Singing to the choir

RW Hampton slung an acoustic guitar over his shoulder, dusted his boots across a dirt arena and stepped by way of a bale of grass hay onto a flatbed trailer doubling as a stage.
The crowd was finishing up the last bites of a chuck wagon dinner when Hampton eased up to a microphone to share the kind of songs he places under the uncluttered heading of cowboy.
There was a little Merle, a little gospel, a little bit of story telling set to chords.
And as Hampton played to a crowd of folks perched on folding metal chairs at the Payne County Expo Center, toes tapped, heads nodded and hands clapped.
Hampton's show was a little about being a cowboy, a little about being a Christian and a lot about music and family and faith and God and country.
And when the rugged wrangler with the boots and big hat offered up his flavor of country hymns and gospel standards, his audience was ready to put hands together. When RW Hampton vocalized about a higher power and a home in Heaven and the faith of fathers before him, well, in this cowboy church gathering, he was preaching to the choir.