R.W. Hampton

Hampton's latest release is the first album in a two-part project, "This Cowboy, My Country" which includes songs written or co-written by Hampton, as well as several cover versions. Two tracks on the album were pre-released in 2013 and 2014 to positive reviews and sold as singles to benefit a New Mexico Veterans group, (Horses for Heroes, New Mexico), that Hampton and his family have become involved with. "My Country's Not For Sale" stayed at the top of the Western Music radio charts for the entire 12 months of 2014 and the album "This Cowboy" was listed at No. 40 for Top True Country Albums for 2014 on the Roots Music Report. The album was at the No. 2 position for the Roots Music Report True Country Chart as of February 9, 2015.

Having recorded twelve albums, Hampton was a headline performer at the 2013 National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas, sponsored in part by the American Cowboy Culture Association. Hampton first played before an audience in Lubbock in 1978; his selection at that time was "Little Joe the Wrangler".

In late 2013 American Cowboy Magazine released their Legends Collector's Edition where they listed Hampton among the "Top 50 Greatest Country & Western Singers of All Time" along with Johnny Cash, Roy Rogers, George Strait, Hank Williams, Ian Tyson, and Chris LeDoux. In April 2014 Hampton's song "Born to be a Cowboy", originally recorded in 1994 was chosen by cowboy music radio host and writer Charley Engel as one of the Top 20 Cowboy Songs written in the previous 20 years, saying "One mark of success is how many times your song has been covered. There are no less than nine versions by other top artists." Other musicians on the list included Riders in the Sky, Michael Martin Murphey, Tom Russell and Don Edwards.

Prior to the album's release, the first European focus track, "Cowboy's Prayer", debuted at No. 2 on the UK Hotdisc Top 40 chart and rose to No. 1, where it remained for three weeks; the second European focus track, "Driftin' Again", debuted at No. 1. Early in 2011, Hampton received his third Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center in the "Outstanding Original Western Composition" category for his song, "Shortgrass", from this album.

Hampton has won industry awards for his performing and songwriting fifteen times, notably in November 2011, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Western Music Association. His first industry awards came in 1996, when the Academy of Western Artists presented him with its first Will Rogers awards, naming him both Male Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. Twelve months later, his album, Ridin’ The Dreamland Range, won recognition as the group's Album of the Year. The Academy named Hampton its Male Vocalist of the Year again in 1999, 2002 and 2006.

The Western Music Association inducted him into the Association's Hall of Fame in 2011, and have voted him Top Male Performer for 2004 and 2010,and his composition, "For the Freedom" (from his Western gospel album, I Believe) won the 2006 WMA Song of the Year. In September 2009, Hampton received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Cowboy Culture.

In 2008, Hampton won his second Western Heritage Award, this time for his album Oklahoma … Where the West Remains! which was named Outstanding Traditional Western Album. This album was Hampton's first performance with a full orchestra. It was praised by Western Horseman magazine for what it described as Hampton's "deep, velvety vocals, idyllic lyrics and cowboy authenticity" which has "captivated audiences worldwide."

Hampton won a Western Music Association award for Top Male Performer in 2004. In 2006, he won the WMA Song of the Year award for his composition "For the Freedom" (which appears on his album I Believe). American Cowboy magazine said of the record, "For The Freedom" "touches the heart in a personal way. Regardless of how one feels about war, it beautifully honors the soldiers’ work and commitment."

The one-man stage play The Last Cowboy was written with Hampton's brother Jeff, and playwright Dave Marquis in 1993. The show received critical praise for Hampton's performance, and for his interpretation of the cowboy past. His album The Last Cowboy – His Journey, which was inspired by the play, won him his first Wrangler Award in 2000 for Excellence in Dramatic Presentation and Original Music Composition from the National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center.

Throughout the 1990s, Hampton continued his recording and entertainment career, appearing in several Western films and recording five albums in six years from 1994 to 1999. In 1996, he received the Academy of Western Artists’ first Will Rogers Award for both Male Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. A year later, his album, Ridin’ The Dreamland Range, won the association's Album of the Year. The Academy named Hampton its Male Vocalist of the Year again in 1999.

After eleven years working as a cowboy working on western ranches, Hampton began a career in music. In 1984, he released his first album, Travelin' Light, with appearances at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Kenny Rogers chose Hampton to play himself, a cowboy singing at the campfire, in the television movie, Wild Horses.

R. W. Hampton (born June 17, 1957 in Houston, Texas) is an American western music singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. Hampton has achieved both critical and commercial success, winning multiple awards from the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists and three separate Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.