and country or western music fans reside right here on the Gulf

Coast — they trade flip-flops and visors for boots and cowboy hats,

live lives at a slower pace and relish simplicities that many take

for granted. Some enjoy barrel racing and rodeos instead of

sunbathing, delight in the light from a small bonfire rather than

the reflection of a moonlit ocean, but one Foley man has taken this

Fiddle award from the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame last month

for his promotions of western history and

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,” Hodge explained. “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

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

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-1960s 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

western promotions. He hosted a popular radio show, “The Cowboy

Way,” since 2004, he co-starred in a western variety television

show called “Dove Creek Ranch Gathering” and in 2006 he helped to

start a radio show called “The Cowboy Church

cowboy enthusiasts forming a theatrical stunt team called “Los

Pistoleros” and a musical group to entertain audiences and to

accurately reenact gunfights of the 1800s and early 1900s. 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 35th annual Atlanta Society of

sports, including Single Action Shooting

Society and Cowboy Mounted Shooting; he placed with the Cowboy

Classical Fast Draw Society, finishing fourth in the World

Championship in 2006

"3">He has spent his life immersed in

all things western, he explained.

"3">“I was a cowboy fan from the first

time I heard the “Lone Ranger Show” on the radio when I was about 3

years old, about 60 years ago,” he divulged. “I grew up in

Birmingham, and as a kid I watched the “Circle Six Ranch” program

on TV every day and grew to love westerns.

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.”

the entertainment and Hodge’s dedication to his