National Cowboy Museum announces Wrangler Award winners

For the 49th time, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is passing out this spring the Western Heritage Awards. The awards honor and encourage the legacy of those whose works in literature, music, film and television reflect the significant stories of the American West. The Outstanding Western Novel is “The Sundown Chaser” by Dusty Richards and published by Berkley Books Penguin Group. Richards, an award-winning writer, crafts another winner with the story of two men, bond by blood but torn apart by the law. Craig Varjabedian’s fascinating photographs of the red cliffs and sweeping plains of the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico has earned him the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Photography Book. Published by the University of New Mexico Press, “Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby” captures the essence of the 21,000-acre ranch in more than 90 new black-and-white photographs. Steve Moulton is the 2009 Outstanding New Artist with his album “Cowboys & Campfires.” This award is given to someone in the first five years of their career, who has never received a Wrangler in an individual category and is striving to continue to produce music of the Western genre. “The Great Western Trail” by LeRoy Jones, composed by Dave Copenhaver, Terry Scarberry and Jones, wins for Outstanding Original Composition. Off the album “Looking Back,” the song tells the tale of a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas and conjures up memories of the old West. In the category for Outstanding Traditional Western Album, the top honors go to “Welcome to the Tribe,” recorded by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges and produced by Lloyd Maines and Andy Wilkinson. “Born to Ride: Cody Wright and the Quest for a World Title” is the Outstanding Documentary, Contemporary. Cody Wright travels the rodeo circuit on his quest to win the 2008 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Saddle Bronc World Championship...read more