November 1, 2008
During this past month our family has experienced the gamut of human emotion. We celebrated my father and mother-in-law’s 63rd wedding anniversary, celebrated the birth of children and grandchildren with close friends, buried three good friends, watched our football team (Ole Miss) lose and lose and win, and got our annual flu shot. We also had the rare privilege of meeting with President Bush in the oval office as he said farewell to his staff and their families. My wife’s son, Hunter, has worked for the past 2 and ½ years in the White House and Sis and I met with him and President Bush for a few minutes and were able to thank him for giving Hunter this opportunity. We also were able to thank him for coming to Mississippi so many times after Hurricane Katrina, as his visits helped the nation get a look at how hard our gulf coast was hit by this storm. In my opinion, George W. Bush is a very good and capable man who has done the best he could to lead this country through some of the most trying times in our history. His wife, Laura, is a remarkable woman and has been a real class act as First Lady of our country. I firmly believe that history is going to treat them much better than our news media and his many critics could ever imagine.
October was also a busy month for me in the music business. I am working every available moment on my new CD, which now looks to be a spring of 2009 release. The hardest part of making this CD has been choosing the final song list. I began with about twenty songs I have always wanted to record and narrowing it to the final twelve is still an ongoing process. I probably will record more than twelve and then decide which ones to cut. I did a few concerts in the Mississippi area this past month and one with Ralna in St. Charles, Missouri at the new Lindenwood Performing Arts Center. This may be the best “state of the art” facility we have ever worked. If you are anywhere in the St. Louis, Missouri area, I highly recommend that you go see a show at this facility. You will love it.
For the 20th year, I was the featured performer at Senior America Day at the Mississippi State Fair. This event is really a lot of fun as senior adults come from all over the state to enjoy a day at the fair. They get free eye exams, flu shots, blood pressure checks and many businesses that cater to seniors have booths set up where they pass out free merchandise and, at the same time, try to sell products and services from their companies. At noon, the seniors get a free show for about an hour and a half and I think that this year was one of the best we have ever had. On the show with me this year was a wonderful gospel quartet, “Spoken 4” and a trio of local high-school aged girls call “Sweetwater Jade” who are making some noise in the country music market. The girls are 17 and 18 years old now and have been singing together for more than ten years. We always have a big band playing some of the great classics from the 40’s like “In The Mood”. The Governor usually comes and speaks to the crowd and Miss Mississippi usually makes an appearance. I really look forward to this day every year as it is a great opportunity to say thanks to the people who have kept us on television for over 50 years.
If you are reading this before November 4th, I hope that you will make every effort to take a close look at all the candidates and issues that are on your ballot and that you will exercise your right (and duty as an American citizen) to vote.
God Bless America!
October 1, 2008
It has been an exciting month around my home state of Mississippi and this time it is not because of a hurricane. My alma mater, the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), hosted the first presidential debate on September 26th between John McCain and Barack Obama. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to show the world our Mississippi of today, which is a far cry from the image Hollywood has painted for many years in movies like “Mississippi Burning”. We do have a past that has haunted us, but we have moved forward and changed in so many ways over the past three decades. Media people from all over the world, who were here for a week, really got a good look at the present day Mississippi and were amazed at how their pre-conceived ideas of our state were so wrong. The University did a wonderful job of setting up debate related classes for students and panel discussions for the general public beginning on Sunday before the Friday debate. The night before the debate, Tom Brokaw was on campus to give an overview of the debate and the present political landscape. The viewing audience for the debate was estimated at 60 million. *To top off an incredible week for Ole Miss, our football team upset Florida, the #4 ranked team in the country, on Florida’s home field.
The past month started with Hurricane Gustav coming ashore on September 1 followed by Ike on September 12. I mentioned Gustav in the previous newsletter and recounted the damage in Mississippi and Louisiana—Louisiana certainly got the worst of Gustav. Ike wiped Galveston, Texas about clean as Katrina did the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005. There are hundreds of people with no place to live and Galveston and south central Texas will be rebuilding for years. We need to continue to pray for the victims of these storms as they try to rebuild their lives and be thankful that the 2008 Hurricane season is over.
On September 18th, the Guy & Ralna show was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota for a performance on the eve of their annual polka festival. We had a great time, met some really nice people and saw a few old friends who drove a long way to come see us. We included a tribute to Myron Floren in our show because he is from that area of South Dakota and is so loved by all the people there. Myron was so much more than an outstanding accordionist on the Lawrence Welk Show. He was the assistant conductor, the road manager when we were traveling, a member of the production staff and Lawrence’s right-hand man. He was the heart and soul of the musical family and we all miss him so much.
If you are in the St. Charles, Missouri area, come see us at the Lindenwood Center for Fine and Performing Arts on October 18th. As we enter the last month of this interminable presidential election cycle, pray for our country and be sure to vote. Get an absentee ballot if you are going to be out of town on November 4th.
God Bless America.
September 1, 2008
As I write this on Labor Day of 2008 Hurricane Gustav is making landfall on the Louisiana Coast. Once again Mississippi has received a heavy blow from the storm. Although the eye of the hurricane made landfall west of New Orleans, the area northeast of the eye usually gets hit very hard—that is the Mississippi Coastline. The people of Waveland, Bay St. Louis and Pearlington had a tidal surge of 11+ feet and many homes were flooded. As was the case with Katrina, all the media people concentrated on New Orleans and, again Mississippi got little coverage. I remember telling friends the devastation of the entire Mississippi coastline by Katrina and they looked shocked to know that Mississippi was even a victim of the storm. Forgive me if I sound a little bitter, but to this day, New Orleans is still what is talked about when Katrina is reviewed by the media, when Mississippi bore the brunt of the storm. Nevertheless, the people of Louisiana were hard hit by Gustav and the extent of the damage in Houma, Morgan City, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and other areas will not be known for a couple of days. My hometown had 17 shelters available for refugees from Louisiana and the MS gulf coast and they were all at capacity today. My church, along with many churches in the Jackson area, has collected donations of bedding, toiletries, toys for children and food for the shelters. While we are trying to recover from Gustav, there are two or three more potential hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean. We have prayed hard for no storms for the past two years and our prayers have been answered. We apparently did not pray hard enough this year.
I visited my hometown of Tupelo, MS this past month where I did a benefit concert for the Link Centre, which is housed in the buildings that once was Harrisburg Baptist Church, the church in which I grew up. The mission of the Link Centre is to provide a facility and an environment which fosters a connection between arts-based and social service entities in North Mississippi. The Link Centre houses many non-profit organizations such as the Salvation Army, Girl Scouts, Tupelo Symphony Orchestra and Church After School. The old sanctuary was turned into a concert hall, and it really was a sentimental journey for me to stand on that stage and look out into that audience and see people I have know all my life, many of whom sat in the sanctuary when I sang in church as a child. Despite rainy weather, there was a good crowd for the concert and we raised some money for this very worthy cause.
On September 7th I will be in the sanctuary of the new Harrisburg Baptist Church to participate in the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the church. On that day my mother will be honored as the oldest member of the church. Actually she is not the oldest in age, but is the longest standing member of the church—since 1934. The church has taped a video of her comments on the early church and it will be shown at the morning worship service at which I will sing a couple of songs. I am so happy that my schedule allowed me to make this event.
The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I will be at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota on September 18th where Ralna and I will be on stage at the annual Polka Festival. We haven’t been to the Corn Palace in years and it will be fun to go back to the part of the country where Lawrence Welk started his career. South Dakota is also the home of Myron Floren and we will do a tribute to Myron in our show. Myron had played this Polka Festival many times during his career.
Please pray for the victims of Hurricane Gustav and that the next posting I make to this website will not need to mention any names of storms that are brewing in the Atlantic at this time.
July 31, 2008
Summers in the South can usually be best described in one word—SULTRY. For those who are not familiar with sultry, synonyms are hot, humid, sticky, sweltering. This summer it seems that everywhere we have been has been a bit sultry, but it has not wilted the spirit of the fans who continue to come to our shows. Ralna and I, along with Anacani, Ken Delo, and Mary Lou Metzger did two shows on July 12th at the American Music Theater in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to large and enthusiastic crowds. We love performing in this theater and the audiences, who come from far and near, are always lively and very receptive. It is always nice to see long-time fans that keep coming to our shows when we are anywhere near your area (and sometimes when we are not so near). In case we haven’t told you lately, we sincerely appreciate your loyalty and support for all these years, and we work hard to keep our performance level high in hopes that you will never be disappointed.
It was fun to spend a few days in Washington, DC this past month visiting with old friends and people I have worked with for the past seventeen years in my job with the U. S. Senator Trent Lott. My daughter, Julie, who worked in DC one summer when she was in college, went with us and was a little shocked at the changes that have occurred since 9/11. Despite all the security measures that are now in place, Washington, DC is still the most exciting and interesting place to visit in our country. We had Sis’ great-niece, a recent high school graduate, along with us on this trip, and I loved watching her as she got her first glimpse of our nation’s capitol. We showed her everything we could in three days including all the monuments, the Capitol, White House, some of the Smithsonian buildings (American History Museum is still closed for renovation for any of you who may be planning a trip to DC in the near future), the Supreme Court, Library of Congress and Arlington National Cemetery. We also took time to go out to Mt. Vernon where we toured the new Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center that opened in the fall of 2006. This museum alone is worth the17-mile trip down the George Washington Parkway from DC. The tour of George Washington’s Mt. Vernon really gives one a terrific overview of the early history of our great country and an in-depth look at the man known as the “father of our country”.
Hurricane season is about to get into full swing and we are praying that the Gulf Coast is once again spared from a major storm. It will be three years this August 29th that Katrina devastated the entire Mississippi coastline and caused the levees in New Orleans to fail. It was the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history. Then less than a month later Hurricane Rita made landfall on the Texas coastline and did an enormous amount of damage in Louisiana and Texas. We are all still struggling to recover from this disaster, and the people of Mississippi will never forget all the help we have gotten, and are still getting, from volunteers who have come from all over the country. There are several groups of Mississippians in Missouri right now doing what they can to help the flood victims in that state. Our biggest problem on the Mississippi Gulf Coast remains lack of affordable housing. Employees minus a place to live equals no businesses. If you are interested in the many problems with the recovery efforts on the Mississippi Coast you might find the news on this website interesting: http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/Katrina/GCN_Local_News_Update.htm
I hope your summer is going well. If you are in the Bryant, Indiana area, come see Guy & Ralna at Bear Creek Farms August 5 and 6. http://bearcreekfarms.com
June 30, 2008
Welcome and thanks for visiting my official website and my news page. At long last I have come into the world of the internet so that I can provide accurate information to those who might be interested in the life and times of Guy Hovis. I am excited that through this medium I will be able to share with you some memories of the past and some news of what’s happening now in my life. This is my first posting on this page and I will update it periodically with news that I think would be of interest.
Up until now 2008 has been quite an eventful year as my wife, Sis, and I both retired from our “day jobs”. Although we are still in an adjustment period, I have really enjoyed having more time to concentrate on music and it has given us more freedom to travel and do other things we have not had time for until now. In April we took a two-week trip California where we spent some time visiting with old friends. Since I moved back to Mississippi in 1990, I have not been able to get back to the west coast nearly enough to see good friends from my 24 years in LA. This month we spent a week in Nashville spending some time with friends and family there. It was Sis’ first trip to Nashville so we did the sight-seeing tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed as I had not been around Music City USA very much in the past twenty years. I had never seen the new Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and I highly recommend it as a place to spend a few hours when you are in Nashville. It contains an outstanding collection of country music memorabilia and is well presented.
Ralna and I continue to perform all over the country and we are enjoying seeing and visiting with fans after the shows. You can check out our schedule on the Calendar page of this website. We are saluting and honoring our Veterans in our shows this year with a large segment of patriotic songs. We are always thrilled to be able to say thank you to the men and women who have served our country over the years and to those who are presently serving. At one point in the show, we have the band play the official song of each branch of the service, and we have those who served in each branch to stand when their song is played. It is a moving moment for some of the veterans and for us. We continue to pray each day for the men and women who are in harm’s way and for their families.
I have been richly blessed to have the opportunity to use the talent God gave me to sing and entertain for all these years. As long as it is His will, I will continue. Thanks for visiting with me and check back often.
