Cimarron Sounds, Vol. 7

Editor's Note: Cimarron Sounds is an online blog series presented by C&I from award-winning Western artist RW Hampton. Read — or listen to — Hampton's musings on Western life and music.

Howdy, folks! It’s so good to be back with you again. If you remember last time, we talked about western movies, especially those of the “singing cowboy” genre from the silver screen western movie era. Well today, I want to invite you to go back in time with me as I reminisce and rerun my own adventures on the western movie trail.

That trail, for me, started way back in 1978 as a working ranch cowboy who all of the sudden found himself on camera, with, at the time, the world’s biggest entertainment star! But first, a commercial break.

I was blessed to grow up a Texas town kid in the ’60s. Life was beautiful then for a boy with a BB gun, a baseball mitt, a Sears bike, and a little sorrel filly named Mariah that I kept out on the edge of town.

At that time there were literally dozens of western TV series to pick from every week. Some of these like Gunsmoke and Bonanza were primetime, while others were shown on Saturday mornings as reruns like the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans show and The Lone Ranger.

Also important for me was a boyhood sanctuary in the town I grew up in, called Westwood Theater. It was there that I would go see my own personal heroes like Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, John Wayne, and Texas’ own Audie Murphy. The films of these men, the values they portrayed, and their sense of right and wrong are what shaped much of my growing up and the way I still think today. Thanks to the easy accessibility of DVDs, I have been able to share the very films that shaped me my own five sons.

Go back with me to 1978. Just a few short years earlier, after graduating from high school, I set out to become a cowboy. Part of that experience took me from the Southwest, on a trail leading to the Great Basin, sagebrush country of the far northwest ranges better known as buckaroo country.

I was blessed to grow up a Texas town kid in the ’60s. Life was beautiful then for a boy with a BB gun, a baseball mitt, a Sears bike, and a little sorrel filly named Mariah that I kept out on the edge of town.

While out on the IL Ranch north of Elko, Nevada, I was involved in the filming of a primetime 1979 show called Kenny Rogers and the American Cowboy. It was about the life and music of real working cowboys. In the show, Kenny was seen riding alongside, working with us, talking to us, and experiencing what real working cowboys do and how they live.

Kenny’s crew filmed just about everything, including a scene where I took a brand-new hat that he’d just bought in town. I told him it was silly looking, like he was wearing the box and threw away the hat. So we walked down to a stream and pushed it under the ice-cold water to shape it so it would look a little more like what a “sure nuff” hand would wear.

I soaked Kenny in the process for a laugh, but he was finally wearing a  real hat. We later filmed a scene where Kenny and I had our guitars sitting on a log around a nighttime campfire singing while the cow crew listened. I sang the old cowboy classic “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” while Kenny chose a modern-day James Taylor classic, “Sweet Baby James.”

RW Hampton and Kenny Rogers in  the 1978 TV movie Kenny Rogers and the American Cowboy.

Well, that’s where it all started for me: the collision of a young cowboy with the music and film industry — a surprise crash course that would prove to be very valuable later on.

To say that I enjoyed my 30 minutes in the spotlight would be an understatement, but it came and went pretty fast, leaving some wonderful memories though.

I can best sum up the next years of my life as “meanwhile, back at the ranch …” Fast-forward to 1985. An evening phone call from L.A. revealed a familiar voice on the other end of line. It was Ken Kragen, show business mogul and manager of Lionel Ritchie and Kenny Rogers. He said, “Kenny is doing a CBS movie of the week — a modern-day western about rounding up wild horses in Wyoming. We were talking about it, and Kenny and I both agreed how much fun it would be for you to come join us again! You’d be riding, fighting, talking, and singing. So whaddya think RW?”

What did I think? Well it didn’t take long for me to say, “I’m in, Sir!” I loaded my saddle, and before I knew it, I found myself along with Kenny Rogers and Mork & Mindy star Pam Dawber way up north of Sheridan, Wyoming, on location, near the Montana line.

At first I was kind of overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of things I’d never seen or heard before: trucks and trailers, camera equipment, spotlights, and people, lots of ’em, running around everywhere. Then I met the true stars of the picture: Ben Johnson, Richard Farnsworth, Buck Taylor, and world-renowned stuntman/coordinator David Cass.

Kris Kristofferson (center) and the posse (including RW Hampton, second from right) from the 1988 HBO film The Tracker.

I worked right at a month on Wild Horses and shortly thereafter joined the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. I stayed in touch with Uncle Ben, Dick, Buck, and especially stunt coordinator David Cass. In those days if you were doing a movie anywhere in the West that involved horses, riding, fighting, shooting, and action, there was a real good chance that you would run across Dave Cass making it all happen.

I was fortunate to get to be part of a core group that Cass worked with on so many pictures — guys like me that he knew could ride, handle firearms, take direction, say their lines, and do their own stunts, too. In the ’80s, Santa Fe was cranking out westerns, several at a time and I enjoyed working on many of them between ranch jobs. Some of those titles include Desperado, Long Arm, Independence, The Gambler ll, Trigger Man, Sundown, The Tracker, Lucky Luke, and Doc West.

In more recent years, I have enjoyed working on a new breed of western film: independent westerns with family-friendly themes and strong moral messages. One of the independent film companies that I have enjoyed working with is Skeleton Creek Productions out of Enid, Oklahoma. Brothers Rick and Larry Simpson hold the reins of this outfit, where they write the scripts, do the development, produce, direct, and star. Their titles to date are Trail to Abilene, Canyon Trail, and Cactus Creek. In these films you’ll see familiar faces like Buck Taylor, Wyatt McCrea, Tom Ward, and me in a recurring role as Logan.

I just finished a film project right before Christmas that I’m very, very proud and honored to be a part of. Peace River is a production of FaithWorks Pictures out of Los Angeles. Under the direction of Douglas Vail, this movie tells the moving story of a young, modern ranch-raised champion rodeo cowboy turned special ops soldier who is crushed by war and personal loss. In dealing with his own injuries and the demons of war, he must draw on the cowboy way and a profound faith in Jesus Christ to find his way back home and recover the will to live and the love of his life.

RW Hampton and Jessica Nunez-Wood in 2021’s Peace River (FaithWorks Pictures).

In Peace River, I play an old family friend who is a ranch-country church pastor, mentor, and high school rodeo coach. A veteran himself, he’s able to share his own experiences on the trail to redemption.

Peace Rivers’ executive producer and writer Ben Jones says that they are now in the editing process and looking at a theatrical release in the very near future. After a theatrical run, it will be available on a variety of streaming platforms.

Well, there you have it, folks, my own adventures in western movies. And what an adventure it has been!

What’s up the trail ahead, you ask? I’m not entirely sure, but as long as there is a USA, there will be western movies being made. And as long as the cameras roll, the cowboy and the values he represents will ride on forever.

Playlist: Western Movie Themes

From the album Ridin’ the Dreamland Range, by RW Hampton.

“The Searchers”
“The Hangin’ Tree”
“The Ballad of the Alamo”
“My Rifle, My Pony & Me”
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
“High Noon”

About RW Hampton
Since growing up in a small Texas town, RW Hampton has drifted all across the American West, working cowboy jobs punching cattle, riding young colts, shoeing horses, and even leading trail rides and guiding hunters in the high country. But perhaps his favorite thing and the through line of all his kicking around the West was singing around the campfire while out with the wagon. Never glamorous, ranch work instilled in him a positive approach to life. Hampton’s rich baritone voice brings an honest quality whether he’s performing live or on record. He writes and sings about what he knows and lives. Hampton’s music has earned numerous honors from such prestigious organizations as the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Music Association, which inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2011. Hampton will be the recipient of the Chester A Reynolds Founders Award with the Western Heritage Awards this September.

To connect with RW Hampton, follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Listen to previous editions of Cimarron Sounds…

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6

Cover image: Publicity photo from the 1985 CBS Movie of the Week Wild Horses, with (left to right) Ben Johnson, RW Hampton, Richard Masur, Jack Radur, and Richard Farnsworth.