El Paso Artist Wins Best Emerging Artist Award At ISSA

One thing that's true about the El Paso music scene is that we have some truly hard working people here. We constantly see musicians that were born here & make it big; some artists join national record labels & some stick around & are still going after decades.

Some artists get recognized for their hard work by winning awards & one artist did just that this past weekend: Damian Wyldes who is the director & a recording artist for the River Moon Records recording studio in El Paso.

Playing along side Damian is Jose Gardea on bass, Tommy Joe on fiddle,  Paulina Ortiz on trumpet & Alex Guerrero on percussion.

Damian has been a member since 2018 & recently made an appearance at the 2022 International Singer-Songwriters Association (ISSA) which was held at the Byers Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. This year he won the Gold award for Best Emerging Artist in 2022.

This was not the first time he won an award: he's been nominated for The Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA). He also won at the ISAA back in 2019 with Single of the Year with his song "Greed".

When I asked Damian about how he felt after winning, he described it as a surreal experience:

A few times in my life , I've had my name "in lights" as they call it but it's always surreal...Every time is different because you notice different things about a performance that you never noticed any other times. Without my band, I wouldn't be able to do what I do.

When you create music, the best feeling is being told that your music is great. That sense that someone enjoyed something that you made is just incredible. I hope more El Paso musicians will get recognized in the future because there's truly some great talent here.

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