The 2015 Manitoba Country Music 'Roots Artist Of The Year' award was won by a local artist Tuesday night.

Quinton Blair was among 12 other nominees in his category and says as each name was announced there was a small cheer, however, after his name there was a large group of people cheering. Blair notes his name was then announced as the winner.

"Did I hear that right?" Blair says he couldn't believe he was the winner because he had never expected to win. "I just respected the people who were on that list. They're your peers, they're your friends but you're a bonafide fan of what they're doing."

He says it was a strange moment to have his name called as the winner and have people give him hugs and high-fives as he walked to the front of the stage to give his acceptance speech. Blair adds he's thankful to everyone he has worked with including his band and all the people who have supported his music career.

As for the award, Blair says they put it in a box which he gave to his wife and didn't look at it for more than 30 seconds until the next day. He adds because of social media he wasn't even sitting in his seat again before receiving text messages of congratulations.

Blair says he grew up listening to artists such as Kenny Rogers and has adopted the music style of story telling.

"I always look at myself more as a story teller and I think sometimes my story telling when we're sitting around the camp fire isn't as good as when I formulate it and put it into a song. So in one way I don't think of myself as a story teller and in the other sense that's how I write music. So it's kind of cool when you go around and people start to recognize you as a story teller. They'll say, 'go see this guy because not only does he write songs with stories, he'll actually start telling stories on stage too.'"

He adds he will be going back into the studio on December 18 and hopes to have a few tracks ready to release in February or March of next year.