'WHERE THE WEST REMAINS' BY R.W. HAMPTON
WINS SECOND ALBUM OF THE YEAR AWARD
(NASHVILLE, TN – December 3, 2008) Oklahoma...Where the West Remains, the latest recording by award-winning western music artist R.W. Hampton, has been named Album of the Year by the Western Music Association.
"I am truly honored that the members of this association would find this love letter about the West and the state of Oklahoma as moving as I have," said Hampton, who received the award at the 20th Annual Western Music Awards on November 22 in Albuquerque, N.M.
This is the second honor this year for Oklahoma...Where the West Remains. It received the prestigious Wrangler Award for Best Traditional Western Album at the annual Western Heritage Awards sponsored by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Commemorating Oklahoma's 2007 State Centennial Celebration, the album is the brainchild of Executive Producer Edna Mae Holden of Enid, Okla. The text and songs were written with Hampton in mind as the "voice" to carry the story along with accompaniment by the Enid Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Doug Newell, and the Chisholm Trail Cowboy Band. Produced by Richard O'Brien, the album was a four-year project from conception to realization.
Oklahoma...Where the West Remains is a monumental 33-track, hour-long journey in story and song. Hampton and friends take the listener on a 100-year musical and factual journey, visiting the Native Americans, buffalo soldiers, cattle drovers, ranch hands, settlers and seekers, industrialists and artisans, cowboys and characters that formed the fabric of the Sooner State. While telling the story of Oklahoma, the album also depicts the parallel history of America's Westward expansion and development.
"Working on this project with my friends Edna Mae Holden, Rich O'Brien and the Enid Symphony has been exceptionally rewarding," said Hampton. "This latest award is a tribute to their dedication and love for the album and its subject."
The award from the Western Music Association is Hampton's third. He was named Male Performer of the Year in 2004, and his song For the Freedom was Song of the Year in 2006.