A full crowd gathered in the arena at the Honey Garlic and Maple Syrup Festival (HGMSF) Saturday afternoon for a special feature paying tribute to one of the first performers on the HGMSF stage Stew Clayton. Clayton's music was heard once again almost a full year after his passing at 94. He was best known as a yodeler.
Two of his daughters, Juanita and Loriann Clayton performed some of their dad's songs as the Yodeling Daughters along with Loriann's husband Ed Bethard and son Corbin.
Juanita said her father gave so much to Manitou and the surrounding area.
"Dad liked to do things for the community and he liked to do the stuff that he could do. If anybody ever wanted him to sing, he was very agreeable."
Loriann agreed.
"Most of his songs he wrote were inspired by this community and like Juanita said, if he could give back, he always wanted to because it just meant so much to him."
Juanita described how he pioneered his craft and legacy in their family.
"He just loved music. He just loved to entertain. He was the beginning of music in our lineage. He knew no music. His parents didn't have any music. He didn't have siblings that knew music. He just fell in love with a song on the radio and decided that someday that he wanted to do that kind of thing. He bought a guitar from the catalog when he was already 19 years old, so it wasn't like he started when he was young, like lots of people do. He was already an adult and didn't even know how to play the guitar. It's really remarkable."
Brothers, Will and James Sharpe on guitar, (who are grandsons of one of Stew's band mates Laurie Lea) along with Charlie Howatt on steel guitar, performed for the crowd as the Stew Clayton Tribute Band.
Howatt, who wore Clayton's Kaleida K's baseball uniform on stage, said it was special to be asked to perform.
"...because Stew knew us since we were all pretty little, for our whole lives. He was our school bus driver for my siblings and me and hundreds of other kids. So, hearing his voice on the records while we learned these songs was pretty nostalgic. And it was a lot of fun to learn those songs with these guys. Stew was a good friend of both our families for many, many years and several generations of our families too. So, it's pretty special."
James studied Clayton's music and style to prepare for the tribute performance.
"I transferred a bunch of Stew's records to digital, so actually I'd listened to Stew for hours just to make sure the record didn't skip and then actually, he'd come sometimes to play at the old time dances when I was playing bass, so he'd do the odd song, he'd get up and sing, and I got to listen to his style and got to like it quite a bit."
Will said they were all fans of Clayton and remembered hearing him perform on the stage at HGMSF. He said they were very well received, noting everyone loved to hear his songs performed again on that very stage.
"I wouldn't consider myself a yodeler. Not in the sense that Stew was. Stew was actually able to break his voice and hit those notes a little differently than I'm able to. I can't break my voice the way he did so I sort of just sing the pitches and try and use my tongue to sort of paddle through those little changes. It's not quite like he did, but I try and make it work."
Juanita and Loriann were very impressed by the young men and their tribute. The crowd was too, ending their final song with Clayton's signature yodel bringing thunderous applause and some to their feet.
Juanita expressed what she thought the tribute would mean to her dad.
"If Dad had been here, he would have been shaking his head in disbelief that these young, young men were singing his songs - and killing it. Like just really doing such a great job. He wasn't an emotional guy through most of his life. When we get up there in years, I think that changes a bit. I just envisioned him, the tears streaming down his face with an overwhelmed heart, listening to the boys. That's what I imagine."
It was nice for Loriann and her family to come back from her home in Missouri for the festival.
"I think the tribute was a closure, a nice opportunity for the whole community to come together. They have really supported us all of our lives. Dad was born in this area. He was born in the farmhouse. He never considered leaving. This was always home. He made travel, but he always came back. And this was always what was important to him: having coffee with the guys after he dropped the kids off with the school bus and playing snooker. It just checked off all of his boxes."
Below you can hear some of the tribute performance and the full interviews with Juanita and Loriann Clayton and with Will and James Sharpe and Charlie Howatt of the Stew Clayton Tribute Band.