the ship, he stopped in Montreal to audition for RCA Victor. On December 30, 1933, Wilf recorded two songs for Victor's A & R man, A. Hugh Joseph. "Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" and "The Capture of Albert Johnson" were instant hits. The two songs have remained popular for more than 60 years and have continually been available on 78, LP and now on compact disc.

After the cruise, Wilf went on the CBS network out of New York and was heard across the United States. It was here that he was given the name "Montana Slim". His records were extremely popular in the US, Canada and Australia. It has been said he carried the Canadian division of RCA through the depression.  In 1940, Wilf was almost killed in a car accident. He spend most of the early 1940s recuperation at his rand in Alberta raising beef cattle. Wilf never lost the urge to entertain, however, and shortly after World War II, he move to New Jersey, hit the road again and continued recording.

Most of Wilf's recording career was with RCA, though he recorded for Decca in 1935 and again from a954 to 1958. He later returned to RCA and remained with the company until his final LP in 1988. That album included the hit "Whatever Became of Those Years". Wilf as still packing the auditoriums right up to his final tour in 1990.  Wilf Carter passed away in Arizona after a bout with cancer on December 5, 1996. just two weeks before his 92nd birthday.

http://fieldwoodhs.ednet.ns.ca/cfhswilf.html