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December 9, 2004

Hello Friends:

Western Swing Cruise

>>>>>>>>Deadline Jan 31, 2005<<<<<<

Many of you have already made reservations to go with us on our Western Swing Cruise in April, 2005. But we need more of you to sign up right away so final plans can be made to be sure that your personal preferences are honored. The deadline to make reservations is 1/31/05.

My Silverlake Band and I will be providing western swing and country music each day for your dancing and listening pleasure. There will also be jam sessions each day so be sure to bring your guitar, fiddle, or whatever instrument you play and join in, or just make requests and listen. We are all excited about spending the week with you on the Carnival Cruise Ship in the western Caribbean. Dress is informal so don’t worry about your attire. We also have had some volunteers to teach western swing dancing.    

The dates are April 22-28, 2005. Village Tours  and Travel will provide motor coach transportation from Wichita, Ponca City and Oklahoma City to Houston on April 22 with an overnight stay in a motel in the Houston area. Or you have the option of meeting us in Galveston where we will board the ship on April 23. Meeting us in Galveston offers a reduced charge for the cruise. The five night cruise will stop at two ports-of-call, Cozumel and Cilica/Playa Del Carmen. There will be numerous options for sightseeing and on-shore fun and educational activities at these ports. And the days and nights on the ship offer so many choices of food, fun and entertainment.  We return to Galveston on April 28. For information and reservations, call Village Tours and Travel in Wichita, KS at 800-333-0312 or 316-721-4455.  You must make your reservations through Village Tours in order be a part of all our events, many of which will be private for our group. Hope you will join us.

We need you to sign up now!! The deadline is January 31, 2005.

Album Number 10

My latest CD is titled “I Remember Gene” which is a tribute to the great Gene Autry. As most of you know, my hometown is Gene Autry, Oklahoma and we lived next to the Flying A Ranch where Mr. Autry raised his rodeo stock.

I wrote the title song “I Remember Gene” and also included many songs that Gene recorded. The CD contains such songs as Along the Navajo Trail, Harbor Lights, Yellow Rose of Texas, Ages and Ages Ago, Tweedle-O-Twill, Mexicali Rose, Be Honest With Me, Blue Canadian Rockies, Sioux City Sue, Makes No Difference Now and It’s My Lazy Day. Ordering Information is shown in the products section.

Silver Dollar City

Many of you have asked if the band and I will be returning to Silver Dollar City in 2005. The answer is yes. We will be there for our 9th consecutive year. The dates are Oct 19-23 and Oct 26-29 which will close out the American Music Festival. (SDC closed on Oct 24/25.)

Happy Birthday to Me

In case you haven’t heard, I had another birthday in October. Our daughter Cindy managed to sneak into my computer and send an email to my entire address book telling them of this significant (round number) birthday. Well, much to my surprise, over the next few days, I received over 100 happy birthday emails and over 60 birthday cards. So thanks to you who responded. And congratulations to all of you who didn’t know and were not bothered by this useless information.

The Les Gilliam Trio

In 2004, I had the opportunity to share the stage several times with Jeanne Cahill and Jerome Campbell, aka “Call of the West”. The audience response was, to say the least, quite overwhelming. Since then we have had requests for bookings as a trio. So we will, from time to time, be performing as “The Les Gilliam Trio” providing great harmony and instrumentation to some of the greatest country, cowboy, gospel and pop songs along with original material.

Martha’s  Final Cookbook

Last year, Martha published her fourth cookbook titled “Tastes on the Range” which contains over 800 recipes and a story about the Arbuckle Mountains where I spent so much time as a lad.  She is now collecting recipes for her 5th (and last, she says) cookbook. She would like to include one or more recipes from you. Send ASAP to the address shown on the back

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Martha and I would like to thank each of you who sponsored or attended one of our events in 2004. You are all special to us and we appreciate you very much. We wish for you a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy 2005.

Email Addresses

If you have an email address, please send it   so we can send our newsletter by email, plus other occasional messages.

                                                                                Les