Kenneth Stewart 'Stew' Clayton
was born on the family farm near Kaleida,
Manitoba, Canada on February 22,
1929. He grew up listening to the
music of early American country singers
like The Carter Family and was greatly
impressed by the songs and yodels of
fellow Canadians, Wilf Carter (aka Montana
Slim) and Hank Snow. Clayton counted
other influences as Jimmy Rogers, Texas
Morton from Australia, and Woody Guthrie.
At age 18, Stew received his first guitar
- a $9.95 Lone Ranger guitar from the T.
Eaton Co. After that first
challenging winter with an almost
unplayable mail-ordered instrument, a
relative commented, “Boy, you’ll have
bloody white whiskers down to your knees
before you learn to play that thing!”
Never learning to read music, Clayton
taught himself to play, not only guitar,
but banjo, musical saw and mouth
organ. Through instruction booklets,
he learned how to play chords and the rest
was just by ear. He began composing
music at an early age and performed in the
halls and fairs in small towns throughout
Manitoba.
The farm became an endless source of
inspiration for tunes about rural
living. In 1948, he wrote his first
song Memories of My Old Prairie Home,
and listeners voted him King of the Saddle
on a radio program in the 1950s.
Once called Canada’s Country Conscience on
the cover of the Canadian Bluegrass
Review, he never made a set list
preferring to "just sing the songs that
the room needed to hear on any given day".
A highlight of Stew's career was being
invited to close the Canadian Country
Music Week Award show in the early
1980s. He performed Red River
Valley, accompanied only by his
guitar, and received a standing
ovation. He appeared on shows such
as “Midday”, “Coleman and Company”, “On
the Road Again”, and "The Tommy Hunter
Show”.
Clayton composed more than 200 songs and
his debut recording was released in 1964
on Frontier, a label out of
Waterloo-Quebec. From Frontier, he
moved to Quality Records, then Stompin'
Tom Collins label, Boots Records and
finally Sunshine Records in 1974.
The last 7 or 8 recordings he made were
done in his home and self-released.
Stew was most well known for his ground
breaking albums The Farmer Volume 1
and The Farmer Volume 2.
With a career spanning 70 years, Stew
Clayton delighted audiences around the
world from the early '50s on, playing
music inspired by his own farm
background. The eleven-time
international yodeling champion, in a 2016
interview when asked at what age he began
yodeling, replied: "Since I was about 4 or
5 years old. I didn't know I was
yodeling then, but I could always make my
voice break. I've always told people
it's not a talent - it's more of a gift."
Affectionately know as the 'Canadian
Balladeer', Clayton continued to perform
and record until shortly before his death.
Stew Clayton passed away on October 14,
2023 at the Pembina Manitou Health Centre.
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