Ben Taylor
Ms. Lind and Mr. Viles
English/History
12/18/07
Outline
I. Introduction
A. Report subject
II. Biography of Slim Clark
A. Birth place
B. Starting music career
C. Family life
III. History of Yodeling
A. Relation to Slim Clark
B. Yodeling technique
C. Yodeling origin
IV. Wilf Carter (Montana Slim)
A. Influence of Slim Clark
B. Accomplishments
Ben Taylor
Ms. Lind/ Mr. Viles
English/History
12/18/07
This report is on a former resident of St. Albans, Maine. His name was Raymond Clark. This report will show about his lifestyle and how he became famous.
Slim Clark
Raymond L. Clark, more commonly known as “Slim Clark”, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1917. Ever since he could understand what they were singing about, Slim Clark had an interest in cowboy music. At the age of seven or eight, he decided that he wanted to be a cowboy singer. “I’d sit in the rocking chair and rock for hours listening to the old songs by Charlie Blake, John White, Jimmie Rodgers, and Bradley Kincaid.” (www.yodelingslimclark.com)
One day someone came along and taught him a few chords on the guitar. Those few chords were the only ones that he ever played. “I never became much of a guitar player, but for the type of song that I do and the style that I have and the crudeness of my delivery, the way that I play is very much in line with everything else, so I’ve never bothered to become much of a guitar player”, said Clark. (www.yodelingslimclark.com)
He completed two years of high school before he became a professional singer for the public in 1932 when he was only fifteen years old. Clark considered himself to be a cowboy
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singer. “A cowboy is anyone who lives that type of life, no matter where he is”, he said. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) He started out singing with some of the local bands. “I use to get two dollars a night, pretty good money. Of course I had to walk four or five miles carrying a guitar case to get there”, said Clark. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) A few times a year some music groups went through the town and they had “cowboy shows”. Sometimes he would sing on stage and the music groups would ask him to travel with them and he did. Around that same time there was a singer by the name of Montana Slim (aka Wilf Carter), and every day at 9:00 a.m., Clark would listen to him on the radio because that is what his idea of a cowboy singer was.
Clark first sang on a radio station in Massachusetts, and in 1938 he started more than a decade of performances on the radio station WKNE in New Hampshire. He went on the air as “Wyoming Buck”, but a few months later a radio station manager re-named him “Yodeling Slim Clark”, which he stuck with for the rest of his career. (www.wikipedia.org) In the early ‘50’s he moved to Maine for the hunting and fishing he loved. He starred in the 1960’s on the station “RFD Dinnerbell” out of Bangor. (www.geocities.com) At one point, Slim Clark was in the group “The Red River Rangers”. Later he had his own band “The Trail Riders” with Dick Curless, who played rhythm guitar and he was in another band called the “Tralesmen”. (www.geocities.com) They played throughout New England, New York and New Jersey. He made his first record in 1946 after signing with Continental Records in New York City. (www. wikipedia.org) He gained popularity in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe
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with only a few performances outside of New England. Shortly after his death, Clark’s first CD was released. Clark wrote more than 100 songs in his lifetime. (Kathleen Clark) “I had all kinds of chances to be up there on the top shelf, but it required staying and living in the big city, playing clubs, meeting with people all the time, and I was too much of a country boy to stand for that,” said Clark. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) The way he saw it was, hunting and fishing came first because if he couldn’t do those things than he would be unhappy and than he couldn’t do his job. During the hunting and fishing seasons he would go out in the woods and the people he worked with couldn’t get a hold of him so they would just wait until he came back.
Some of the biggest influences on Slim Clark’s singing were Jimmie Rodgers and Wilf Carter. They were the ones who helped him decide to be a cowboy singer. His style of singing was very close to their styles of singing.
Slim Clark is in the Yodeler’s Hall of Fame, The Western Music Association’s Hall of Fame and The Country Music Hall of Fame and the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Clark was also a big sports fan and he once tried out as a pitcher for the Boston braves. That team, after moving to Milwaukee is now currently known as the Atlanta Braves.
In 1943 Clark was married to Celia Jo Roberson Clark and they had two children, a son named Wilf Carter Clark and a daughter named Jewel LaVerne Clark. They also both enjoy singing and playing country music. He went through a divorce in 1968 and then married Kathleen M. Pigeon Clark in 1981. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) Kathleen Clark now lives in St. Albans and has a chiropractic office in Hartland.
Some jobs that Clark had other than singing include being a Maine guide to hunters and
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fishers, and he worked in a factory. He also sang at a dude ranch and use to lead trail rides and entertained tourists on the rides. He didn’t like with the way country music started changing from country to pop and country rock, “it got out of hand for me”. Said Clark. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) He wrote that he loved to go to the festivals and shows and meet the people but he didn’t like to travel too far to get there. He didn’t like to wait to sing either when he could be doing something else.
Late in life, Clark still performed at fairs and festivals up and down the eastern seaboard.
He also loved to paint. He liked to paint the outdoors, wildlife, hunting and fishing, old country
homes and farms, country roads and old logging scenes. He liked to paint “the old days, the horse and drag days, things like that, and the log-hauling days. I like to paint those particular types of pictures. Especially deer and landscapes.” He Said. (www.yodelingslimclark.com) Some other hobbies that he liked were hunting, fishing and golf. He once played fifty-six holes of golf in one day. (Kathleen Clark)
Slim Clark was a man of faith and a lot of his songs had a Christian meaning to them. He wrote in his autobiography, “If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing…perhaps a little differently, but basically the same.” (www.yodelingslimclark.com) Clark’s life ended on July 5, 2000.
The History of Yodeling
Yodeling is the style of singing that Slim Clark sang. He grew up listening to it and knew that was the style of music he would one day like to play and entertain with.
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Yodeling is a style of singing that involves an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch making a high, low, high, low sound. (www.wikipedia.org)
The style of yodeling originated in the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps are in central Switzerland and continue to grow a little bit every year. There are a number of individual mountains that make up the Swiss Alps. Today the Swiss Alps are a popular tourist attraction because of the hiking, climbing and a train ride that takes you through the mountains.
Yodeling started when the people in Switzerland use to yodel to communicate between mountaintops. They would use short yells that would mean something such as, “It’s time for dinner”. They were never really saying anything. A certain group of yells would mean a
certain thing. Eventually they decided that they liked the sound of it and they turned it into a form of singing. Even now, most of the time they are not saying anything in traditional style yodeling like in Switzerland and Austria.Yodeling is used in European folk music and many other cultures throughout the world, including American bluegrass and country music.
Wilf Carter (Montana Slim)
Wilf Carter was one of Slim Clark’s biggest influences on his singing. Wilf Carter, or Montana Slim, was a Canadian country singer, yodeler and a songwriter like Slim Clark. Carter was Canada’s first country music star. He recorded over forty records and in 1983, he re-recorded his top hits onto one album, Fifty Golden Years. (www.wikipedia.org) In 1971 he was inducted into the Nashvill Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 1984 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. (www.wikipedia.org)
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Works Cited
Interview
1) Clark, Kathleen. Personal Interview. 12/8/07.
Internet
1) Clark, Raymond L. "Yodeling Slim Clark." 20 Nov. 2007 http://www.yodelingslimclark.com/.
2) Cleary, Don. "Yodeling Slim Clark." New England Music Scrapbook. 19 Nov. 2007
http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/c/slimclark.htm.
3) "Wilf Carter." Wikipedia. 6 Dec. 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodelin'_Slim_Clark.
5) "Yodeling." Wikipedia. 20 Nov. 2007
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Works Consulted
Internet
1) Keller, Florian. "Yodeling: an Art Form of the Alps." Vienna Online. June 1999. 29 Nov.
2007 http://www.geocities.com/viennaonline/ai/ai0699.html.
2) "The Swiss Alps." Articles Directory. 1 Dec. 2007
Book
1) Biglow, M. Gladys. Knowles, M, Ruth. History of St. Albans Maine, Heritage Books, INC.,
Bowie, Maryland, 2003
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