On Saturday night November 26, 2011, Marvin Hodge a.k.a. “Wrangler Marv” and resident of Foley was given the Gold Fiddle Award by The Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame at their 30th annual awards celebration in Atlanta, Georgia for his efforts in promoting Western Music and entertainment. Marv has been entertaining crowds and promoting the cowboy spirit for several years. He has done this thru several entertainment venues beginning with being the co-host of the radio show The Cowboy Way since 2004. In 2007, the show was named The Georgia AM Radio Show of the Year at the 33rd annual Atlanta Society of Entertainers Awards. It is only the fourth time in its 33 year history that the Atlanta Society of Entertainers has singled out a radio show to win an award. The show’s format includes everything from Cowboy Music, Cowboy Poetry, and Cowboy History (from original cowboys to the Silver Screen Cowboys). The show is dedicated to preserving the cowboy legacy that is an important part of our history and culture by bringing together both education and entertainment of the old west with both a serious and humorous point of view.

In 2005 he was the co-star of a Western Variety TV show called “Dove Creek Ranch Gathering” and in 2006 Marv also helped to start a radio show called “The Cowboy Church Gathering” These shows not only keep the cowboy spirit alive but, included the faith aspect that comprised the foundation of the cowboy’s value system.

Marv is a Founding member of the National Day of the Cowboy and Marv helped to lead the efforts for the state of Georgia to have the Governor proclaim “The Georgia Day of the Cowboy” for Georgia, the first state to do so in 2007 and continues each year since. The Georgia Day of the Cowboy is celebrated each year on the second Saturday of October at The Rock Ranch (a non-profit to help families started by Truitt Cathy, founder and owner of Chick-Fil-A). Each year thousands attend the celebration for Cowboys.

Marv also helped to lead a group of “cowboy” enthusiasts forming a theatrical stunt team called Los Pistoleros and a musical group (known as The Cowboy Traveling Band) to entertain audiences and to accurately reenact gunfights of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some events are for entertainment only (performed with a western look) but, reenactments are approached with an intense attention to detail and accuracy. In 2009 the “Cowboy Traveling Band ” won the “Single of the Year” award at the 35rd annual Atlanta Society of Entertainers Awards. The group’s song release of “Who Shot the Hole in My Sombrero” was in the top ten western songs in the Southwest and was number one in July in New Mexico. In 2010 you may have seen him interviewed on Encore’s Western Channel for a dedication to Johnny Mack Brown, a famous football player and western movie star from Dothan, Alabama.

Wrangler Marv has performed at many venues and at many events and is committed to passing on to our younger generation the values that were so well represented in our cowboy heroes. You might find him in Dothan, Al with Los Pistoleros reenacting the Dothan Riot of 1889 for all the school kids in Dothan or you might find him and Cowboy Bill at an Atlanta Braves game on Wild West night doing a shootout or a barroom brawl (after all, they have been invited every time they have a wild west night to perform). Or, you could find him at a nursing home helping to bring back memories for the folks there or at a Girl Scout campout teaching them about our cowboy and western history.

Wrangler Marv also enjoys the cowboy way of life too, competing in several cowboy sports including; Cowboy Classical Fast Draw Society finishing 4th in the World Championship in 2006, Single Action Shooting Society and Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

Marv says “It is such an honor to become a member of The Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame. It is humbling to be listed along side so many great artists.”

[Pictured Wrangler Marv Hodge and Co-Founder of The Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame, Phyllis Cole]

Jessica,

Thanks for the info.

To answer your questions; I was a cowboy fan from the first time I heard the Lone Ranger Show on the radio when I was about three years old (about sixty years ago). I grew up in Birmingham and as a kid I watched the Circle Six Ranch program on TV everyday and grew to love westerns. Of course Roy Rogers and Gene Autry not only were cowboys but they sang too. I was hooked from that early age on. You never saw me when I was a kid without a pair of cap guns on. But, as I got a little older girls and sports took my attention for a while.

It wasn’t until about twenty years ago when I bought a ranch outside of Atlanta and began training horses and giving horseback riding lessons that my childhood love returned. In 2004 I met “Cowboy Bill” Holden and discovered we had a lot in common about our love for the cowboy way. Bill already was doing a radio show called “The Cowboy Way Show” and he asked me to join as the co-host. Bill had been in several movies, had lead a stunt team in Hollywood in the 60’s & 70’s and had returned to his hometown Atlanta in the 80’s. Together we started a similar western theatrical stunt team called Los Pistoleros that is the basis of our western entertainment activities including a smaller portion of us that comprise The Cowboy Traveling Band. You can see a lot of what we do on our website www.lospistoleros.net .

Western music includes a lot of old cowboy songs but there are many current artists that are continuing to produce some really fine music. In the old days it was referred to as Country and Western Music but western music has sort of spun away from Nashville. A lot of the current artists are doing what is called swing music now as well. Both swing and cowboy music used to be and still are considered western music. It’s this type of music that we have promoted on our radio shows. It’s not as popular as mainstream country music but the older generation really connects with the cowboy songs. The swing music has a pretty broad age range because of being able to dance more to it. The challenge is that Western music is still performed in the same way it always has and as such is not “as sexy as the newer pop country”.

I love promoting the cowboy way of life both thru music and theatrical performances because I want to help preserve our western heritage and remember the strength, the determination, the freedom and the culture of the pioneers who helped shape this country. You can go anywhere in the world and if you have a cowboy hat on, the folks in that country recognize you instantly as a cowboy. In our own country, so many young people have never been exposed to the stories or culture of the old west which is a huge part of who we are. Following the War Between the States, many men who did not have anything to go home to, went west. Most of them worked as cowboys on ranches and cattle drives. Some were ex slaves and some were ex farmers but, they all worked together to create the spirit of the old west on the American frontier and they carved out a new life under adverse and uncertain conditions. In other words the west was settled by Americans from all over our country. Heck, Billy the Kid was born in New York. This is what inspired the westerns on the silver screen and TV and that is in turn what inspired me. Did you know that in the mid 1960’s we had over 30 weekly western series? Those shows always were clear on good and bad and had a lesson to be learned. Not so true today. For me, it is rewarding knowing I can in a small way continue those lessons.

One of my favorite quotes is from Johnny Mack Brown’s daughter:

"Our family always enjoy seeing Cowboy Bill, Wrangler Marv and company perform

their historical reenactments keeping the stories and spirit of the wild west alive"

~ Cynthia Brown Hale and the family of Johnny Mack Brown

I’ve said a lot and I hope I’ve answered your questions. If not, let me know. Thanks again for your help.

Marvin Hodge