While the Country Music Association was busy with their gala awards show in October naming the best artists in country music, Royal Wade Kimes was being voted and named the Best Living Western Solo Musician by the nationally-acclaimed True West magazine.
“I am immensely proud of this award,” declares Royal Wade, whose one-of-kind musical style has created comparisons to Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. “It was my music, my song, my show and what I’ve been able to accomplish the last few years that won the biggest award a cowboy could ask for…The Best Of The West.”
Royal Wade has performed his unique brand of “cowboy country” music in front of hundreds of thousands of fans in 30 states at fairs, festivals, rodeos, conventions, night clubs, theaters and special venues, including NASCAR events, the historic Grand Ole Opry and Disney World. He’s also recorded nine albums and released numerous hit singles.
“Everyone strives to be the best at something,” notes Royal Wade, “but to have your peers tell you that you are…that’s a horse you ride around the arena with your hat held over your heart in humble appreciation.”
Royal Wade has been called an outlaw by some of the heavy hitters in Nashville—Music City USA—and rightly so. He’s refused to give up his blend of western, cowboy and country music. Royal Wade rode away from Nashville’s “country pop” sound, knowing he was a real cowboy first and knowing western and cowboy music was where he belonged.
Now he has evolved into an award-winning singer/songwriter with a well-established reputation as the king of the gun-fighting ballads and hard-riding outlaw tunes. He’s been called the 21st century Marty Robbins, and he may just be the closest thing to the truly special Johnny Cash than anyone since Cash died in 2003.
“Johnny and I were talking once,” remembers Royal Wade, “and he told me to keep doing what I do. His advice was dead-on right and I have always stayed true to myself and my music.”
To say Royal Wade was welcomed with open arms by the western music folks would be a stretch. But, like Cash, he just kept doing his thing and asked no one for anything. “It’s been both fun and lonely out here,” he explains, “but now the powers of the western world—proven by the True West award—are calling me. I bet Johnny had the same thing happen with him.”
Royal Wade was featured in the Sept. 3-8 issue of American Profile magazine distributed in newspapers throughout the nation. The compelling story, highlighted with outstanding photos, took readers inside the day-to-day life of this real-life cowboy and much-sought-after musical performer.
In September, he celebrated the fifth anniversary of the highly-successful Mount Royal Trail Ride & Concert that he founded in his native Arkansas. The three-day event in Chester, Arkansas, raised funds to feed children in Arkansas and Oklahoma through the Back Packs for Children program.
For the latest Royal Wade news and music, check out royalwadekimes.com.
