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Burton
                      Cummings & Neil Young 1987


STEW  CLAYTON


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MY LAST OLD YODEL SONG



Stew Clayton

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.


Stew Clayton Album -
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Stew Clayton Album -
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The following video is a clip from an interview conducted by Al Thorleifson for the Manitou Archives in October 2012.  At age 83, Stew Clayton plays a verse of the first song he ever wrote back in 1948.



Compiled and adapted from the following sources:

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