IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR-- and the busiest time of the year for a lot of us. It is easy to get so busy and harried that we aren’t able to enjoy the Christmas season as much as we could. For many people, this season is filled with mixed emotions as they deal with missing loved ones who have passed on, or those who are so far away from home that they will not get to be with them during the holidays. Others may have to deal with having no job and no money for food, much less Christmas presents. It is a wonderful time for us who are more fortunate to share time and resources with those who are in need.
This month is busier for me than I would like. I did not pay much attention to all the commitments I was making for this month and, consequently, I will not much time to enjoy a lot of the events I look forward to every year. I will have time to participate in a few charity events and we will help some children get some things they need through the “Angel Tree” project. Also our Sunday school class adopts a family in our community and we help them in whatever way we can to make their Christmas a little brighter. This year it is an added pleasure because it is the family of one of the students in our church’s tutoring program.
I love to do concerts this time of year because I love singing the songs of Christmas. They are like old friends that we see only once a year and their familiar melodies help bring in the spirit of the season. This year I will be singing a lot of songs from my new Christmas CD which, I am happy to say, has gotten very good reviews. I would like to thank those of you who have ordered the CD and those who have let me know how much they like it. As I have said before, when you work on a project as long as we worked on this album, by the time it is finished, you don’t really know what it sounds like anymore. The positive feedback from many of you has made me glad I spent the time to do this album. As I said in last month’s letter, if I receive an order by December 15, I will get the CD to you before Christmas.
Our trip to Chicago and the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago last month was a blast. We did three shows in two days and they were all practically sold out. The show consisted of Guy & Ralna, Ken Delo, Bobby Burgess, Elaine Balden, Anacani and Jo Ann Castle. It was really great seeing our old friends from the Welk Show and Burgess, Delo and I spent a lot of time in our dressing room reminiscing about the old days. As is often the case with certain time periods in our lives, we do not appreciate what fun we are having at the time. The years I spent with the Welk Musical Family were truly some of the best of my life and I cherish the friendships and the memories.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. Cherish the time you get to spend with friends and family and have a Merry Christmas, y’all!
Some of my favorite Christmas quotations:
There has only been one Christmas—the rest are anniversaries.
~ W. J. Cameron
Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.
~Author Unknown
You know you've grown up when none of the things you want for Christmas can be bought at a store.
~Author Unknown
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world - stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death - and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem (two thousand years) ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.
~ Henry Van Dyke
And the angel said unto them, “Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
~ St. Luke
~ JOY TO THE WORLD ~
November 5, 2011
Fall has always been my favorite season of the year. I guess it has a lot to do with wonderful
childhood memories of cooler weather, football games, the county fair, and going hunting with
my Dad. In any event, I love it when the leaves turn and fall from the trees and there is a gray
look to the woods and the entire landscape. The seasons have definitely changed since my
childhood and seem much less defined. Some years it seems we skip spring and fall and go
directly to summer and winter. We are enjoying a beautiful fall in the south this year. Early
morning temperatures are in the 40’s and it gets up to the mid 70’s in the afternoon. Every day
in heaven must be like that.
Because of the usually wonderful weather, October is filled with all kind of events here in
Mississippi. The State Fair is here in Jackson and every year for the past twenty-two years,
I have been the featured performer at Senior American Day. It is a wonderful event where
churches and retirement homes bring bus loads of senior citizens to the fair. They are offered
free eye exams, blood pressure checks and flu shots. Many companies, who sell to seniors,
set up booths to advertise their products and/or services. We had a good crowd again this year
with about 5,000 attending. Along with me and Miss Mississippi, we had the current group
performing as the Four Freshmen and they were just sensational. If this group comes anywhere
near you, I highly recommend going to hear them. I think the original group of Four Freshman
would be proud to have this talented group of young men carrying on their name.
I had the pleasure of performing at the Vada Sheid Performing Arts Center at Arkansas State
University in Mountain Home, Arkansas this past month. This theater is a beautiful, state-of-the-
art facility on the campus of ASUMH. It is one of the most fabulous rooms I have ever worked
and I will spread the word to my friends who are still performing. Being in Mountain Home
made me realize how much I miss going to Branson. I am so disappointed that we no longer
work in the Welk Theater there.
My new Christmas CD has arrived and I am excited to get it out to the stores here in the
Jackson area and to fill all the early orders I have received on my website. I am going to do
my best to make sure that anyone who orders this CD by December 15th will receive it before
Christmas. The CD is in a new sort of packaging which contains no plastic. I was a little
skeptical about trying something so different from all my previous product packaging, but I think
I like it better. It is much lighter and doesn’t take up as much file space as the old plastic ones—
I would say it is half as thick as the plastic case. As usual, I was not sure how this album turned
out because when you listen to a record as many times as I do in getting to the finished product,
you don’t know what it sounds like any more. I am always relieved when people hear it and give
me favorable reviews. That has been the case with this project and hopefully it is good enough
that people will want to add it to their annual Christmas playlist.
I am looking forward to performing at the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago this month with Ralna,
Ken Delo, Jo Ann Castle, Anacani and Bobby Burgess and Elaine Balden. It is always fun to
get to spend some time with old friends and I am excited to get to play in Chicago. It has been a
long time. If you are in the Chicago area, we would love to see you there!
VETERANS DAY 11-11-11
Veterans Day honors ALL American veterans, both living and dead. I hope you
will make an effort to attend a Veterans Day ceremony and/or contact a Veteran on
this day and thank him or her for their service.
Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving season and I hope you
are able to spend some of it with those you love.
September 28, 2011
I just had a birthday and it was a big one. Of course, at my age, they are all big ones. You can figure it out the number by knowing that I have now been eligible for Medicare for five years. I have never thought much about my age because I have been so healthy and active all my years, with no serious illnesses or surgeries. This birthday, however, really made me aware of how short our life is on this earth and made me realize I had better get busy with a few things I had planned to do while I am here. I am so grateful for my health and for the fact that my voice has held up so well. Well enough for me to record a Christmas album this year and to still be able to do hour-long concerts without much trouble.
I am happy to report that the Christmas album is, at long last, finished! It has taken about a month longer than we anticipated, but I am pleased with the final product and I hope that you will add one to your collection of Christmas music. The recording is going to the manufacturer this week and we hope to have product by the end of October. The cover and song titles will appear on my music page and order form within the next couple of weeks.
The extremely hot weather has finally broken in Mississippi and we are enjoying a taste of cool fall mornings. We still have had very little rain, and we aren’t praying too hard for it because the farmers are trying to get their crops out of the fields right now. We will keep praying for rain in Texas where they are still suffering from a drought and devastating wildfires. It was a long, hot summer all over the country and I think we will all welcome fall and winter this year.
The Guy & Ralna Show was in Bear Creek Farms, Indiana this past week and we enjoyed seeing a lot of you who made the trip to see the show. We had good crowds for both shows and there were a large number of Welknotes members at each show. Ralna and I had not worked together since February, so we had a little extra adrenaline going. The audiences were very receptive and that always makes us give a little extra. I love Bear Creek Farms as the atmosphere reminds me so much of the days when we used to do county fairs all over the country. The big difference is that at Bear Creek Farms we have a nice, air-conditioned theater in which to perform as opposed to an outdoor stage, where we often had less than adequate sound systems. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun playing those fairs back in the 70’s and I cherish those memories.
Ralna and I will be at the Ritz Theater in Tiffin, Ohio next week and I will be going from there to Mountain Home, Arkansas for a concert at the Arkansas State University on the 6th. Then we will return home where I will perform at Senior America Day at the Mississippi State Fair. I have been doing this event for the past twenty-two years and I always look forward to it.
I want to urge everyone to take the time to become informed on the issues that face our country today and to become actively involved in electing good leadership in our cities, counties, and states. I hope that you all will study the initiatives and the candidates on the ballot for the November general election and that you will exercise your right (duty) to vote. We must realize that we are all in this together and we will sink or swim depending on how involved our citizens become in their government. We are supposed to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Our country desperately needs its citizens to become passionately involved in everything from their local community leadership to the White House. God Bless America!
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
Thomas Jefferson
August 1, 2011
In the process of choosing songs for my Christmas album, I have listened to a lot of newer songs—songs written in the past two or three decades. We love the old familiar songs we grew up with like “White Christmas”, “Silver Bells”, O Holy Night, etc, but some of the newer songs like “Mary, Did You Know”, “Til The Season Comes ‘Round Again”, and “Let It Be Christmas" are fast becoming holiday standards. I will include a couple of the newer songs on this album and, no, “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” will not be one of them! Anyway, it has been really fun listening to all this Christmas music in June and July. We are still behind schedule on this album and it is going to require a lot of work in August to get this thing finished. My co-producer, Jerry Puckett, and I are perfectionists and that does not work in our favor when we are trying to get a finished product. You would think I had learned in forty plus years of recording that trying to get it perfect often makes you lose the feeling and emotion that is captured by an imperfect take on a song. I am praying now that we will get this finished in time to have product in time for this coming Christmas season.
This past month we mostly tried to stay out of the sizzling, steamy heat we have had in Mississippi. I only had one public concert and we had a family wedding for which I sang and Sis did the reception as a wedding gift. I found out what a gift it was when I had to haul all the serving pieces, food and punch in and out of the reception hall. The Independence Day concert I did in Vicksburg on July 3rd was well attended and the audience was really in a patriotic mood. I always get so emotional doing songs like “God Bless The USA” and “Ragged Old Flag” that I often have trouble getting through them. At this concert I did many of the songs that are on my “One Nation Under God” CD and the audience response lifted me to a new high in my performance of some of these songs. The title of the concert produced by the Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce was “Let The Eagle Soar” which is the title of the song I performed at the 2005 presidential inauguration.
One of the joys of not traveling so much is being able to be more involved in church and volunteer activities in our community. This month Sis and I took our turn as caregivers of the week for our church family. In this capacity we serve those in our congregation and community through hospital and home visits, phone calls, meals and handwritten notes. As is so often said of doing this kind of work, those serving get a greater blessing than the recipients. Sis, who could open a book store with her library of cookbooks, did all the work preparing the food for the week. My culinary skills are very limited but I am very good at consuming what she cooks.
We have also really enjoyed delivering fresh vegetables from the garden to our neighbors the past few weeks. “The garden” is a joint effort of my brother–in-law (on whose property the garden was planted), his father-in-law and me. I must confess that about all I contributed was taking my turn on the watering schedule and pulling a few weeds. We have a bumper crop of squash, okra, melons and peppers, but our tomatoes did not do well in the fierce heat. One of the extra pleasures of the garden is that there is a nice lake on the property and after watering or harvesting, I always do a little fishing.
We were thrilled to learn that the Lawrence Welk Television Show has been renewed for the next year on Public Broadcasting with the first show to be aired on September 3, 2011. This show will be the national premier of the Lawrence Welk Show on ABC Television in 1955. That should really be fun to watch. Thanks to all of you who have been such loyal and supportive fans all these many years. You are the reason public broadcasting continues to air the show.
I am looking forward to the next month when I hope to put the finishing touches on the Christmas album, and, if it is not brutally hot, playing some golf. I have a couple of church concerts in the Jackson area in August and, in September, the Guy & Ralna Show will make a return visit to Bear Creek Farms in Indiana. It has always been one of my favorite places we play and we hope that those of you in that area will come see us. Take care of yourselves and I leave with a poem by Shel Silverstein which people in many parts of the country can relate to this time of year. It was one of my daughter, Julie’s, favorite poems when she was growing up.
It’s Hot!
By Shel Silverstein
It’s hot! I can’t get cool,
I’ve drunk a quart of lemonade,
I think I’ll take my shoes off
And sit around in the shade.
It’s hot! My back is sticky,
The sweat rolls down my chin.
I think I’ll take my clothes off
And sit around in my skin.
It’s hot! I’ve tried with ‘lectric fans,
And pools and ice cream cones.
I think I’ll take my skin off
And sit around in my bones.
It’s still hot!
June 22, 2011
I am always stupefied when I look at the calendar and realize it has been two months since I have written anything on this page. You, who are “senior adults”, know full well how fast time seems to pass as we get older. Mercy! It has been a long, hot, dry spell in my part of the country for the past two months and I have spent a lot of time trying to keep my lawn and garden alive. We finally got some rain the past couple of days and we are so grateful. One hundred degree temperatures in early June are unusual here and we have broken quite a few records this year. It is so ironic that while we have been having this drought, the folks along the Mississippi river have been under water from the swollen river and backup of water in its tributaries. The water from all the rain and the snow melt in the upper Mississippi river basin in March and April caused the level of the river to break all records at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez and Baton Rouge. Thousands of people in Mississippi had to evacuate and some are still not able to get into what’s left of their homes. As you might have seen on the news, we certainly were not the only ones who were affected by all this water. As far north as Illinois and Missouri people were driven from their homes and some lost their lives. Once again, relief efforts from FEMA and the local emergency management agencies are in full swing and the faith-based groups from all over the country are here trying to help people put their lives back together.
I have had only one concert this month and I have spent most of my time working on my Christmas CD. We have finished only three songs thus far and I am still trying to decide what other songs I am going to put on the album. I am behind schedule and really have to work hard in July and August to get this finished if I want to have product for this Christmas season. I have heard artists talk about how hard it is to get into the spirit of Christmas in mid-July (when most Christmas albums are recorded), and I am finding it to be a challenge. We have tried turning the studio air conditioner on high to get the room cold (the instruments don’t like that). I read the second chapter of Luke, look at old pictures of Christmases past and listen to Christmas music. Some days I can get the spirit better than others. I just pray that we come up with a record that people will enjoy listening to year after year. It is incomprehensible why I have not done a Christmas album before now.
We had a great time at the “Take a Swing AT Cancer” golf tournament at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi where I was a celebrity host. It was the middle of May, but the temperature never got to 50 degrees all day. It was the coldest day on record for that date in that area. I had seen the forecast and took extra layers of clothes, but I was still glad to see hole number 18! To the credit of the people of north Mississippi, despite the unseasonable cold weather, they showed up and the tournament set a record for funds raised. The money raised goes to help people who can’t afford treatment for cancer and I will look forward to participating in this event again.
On July 3rd, I am doing an Independence Day concert at the First Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The concert is free and people will be asked to make donations to area flood relief.
It’s at 5:00 pm, so if you are in the area, y’all come. As we near the birthday of our country, let’s pray every day that God will bless us and give us the wisdom and courage to keep the United States of America the country that our forefathers intended it to be. I leave you with some of the lyrics of a song I recorded on my “One Nation Under God” album, written by Senator Orrin Hatch and Janice Kapp Perry.
Heal our land, please grant us peace today
And strengthen all, who lack the faith
To call on thee each day
Heal our land, please keep us safe and free
Watch over all who understand
The need for liberty
Heal our land, heal our land
And guide us with thy hand
Keep us ever on the path of liberty
Heal our land, heal our land
And help us understand
That we must put our trust in thee
If we would be free
GOD BLESS AMERICA.
April 25, 2011
I just heard the weather forecast for our area of the country for the next week and here come more storms. This is the third or fourth round of severe weather we have had in the past two weeks, including one tornado that hit very close to us here in central Mississippi. A huge tornado struck my hometown of Tupelo a few years before I was born and it just about wiped the town off the map. If there at been such ratings in those days, I feel sure it was an F-5. Members of my family were killed and others severely injured and it put such fear into them that, for the next couple of decades, every time a dark cloud came up we all went to the storm cellar. I spent many hours in March and April in the storm cellar. Ours was a concrete bunker behind my granddaddy’s grocery store and every spring we would go and run the snakes out of it and get it clean and prepared for the many hours we knew we would spend there the next couple of months. A lot of people here build a “safe room” in their house, but we do not have one, so we spent some time in a closet when the tornado was headed our way a few days ago. I don’t know why I got off into all that, but I will tell you that I have been in two big earthquakes and around a lot of tornadoes during my life. I’ll take tornadoes! We still have no way to predict or warn of imminent earthquakes. Speaking of those dreaded earthquakes, our hearts go out to the people of Japan who are trying to cope with the catastrophic disaster caused by the big quake and tsunami and subsequent quakes of last month. I feel sure that we are a long way from knowing the ultimate consequences of this disaster, but the people of Japan will be dealing with it for generations to come.
The past few weeks have been very busy for us. I had four hour-long concerts in six days the last week of March and it really tested these old pipes of mine. I am happy to report that they stood up very well and I thank God every day that I am in good health and that my voice is holding its own. It is my opinion that the reason it has stood up so well, is that I vocalize just about every day, and that I try to go no more than a couple of weeks without doing a concert.
We have a lot of birthdays in our family this time of year. Two that I will mention we have celebrated are my mother (92) and my mother-in-law (85). My wife and I are so grateful that we still have three of our four parents with us on this earth. My dad would have been 100 this month, but he died so young (68). I am older than my dad was when he died and that has really gotten me focused on my mortality. It is just another way of reminding me that our lives on this earth are very fleeting and I am trying my best to make the best of every day I am given. Like most of us, I only wish I had figured this out when I was much younger!
Well, I have decided that I am going to try and get a Christmas CD recorded this year. It is already a little late in the year to start such a project, but I am going to give it my best shot and see if we can finish it in time for this Christmas season—which would mean I have to finish the recording by September. Right now I am still picking songs and it is really a task. There are so many that I would love to include, but there is no way to get them all on one CD. I will probably have only twelve on the album. Narrowing it down to that number is going to be a big challenge.
May is just around the corner with Mother’s Day coming right on the heels of Easter this year. I want to wish all of you a very happy Mother’s Day and I hope you are lucky enough to be able to spend it with your mother or your children. The following weekend I am really looking forward to being celebrity host at the “Take A Swing At Cancer” golf tournament at Old Waverly Golf Club just outside West Point, Mississippi. It is one of our finest golf courses in this part of the country and I have not had a chance to play it in a couple of years. I had the wrong date for the tournament listed on my calendar page--the actual date of the tournament is Monday, May 16th.
May is a month of celebration days: May Day; Cinco De Mayo; National Teacher Day; Derby Day; Mother’s Day; Memorial Day; High School and College Graduation Days--- just to name a few! So Happy May, y’all and pray for God to Bless America!
March 10, 2011
Did you promise to give up anything for lent? Some years I just let the Lenten season pass and don’t really make a pledge to give up something. It got to be like a New Year’s resolution which faded away after a few weeks of the new year. Of course Lent is different, because it is a specific 40 days of sacrifice leading Christians toward Holy Week. Usually we give up something physically related such as a favorite food or a bad habit that has a negative effect on our bodies.
This year I am going another route inspired by my pastor, Chuck Poole, at Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. I am going to try very carefully to watch what words come out of my mouth during this Lenten season and hopefully I can continue to do so for the rest of my life.
In one of Chuck’s most inspirational sermons he says: The Bible’s devotion to word care begins in Exodus chapter twenty, where two of the Ten Commandments call us to be careful about how we talk about God and one another. It continues in Leviticus 9:11and Deuteronomy 25:16, both of which call us to a life of truthful speech. And don’t forget that beautiful prayer in Psalm 141:3, “Lord, guard the gate of my lips,” or that ominous warning in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”, or that troubling promise in Matthew 12:36, “On the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter.”
As that old saying goes, words spoken are like arrows from a bow—“Once spoken they cannot be retrieved.” So for Lent I am giving up speaking without carefully weighing my words.
As the glorious season of spring approaches the southeastern United States, the beauty of the blooming azaleas, dogwoods and pear trees, lift our spirits and give us hope for a new tomorrow. It has been an early spring here and, since Easter is so late this year, we don’t know whether to go ahead and plant or not. We have always been told by the old timers, that there is always a cold snap just prior to Easter. However, this year Easter is April 24th and most of us are not waiting until then to plant. As a matter of fact, I am taking a gamble and putting out new plants this week.
The Guy & Ralna Valentine’s Day weekend concert at Germantown Performing Arts Center in Germantown, Tennessee was a lot of fun this year. We always look forward to working this venue because it is such a state of the art facility, and they have an excellent stage crew that make it so pleasant for the performers that work there. The orchestra, which is made up of musicians from the Memphis area, is always top notch and that is an invaluable asset to having a good show. Then, on top of that, we also enjoy the company of a large number of Welknotes members whose loyalty and support is so appreciated by all of us Welk performers. This was the first concert Ralna and I have done is some time and, although we were a little rusty and nervous, the audience response quickly settled us down and we were soon right back into our groove.
I had a grand old time at the Brandon Opry this month—my second time to work there. This is an event put on by the city of Brandon, Mississippi, and it occurs on the first and third Saturday nights each month in the Brandon Municipal Center. As you would guess, it is patterned after the Grand Old Opry, with the difference in the format being that the second hour of the night is taken by the guest artist. It is so much fun for me because I get to sing a lot of wonderful country songs that I rarely get to sing—like, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Forever and Ever, Amen.” The house band is filled with excellent musicians and they can play just about any country song you select. I can’t wait for my next time at the Brandon Opry.
This month is pretty full for me with singing events ranging from private parties to churches and a couple of retirement homes in the area. As I have said before, I think the most enjoyment I get these days is going to retirement, assisted living and nursing homes and singing to the folks who have kept the Lawrence Welk Television Show on the air for more than 55 years.
I hope that spring comes soon to your part of the country and, in the words of my favorite cowboy, Roy Rogers, “may the good Lord will take a liking to you”.
God Bless America.
February 1, 2011
Tomorrow is Groundhog Day and folks in most of our country are pretty sure the woodchuck will not see his shadow. It is questionable if the little critters (other than Punxsutawney Phil who has human help) will even be able to dig above the ice and snow to have a chance at it. While it is cold here in the south, we really feel for the folks across the country who are experiencing one of the worst winters ever. I also imagine that the super bowl folks are wishing the game was back in Phoenix this year! Dallas looks like the Frozen Tundra, as one sportswriter put it.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, I am not really invested in either team this year. The Manning boys and Bret Favre are not in the game and the Packers and Steelers don’t have a lot of Mississippi alumni on their teams. There are two, however, that immediately come to mind: Donald Driver for the Packers and Mike Wallace for the Steelers. I am a fan of Aaron Rogers, who had to step into the shoes of Bret Favre at Green Bay, and I am probably going to pull for Green Bay. More than who wins, I want to see a really good game between two teams playing their best.
The first month of the new decade was a little busier for me than most Januarys usually are. The first weekend of the month was spent in Shreveport, Louisiana where I was one of the featured acts in Price Harris’ Annual Night of Praise at Calvary Baptist Church. It was a night of wonderful gospel music from Price, The Needhams, The Allen Family, and some great laughs from comedian Aaron Wilburn. Price Harris and I went to high school together and only wish I could say that I have done half as much with my God-given talents as he has. You can visit his website at www.dcw.net/phea .
My other singing engagements in January were local so we did not have to travel out of town, and we enjoyed being at home. Since we had football bowl games until January 7th, we let the Christmas decorations stay up a little longer than usual and that seemed to make it easier when we took them all down and packed them away. It is so much fun to put them up, but not exciting to take them down. I am also getting to the age where time goes so fast, it seems that we should just leave them up—but that makes me sound like someone who misses the point of why we put up all those lights in the first place.
The highlight of this past month for me was getting to spend a few days with my daughter, Julie, in Phoenix. This past Christmas was the first one in the newlywed’s life that she did spend some of it with her Dad. So I decided to pack up and go see her as soon after Christmas as I could. We really enjoyed spending father/daughter and some father/daughter/son-in-law time together. I really wish they were closer to Mississippi, but they are happy and I am grateful for airplanes that can get us to one another in five or six hours. (There are no non-stops from Phoenix to Jackson, MS)
All of us Lawrence Welk performers are thrilled that a new special will air next month on public television stations around the country. The special is called LAWRENCE WELK’S BIG BAND SPLASH. It will be a two hour special of Big Band era music and will be hosted by Doc Severinsen, longtime leader of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show Band. Doc began his career during the big band days and he made a guest appearance on the Welk show in 1971, shortly after I had joined the show. I well remember how much the musicians in the Welk orchestra respected Doc and his musicianship.
I always wonder what Lawrence Welk would think about his show still being on TV. I really don’t think he would be that surprised, because he always said that if you play music that people want to hear and play it well, they will continue to watch. He saw to it that each show was filled with songs people knew and that his musicians, singers and dancers performed up to his high standards. I might add that we had an exceptional technical crew that made the show look and sound as good as possible each and every week. No, I don’t think Mr. Welk would be surprised that his fans have continued to watch and support the show for 55 plus years!
I am looking forward to the first Guy & Ralna concert of the year at the Germantown Performing Arts Center in Germantown, Tennessee on Valentine’s Day weekend. Sunday, February 13th is the actual date and you can check out the details on my calendar page. It will probably be your only chance to see Guy & Ralna in this part of the country this year, so y’all come! Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehen--and Vaya con Dios.
December 16, 2010
As I write this I am listening to Christmas music and Andy Williams is singing “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” It is one of my favorite songs of the season and I had the pleasure of performing it this year with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony orchestra at their annual “Winter Wonderland” show. It is such a thrill to stand in front of a symphony orchestra and sing. The glorious sound just lifts you right out of your shoes and you just ride along with it as your voice just becomes another instrument in the orchestra. It is thrilling!
We have had a busy time the past month and when we change back to standard time, it always seems that the days don’t have as many hours as they do when we are on daylight savings time. Of course, the daylight hours begin to shrink very fast in November and December and I guess that has something to do with it, but I often feel like I can’t get as much done in a day when we go back to standard time. That reminds me of the story of some farmers complaining when we first started daylight savings time, that it was not going to be good for the crops to get one more hour of sunlight every day. Think about it…
As I have performed my Christmas programs this year I have had lots of people asking me if I have a Christmas CD. I really had intended to record one this year, but I fooled around and all of a sudden it was August and there was no way to get it done and manufactured in time for the season. It is on the drawing board for next year and, if my voice holds out, I will hopefully have a Christmas CD ready by next Thanksgiving.
What a great time we had at the Landmarks/Paid In Full Homecoming Show in New Albany, Mississippi earlier this month. Southern Gospel Quartet music has always been my first love, beginning when I was a young boy listening to groups like the Statesmen, the Blackwood Brothers, the LeFevre Trio, the Chuck Wagon Gang, and the Speer Family. It is still my favorite music and I enjoyed hearing it from the Landmark Quartet and the Paid In Full trio. Each group did about a half hour in the first part of the show and then we all came back and did Christmas music for the last half. I was close to heaven when we all joined together for “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem”.
We had intended to go to Branson last month for the 10th Anniversary celebration of Welknotes and to see some Christmas shows but our schedule got a little crowded and we could not rearrange it enough to have more than two days to go and come back. It may be telling our age, but driving 8 hours two days in a row is just more than my old bones can hold up to anymore. We got reports and a video of the Welknotes gathering, so we know what we a great time missed.
We SEC football fans are excited that our representative, Auburn, will be playing the PAC-10 champion, Oregon, for the national college football championship on January 10th. We think that we have the toughest conference in college football, so we are anxious to see the “Razorbacks” declare open season on the “Ducks” in the national title game. I hope I won’t be eating those words come January 11th.
I started off this newsletter with “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, but for many people it is not. Some are grieving for the loss of a loved one whose loss is felt more deeply at Christmas time and some people just do not have happy memories of Christmas. We also have so many people in this country who are still out of work, making the season much more financially stressful. This year I am going to make an effort to be more thoughtful and considerate of those less fortunate than I, and to reach out to anyone I might be able to help make Christmas a little brighter.
I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season and that 2011 will be good to you.
Merry Christmas, Y’all!
Luke 2:11-14 (KJV)
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
October 30, 2010
I am writing this on Halloween eve, which will be “trick or treat” night in our neighborhood because Halloween falls on Sunday this year. My daughter, Julie’s birthday is today and her birthday parties for the first 10 or 12 years of her life had a Halloween theme. We carved lots of pumpkins over the years. There was also much planning and work done on the costume for the character she chose. On “trick or treat” night we always had a great time going through the neighborhood visiting with neighbors while the kids filled their sacks with candy. They are cherished memories that come back to me every year when we stand at our door and hand out goodies to the kids that come knocking.
It is fall in Mississippi and the cooler weather was more welcomed than usual because of the seemingly endless long hot summer. It has not only been hot, but dry--we are about 10 inches below normal for rainfall in September and October. The dry weather has been great for the farmers during harvest time, but we are all praying for precipitation now. I have always loved this season of the year. It meant Friday night high-school football and Saturday college football; the state fair; hunting with my dad; and it meant that the Thanksgiving/Christmas season was just around the corner.
It has been a busy October here in Mississippi. It seems that April and October are the months that everyone wants to have events because of the usually wonderful weather. There are fall festivals everywhere, many of which are used as fund raisers for local schools and organizations. “Walks” have also become a popular way that a lot of charities use to raise funds. Now that October is officially “breast cancer awareness month”, there are quite a few events we attend because of Sis’ position on the board of directors for the southeast region of the American Cancer Society.
I have also been singing quite a bit around the state this month. I did a show for the Mississippi State Nursing Home Convention that was a real kick. People were bused in from all over the state and there were about 500 in the audience. Those who are going to participate in the talent show they have in the afternoon, come dressed in their costume they are going to perform in. When I got to my rock and roll medley in my show, half the room was up dancing in the aisles. It was great watching these folks having such a good time. I wasn’t able to stay around for their talent show, but I want to go next year just to see it.
This month I also my 20th appearance at Senior America Day at the Mississippi State Fair in Jackson. We had about 5,000 in attendance that enjoyed the talents of the Spoken4 Gospel Quartet and the legendary “Dukes of Dixieland”. Lawrence Welk would have been in heaven listening to the “Dukes” as Dixieland was his favorite kind of music. I had the challenge of following the “Dukes” performance with my part of the show. When I went on stage I could hear the voice of Rick Ricardi (owner of The Horn nightclub in Santa Monica, California, where I got my start) saying, “I wouldn’t give a leopard this spot”. As always, however, the people of Mississippi gave me a very warm and enthusiastic welcome.
As I have mentioned here before, I have committed myself to sing at a retirement/nursing home facility as often as I can, and last month I made three appearances in the Jackson area. It is just a small token of my appreciation for lots of loyal Lawrence Welk Show fans who have kept us on television for all these years. I think I get more pleasure out of these appearances than the residents do, but they are always so openly appreciative. I am looking forward to the Christmas season this year when I will do quite a few Christmas programs at these type facilities.
I would like to take time in this newsletter to personally congratulate Judy Shaw, founder of Welknotes, on the 10th anniversary of this website that has been such a wonderful source of information for the cast and fans of the Lawrence Welk Television Show. Judy started this site with just a handful of people and it now has hundreds of members who share pictures and memories of Lawrence Welk Musical Family happenings. Judy also started Guy & Ralna’s fan club in the early 70’s and she has certainly been a positive influence on our career. Thank you, Judy, for all the work you have done over these years to keep the Welk name alive and here’s hoping we have many more years together.
As most of you know, next Tuesday is a very important day in our country. It is the day you get to exercise your right to vote. I hope that you will take the time to study the candidates and initiatives on the ballot in your area and make an informed decision on how you will vote. Then, if you haven’t already done so by absentee ballot or by early voting, go to your polling place and vote! God Bless America.
September 6, 2010
It’s Labor Day weekend and there are plenty of unemployed people in our country who would gladly be at work if they had a job to go to. Cartoonists have had fun this weekend with that subject and, while the situation is not funny, laughing sometimes helps to ease the pain. This is indeed a painful time for a lot of people who have lost jobs and homes and who don’t see things getting better anytime soon. Let’s pray that those who are struggling to find work in this difficult time will have a “labor day” very soon.
The past month was fairly quiet for us and we stayed inside as much as possible and enjoyed the comforts of air conditioning. I did take time to participate in a couple of fund raisers for the American Cancer Society (ACS). One was called “celebrity waiters” where some local and national celebs were asked to be designated waiters for a table of 8 people. Of course you were asked to get people to buy a seat at your table, and then you were the waiter for the table for the evening. You were given tips by those at your table and all the money went to the charity. My table was pretty generous and did not harass me very much. Each waiter was also asked to bring a centerpiece basket depicting their life or career and the baskets were auctioned off during the evening. Mine had stuff from my Lawrence Welk days, some CDs and a few items from my years working for the U. S. Senate. I assigned my wife, Sis, the task of putting together my basket and I was greatly relieved when people actually bid on it.
We had a great time at “Jim Weatherly” day in Pontotoc, Mississippi (see last month’s news). There was a lot of reminiscing about fun times at Ole Miss with old friends and a lot of good music. A lot of guys from the football teams Jim played with at Ole Miss came and he was presented his old jersey in a big picture frame. The Peavey company gave him a beautiful guitar that had pictures of his wife and two children inlaid on the front and the words to one of his most well-known songs on the neck—“ You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me”. It was a very nice tribute to one of Mississippi’s talented native sons.
College football is in full swing and it could really be a long season for my Ole Miss Rebels who lost their season opener to a team that was not supposed to be much of a match for them. Sis and I will go to Oxford for as many games as we can because we enjoy going to “the grove” at Ole Miss and visiting with old friends as much as we do going to the game. Everyone I know who has been to the grove at Ole Miss on game day wants to come back. It is truly one of the most, if not the most, beautiful and fun places on a college campus in this country.
I am looking forward to this next couple of months for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it should bring cooler weather to Mississippi. I will also be doing a few local concerts and the PGA tour comes to town for the Viking Classic. Our golf tournament is unlike any other on the PGA tour in that it offers much more than a golf tournament. Viking sets up a culinary tent where there are cooking demonstrations and classes. This year celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse be here and will give cooking demonstrations. Viking also has all its many kitchen appliances on display for attendees to explore. The wives of the pro golfers all want to come to this tournament! This tournament raised over a half million dollars last year for local charities. If you aren’t busy September 30-October 3, come on down.
July 31, 2010
As I write this on the last day of July, it has already been a long hot summer in Mississippi and we still have August to go. We have been fortunate enough to escape to cooler climates for about half of the last two months but we are going to be here in Mississippi for all of August. When I think back on my childhood when we endured these summers with no air conditioning, I cannot remember it being unbearable. I have asked my mother and she also does not remember summers being unbearable. She does, however, remember when we got our first air conditioning unit, after which she wondered how we ever lived without it. It really is amazing that when we didn’t know any better, we got along just fine. I think that could be said about a lot of the comforts and luxuries of life many of us now enjoy.
Since I last wrote on this page the oil leak has finally been stopped in the Gulf of Mexico (after 87 days), and it will be years before we will know the extent of the damage this disaster has caused. We do know that 11 lives were lost and many, many people’s way of life will be changed forever. Much of the Gulf is still closed to the fishermen and about 85 % of the oyster beds are closed. The damage to the marshes in Louisiana will not be known for years. The Obama administration has poured salt on the wound by insisting on a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf until all the existing wells are inspected. This could take a couple of years and will put hundreds of people out of work. Mississippi, along with Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, has lost millions of dollars in tourist trade from people avoiding the area because of all the publicity about oil on the beaches. The barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi have shielded our beaches from most of the oil but it has been hard to convince tourists that our beaches are clean. The states along the Gulf of Mexico must feel like they are cursed and there are some here in Mississippi think that God is punishing us for legalizing gambling along our coast. Nevertheless, the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast are a tough bunch and they have enough grit, faith and courage to get through this and whatever other disasters befall them.
We have friends from California who were coming to Mississippi for a wedding and we got them to fly into New Orleans (their first time) where we met them and stayed a couple of days. It seemed like a win/win—we support the NOLA economy and they get to experience one of the most interest cities in our country. And, home of the 2010 Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints! There is an abundance of Saints merchandise everywhere--fleur-de-lis city! We ate lots of the wonderful New Orleans food including a few dozen oysters on the half-shell. We figured we better eat them while we can still get them. It might be a little crazy to go to New Orleans in July, but we had a great time and it really was not steamy hot.
The American Music Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the site of the largest gathering of Lawrence Welk Show alumni to appear on stage together in years. Jo Ann Castle, Tom Netherton, Anacani, Ken Delo, Otwell Twins (David & Roger), and Guy and Ralna were the performers for two shows on July 10th. It was fun being with some of the old gang as we don’t see a lot of each other anymore. We had big crowds for both shows and I think they enjoyed the show as much as we did. Many of our long-time, faithful fans showed up for the concerts and it was so good to visit with all who came. I keep hoping we will do one more big TV special like the Milestones and Memories we did in 2000. Right now we are just hoping that PBS keeps airing the Welk shows for a few more years. There are still many fans who watch the reruns each week and who would be very disappointed if it were not on. So would I !!!
Next weekend I will travel up the road to Pontotoc, Mississippi to help honor my old friend Jim Weatherly. The Governor of Mississippi has proclaimed July 7, 2010 as “Jim Weatherly Day” in Mississippi. The celebration will occur during the annual “Bodock Festival” in his hometown of Pontotoc. I will emcee a program that will feature a lot of Jim’s friends and a lot his songs. If you are not familiar with the name Jim Weatherly, you certainly would be familiar with some of the songs he has written. If you have internet access, you can go to his website, www.jimweatherly.com and see the long list of hit songs he has penned. Among his better known songs are “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “Neither One of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye”, “You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”, “A Lady Like You”, “The Need To Be”, “Where Peaceful Waters Flow”. He was won Grammy awards, Dove awards, and been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I have known Jim since high school when his band played for dances in my hometown of Tupelo which is very near Pontotoc. We both went to Ole Miss where he was an All Southeastern Conference Quarterback while I was on the sidelines as an Ole Miss cheerleader. I had rather been on the field with him, but I was neither big enough nor good enough for SEC football. We both went to California about the same time and we left about the same time—Jim to Nashville and me back to Mississippi. We both have achieved a measure of success and we are both very proud Mississippians. Jim wrote my favorite song about our home state, Mississippi, This Is Your Song. I sing it every chance I get and I think it should be our state song. I will for sure be singing it next weekend.
Don’t forget to check your local listings for the PBS special,
“Marvin Hamlisch Presents: the 70’s, The Way We Were.”
Some stations are already airing the show, but most will air it in August. See my calendar page in August for the list of stars.
Take care of yourselves and let your light shine brightly—someone may be looking for a way out of the darkness.
May 28, 2010
As I write this on Memorial Day weekend, I hope that everyone will pause at some point next Monday to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country. Many cities and towns across our country claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. In Columbus, Mississippi on April 25, 1866, a group of ladies commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery by placing flowers on the graves. Of course, we Mississippians are sure that this was the beginning of Memorial Day, which was called “Decoration Day” until 1882. You can read a lot about the history of this national holiday on the internet.
On Memorial Day I also say a prayer for the families of the fallen and for the many Veterans who did not die in service, but whose lives were lost in many other ways.
Since I last made an entry on the news page, there has certainly been a lot of news from my part of the country. Of course the big story has been the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which, as I write this, is still spewing hundreds of thousands of oil into the gulf each day and is now the largest oil spill in U. S. history. It is such a horrendous disaster and one of which we will not know the full effects for years to come. The explosion on the oil rig killed eleven people and injured several others and has shown us how little is known about how to deal with an accident like this. The lives of so many people are and will be affected by this spill and for a region that is still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina it is just devastating.
We have had some really bad storms and tornadoes in the South over the past month. The big tornado that came through Mississippi on April 24th killed 10 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and destroyed thousands of acres of forests. The hardest hit areas will be a long time cleaning up debris and rebuilding. Volunteer groups from churches, including mine, and other volunteer organizations are doing all they can to help the people who were hit by this storm.
On a lighter note, this past month I had as much fun as I have had in a long time when I performed at the Brandon Opry in Brandon, Mississippi. The Brandon Opry is one community’s version of the Grand Ole Opry. They have an excellent house band and an announcer and put on a show that emulates the “Opry” in Nashville. The band knew every country song ever written (I’m talking classic country—not today’s country), so I sang a bunch of my favorites, many of which I had never performed on stage before. We also threw in a few gospel tunes in the set and the audience was very responsive. I am already looking forward to my next time at the Brandon Opry.
Speaking of the Grand Ole Opry, I would guess most of you have seen the pictures of the terrible flood in Nashville that got into the Opry House, and a group of warehouses where many country artists kept a lot of their instruments and other equipment. The Opryland Hotel and the Country Music Hall of Fame also were heavily damaged. The Opry never missed a beat, however, and the show is being held each week at different venues around Nashville. As often as it is available they are using the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. If you are going to Nashville and the Opry you can find out on the website where the show will be held when you are there.
http://www.opry.com
I had the pleasure of singing at a couple of retirement homes this past month and it is always a rewarding experience for me. One of the homes was the one where my Mother lives and naturally I sang there on Mother’s Day. I have gotten to know so many of the residents there that they are all like family and I love to go and sing for them.
It was an honor to open the 75th Anniversary meeting on the Delta Council at the Bologna Performing Arts Center in Cleveland, Mississippi by singing “God Bless the USA”. Delta Council is an economic development organization representing the eighteen Delta and part-Delta counties of Northwest Mississippi. It was organized in 1935 to provide a medium through which the agricultural, business, and professional leadership of the area could work together to solve common problems and promote the development of the economy of the area. I attended many of the Delta Council annual meetings over the past 20 years in my job with U. S. Senator Trent Lott and I was really thrilled to be invited to sing at their 75th anniversary meeting. A lot of the members of my father’s family farmed for a living and I have a very soft spot in my heart for family farms who are struggling to hold on to a way of life that is gradually disappearing in this country.
I have not yet tried to wade through the massive healthcare reform bill that I spoke about in my last posting. After speaking with a few friends who are fairly knowledgeable about legislation coming out of congress, I probably will not waste the time. They contend that there are a number of changes that will have to be made to this bill in the near future. Plus federal courts are going to have to rule on whether the law breaches states' rights — a contention of at least 22 state attorneys general. In any event, one thing is almost as sure as death and taxes –our healthcare insurance policy premiums will go up next year. I don’t ever remember them going down!
Here’s hoping you have a very nice summer—free from storms, floods or any other disasters.
One of the most heard expressions during summer here in Mississippi is---BE COOL !
April 12, 2010
Springtime in Mississippi must be a glimpse of heaven! Azaleas, dogwood trees, wisteria in full bloom on a bright, crisp April morning are just too beautiful for words. This year we really are enjoying the beautiful advent of spring because of the unusually long, cold and wet winter we have endured. Of course, I cannot complain very much about our winter in Mississippi, considering how bad it was in other parts of the country this year.
The weather certainly was beautiful in Arizona for my daughter’s wedding last month. The wedding itself was also beautiful and friends came from all over the country to help us celebrate. We could not have asked for things to go much better than they did for the wedding and as we look at all the pictures and video from the event, we are satisfied that the memories of our daughter’s wedding will be happy ones for us and the bride and groom. Thank all of you who have sent your best wishes to Julie and Carlos for a long and happy life together.
We went from the wedding in Arizona to St. Louis, Missouri to tape a PBS television special which I mentioned in my last posting. Despite my voice not being in good shape, we had a great time taping the special. We taped the show two times with different audiences in the Bezemes Family Theater at the J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts in St. Charles, Missouri. I really enjoyed getting to know some of my favorite performers like Ray Stevens, B.J. Thomas, Freda Payne, and Bobby Goldsboro. (See last month’s posting for a list of all the performers) The guys all shared one big dressing room and I had great fun listening to stories of the days when many of them toured the country together. Ralna and I were thrilled to be included in this special which was hosted by, Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy award winner, Marvin Hamlisch. Marvin was fun to work with and is as delightful a person as he is a talented musician and writer. Look for the special which will be aired on public television stations in August.
Over the next few weeks I intend to do a lot of fishing and golfing as I will be at home for a while. All my concerts will be within driving distance and I can get back home to my own bed eat night. I am also excited to have time to do some writing and recording and maybe even a little gardening. I also intend to read the healthcare bill that the President has signed to see what is actually in this thing. From what I have heard from friends who have a lot of knowledge in this field, people are not going to realize exactly how this bill will affect them for 4 to 8 years, as a lot of it does not take effect right away. They also tell me that the bill will have to be adjusted in many ways as implementation is fulfilled. It is one complex piece of legislation and that usually means that few, if any, know the details of what is in the bill or what the long term ramifications will be.
Each day I am thankful for my good health and, at this point in my life I know that it is one of God’s greatest blessings. Let’s all do our part to alleviate some of our nations’ healthcare problems by eating right, exercising and spending some time each day letting go of our worries, doubts and fears and putting them in God’s hands-- Hands that will hold you and never let you go.
.
March 5, 2010
I want to start this note by thanking those of you who have emailed or written telling me how much you enjoy this newsletter I write every month. I know I am often late getting this done and I am probably not going to keep on doing this on a monthly basis. I will, however, continue to make entries when I have time and when I have something to share. I do appreciate your letting me know that you enjoy reading my rambling.
As I write this, we are making the final preparations for my daughter’s wedding. Ironically, I had the TV on while I was working in my office yesterday, and the channel the television was set on was playing the movie, “Father of the Bride”. I’ll have to say this is not something I would advise fathers of the bride to watch just before their daughter’s wedding. On the other hand, it is a wonderful movie, and could help release a lot of those emotions so you don’t fall apart on wedding day. Aside from “giving my daughter away”, I am excited about the wedding and we are all looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends and meeting some new ones.
Immediately following the wedding we will be off to St. Louis to tape the PBS television special: “Marvin Hamlisch presents the 70’s—The Way We Were”. I spoke about this special last month and you can look at that newsletter to see more information about the special, including who, along with Guy & Ralna, will be in the cast. When we got involved in this special and started looking for 70’s songs in the Guy & Ralna repertoire, I was amazed at how many hits from that decade we did on the Welk show. I guess I should not have been surprised, because we were one of the acts that Lawrence Welk allowed to do current hit songs on the show and our tenure on the show was mostly in the 1970’s. At the present time we are set to do “Put Your Hand In The Hand”, “Lean On Me”, “You Needed Me”, and “Old Fashioned Love Song”. I have no idea how many of those they will actually include in the final cut for the show, but with the number of acts participating, I would guess no more than two.
We are so ready for spring in Mississippi, and I know that sentiment is held in many parts of the country. It has been a very wet and very cold winter here and I have not seen my golf clubs since before last Thanksgiving. I am sure the first round of golf I play this spring is going to be quite an adventure, but I am very much looking forward to it.
Hope you all have a bright and sunny March and please say a prayer for the “Father of the Bride”.
February 1, 2010
It has been only six weeks since I have written in this space, but it seems much longer. I think that is partly because those last two weeks of the year seem to go on for quite a while. Then we have to take the tree down and all the other decorations (the deer in the yard and the lights on all the trees and bushes) and that always seems to take much longer than it does to put it up—not nearly as much fun either. I have always gotten a little depressed putting Christmas decorations away knowing that the special joy of that season is all over for another year. Plus it’s often cold and dreary and spring seems a long way off. All that said, we had a very nice Christmas season and we only left home once to go see my Mother and Sister and her family in Tupelo. As I said in the last newsletter, it was the first Christmas in all her thirty two years that I did not see my daughter, Julie, who spent the time she had off from school working on her wedding.
Yes, my little girl is getting married. Spring will be especially beautiful this year as Julie and her fiancé, Carlos, will be married on March 13th. It is a hard thing for a father to go through-- being replaced as the top guy in your daughter’s life. But, it softens the blow if you think the man she is marrying will love her anywhere close to as much as you do. I believe that to be the case with my future son-in-law. So Daddy is thrilled for his daughter and I hope you will join me in praying for happiness for the newlyweds.
Immediately after the wedding Sis and I will travel to Missouri where Ralna and I are participating in a PBS television special entitled: “Marvin Hamlisch presents the 70’s—The Way We Were”. This special is being written and produced by most of the same people at OETA who have produced the Lawrence Welk Show for PBS since 1987. It will feature some of the top recording artists of the 70’s --many of whom I am a big fan. The cast includes: Marvin Hamlisch, BJ Thomas, Three Dog Night, Debby Boone, Ray Stevens, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr., Bobby Goldsboro, Billy Joe Royal, Peaches & Herb, Freda Payne, Jonathan Edwards, and Vicki Lawrence. The special will be aired later in the year as a pledge special for PBS.
Ralna and I are not traveling nearly as much this year which will give me more time to do concerts in my neck of the woods. I especially love singing for the senior adult groups at churches and retirement homes who have kept us on television for all these years and who like the same kind of music that I do. It is also very nice to be able to do a concert and get back home to my own bed at night. Does that sound like a senior adult or what?
My “Hymns and Gospel Favorites” CD continues to do well and the comments and reviews have been more than heartwarming. As I said in the liner notes for this cd, it was a labor of love and my prayer was that the music would be a blessing to those who hear it. Judging from the comments I have gotten, that prayer has been answered over and over again.
Next Sunday presents a big problem for a lot of us football fans from this part of the country. We love the Saints and we love the Manning football family—most of us in Mississippi have forgiven Peyton for going to Tennessee! So, as hard as it will be to root against him, most of us will be pulling for the “Who Dat” Saints to win the Super Bowl. It has only taken them 43 years to get there! As tempting as it was to move the team after Hurricane Katrina, we are so thankful that the Saints owner, Tom Benson, chose to stick it out in New Orleans. The season that the Saints have had this year has been so exciting for the people in and around New Orleans and has created a much needed esprit de corps. So, as they say down on the bayou, “Geaux Saints”!
I hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day, a nice Presidents Day weekend, and that spring comes early to your house.
