Cody McVey Ministries
Newsletter – Spring 08
Greetings,
Time moves so fast, and it seems hard to keep up with everything. It seems as though we were just celebrating
Christmas and here it is June. The Lord has blessed us with another spring and rebirth- just as he does in our
soul if we ask!
There are a few exciting things that have happened to Cody since we wrote the last newsletter. First, he has
joined Monument Quartet out of Nashville, and is traveling nationally with them. This is truly a wonderful
opportunity for him. Monument is a quartet of talented men who have toured with people like The Happy
Goodmans, The Speer Family, Bill Gaither, The Blackwoods, and such. They are also featuring Cody as a
soloist during the concerts and as an opening act for them on occasion. They do most of their traveling July –
Oct. This leaves Cody time to continue his solo ministry also. They do Statler-Bros. type music as well as
Gospel, for a unique ministry. He is enjoying it and has already been to Louisiana, and Florida, where they
played at Disney, and other places. They are also booked at the WV State Fair Grandstand, which will be
awesome for Cody. Try to come see him if you can. See the attached schedule for dates .
Another piece of news is that Cody won the solo division of the Southern Gospel Music Fan Fair Talent
Competition in Chattanooga. He was the only instrumentalist competing against talented vocalists from all over
the US. He was second overall against quartets and groups with bands, and was a big hit. He got invited to do
some national TV shows there and also won some radio solo release time. It was a great experience for
him.
Before he signed with Monument, Cody was called by Brian Free to try out traveling with Brian Free and
Assurance, as their pianist. He flew to Atlanta, spent some time with Stan Whitmire (Mark Lowry’s pianist), then
went on the bus with Brian. He enjoyed it, but it was much too intense for what he wants to do – gone 4 or 5
days a week 49 weeks a year. Just too much! The Lord had better plans when Daryl Williams called from
Monument!
While he was in Nashville, between trips, he also started on his third CD- which is all hymns with no background
tracks. It is going to be beautiful! I am attaching a pre-order form in case you want one. It should be done in
June, we hope. You can also order his Christmas CD which is currently sold out, but will be back in soon.
Cody has gotten to work with some wonderful, well-known gospel music people in the last few months, but his
biggest thrill was he got to play at the Gaither Homecoming May 30 at the Charleston Civic Center! This has
been a dream of his since he first touched a piano – he is now a “Homecoming Artist!” He got to play a solo, set
up a product table and sing with all the Homecoming artists on the stage for a long time! He got to spend some
time with Bill back stage and many other singers. It was great. If any of you got pictures,let me know.
God has blessed this young man with so much, and keeps opening doors for him. I tell him that he is so
fortunate to get to do what he loves and is called by God to do. His little sister is coming right along with her
singing and I’m sure she will be in gospel music ministry also. We’re so blessed that God has loaned these
children to us – for they are really His. Every time I think about the hardships our family has endured, I stop and
thank God for Cody and Eva, and the wonderful people we have met because of their talents. It is truly
wonderful to know all of you and we thank you for your support.
God Bless!
Cody McVey Ministries
Please send us your email address if you have one, for future newsletters to detramc@yahoo.com. Thanks!
________________________________________________________________________________________
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Newsletter – Spring 08
Greetings,
Time moves so fast, and it seems hard to keep up with everything. It seems as though we were just celebrating
Christmas and here it is June. The Lord has blessed us with another spring and rebirth- just as he does in our
soul if we ask!
There are a few exciting things that have happened to Cody since we wrote the last newsletter. First, he has
joined Monument Quartet out of Nashville, and is traveling nationally with them. This is truly a wonderful
opportunity for him. Monument is a quartet of talented men who have toured with people like The Happy
Goodmans, The Speer Family, Bill Gaither, The Blackwoods, and such. They are also featuring Cody as a
soloist during the concerts and as an opening act for them on occasion. They do most of their traveling July –
Oct. This leaves Cody time to continue his solo ministry also. They do Statler-Bros. type music as well as
Gospel, for a unique ministry. He is enjoying it and has already been to Louisiana, and Florida, where they
played at Disney, and other places. They are also booked at the WV State Fair Grandstand, which will be
awesome for Cody. Try to come see him if you can. See the attached schedule for dates .
Another piece of news is that Cody won the solo division of the Southern Gospel Music Fan Fair Talent
Competition in Chattanooga. He was the only instrumentalist competing against talented vocalists from all over
the US. He was second overall against quartets and groups with bands, and was a big hit. He got invited to do
some national TV shows there and also won some radio solo release time. It was a great experience for
him.
Before he signed with Monument, Cody was called by Brian Free to try out traveling with Brian Free and
Assurance, as their pianist. He flew to Atlanta, spent some time with Stan Whitmire (Mark Lowry’s pianist), then
went on the bus with Brian. He enjoyed it, but it was much too intense for what he wants to do – gone 4 or 5
days a week 49 weeks a year. Just too much! The Lord had better plans when Daryl Williams called from
Monument!
While he was in Nashville, between trips, he also started on his third CD- which is all hymns with no background
tracks. It is going to be beautiful! I am attaching a pre-order form in case you want one. It should be done in
June, we hope. You can also order his Christmas CD which is currently sold out, but will be back in soon.
Cody has gotten to work with some wonderful, well-known gospel music people in the last few months, but his
biggest thrill was he got to play at the Gaither Homecoming May 30 at the Charleston Civic Center! This has
been a dream of his since he first touched a piano – he is now a “Homecoming Artist!” He got to play a solo, set
up a product table and sing with all the Homecoming artists on the stage for a long time! He got to spend some
time with Bill back stage and many other singers. It was great. If any of you got pictures,let me know.
God has blessed this young man with so much, and keeps opening doors for him. I tell him that he is so
fortunate to get to do what he loves and is called by God to do. His little sister is coming right along with her
singing and I’m sure she will be in gospel music ministry also. We’re so blessed that God has loaned these
children to us – for they are really His. Every time I think about the hardships our family has endured, I stop and
thank God for Cody and Eva, and the wonderful people we have met because of their talents. It is truly
wonderful to know all of you and we thank you for your support.
God Bless!
Cody McVey Ministries
Please send us your email address if you have one, for future newsletters to detramc@yahoo.com. Thanks!
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Cody McVey Ministries Newsletter Winter 07-08 Greetings, It looks as though winter is upon us, but spring can’t be far behind. It seems it was just Christmas and now we are preparing to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. I don’t know where the time goes; I only know that every day that passes makes us that much closer to seeing our Lord in person, and then time will be no more! It’s our duty as Christians to make sure that as many of the people who pass our way as possible, will also have that to look forward to. To say the last few months have been a rollercoaster, would be an understatement. July started with Cody playing at the American Baptist Biennial in Washington, DC, where he was a huge hit. He also debuted his long-awaited CD there, and it was a tremendous experience. Thank you to all who helped in the long journey of making this CD. We spent most of the rest of July in Nashville. Although Cody has done this before, going to music schools, Eva and I stayed for Ben Speer’s school this year, so she could take voice and guitar lessons. It was such a wonderful time and we made friends, just as Cody has, that are so into Christ and music, and they both learned so much. Eva competed against and won over about 85 adults in the last leg of the closing program tryouts. Cody did the same, and made it into the recorded closing program, where only 6 soloists from the whole school of 250+ students, were chosen. He also got to be in concert with the legendary Speer Family at their church. We are already looking forward to next year! We barely got back from Nashville when Cody’s concerts started picking up and he played at places such as The Greenbrier Hotel, The State Fair of WV and many churches. He got many bookings from the Biennial, so we had some long travels to make to several states. We met some of the most wonderful people and have made so many friends! God’s people are so good – and they are everywhere. The past few months have found us in many places, and doing many things, but we also had quite a scare. Cody had been having some trouble with pain in his chest, and after some tests, his doctor referred him to a cardiologist. They did an echocardiogram, which showed a major problem with his heart – it was only pumping at 45% capacity. Three different doctors saw the problem and recommended that we get him to a pediatric cardiologist as quickly as possible. Our cousin, John Lobban, is a great cardiologist in Morgantown, and he got us in immediately to see a pediatric specialist that he had lots of faith in. We sent out prayer requests to a huge network of wonderful people, and prayed hard. After 2 days of tests and monitoring at WVU hospital, Dr. Rhodes informed us that the problem was no longer there! Cody didn’t even need medicine or changing his activity. Isn’t God Great!! We rejoiced and so did many of you. Thank you again for your prayers. We know, even more now, that we serve a God who cares for His children and is still in control! As soon as we got word that he was okay, we headed to the National Quartet Convention where Cody shared a booth with some artists from Nashville, and it was an awesome experience. He got to meet and learn from the best Gospel pianists in the world, and we met some incredible people. He will have his own booth next year and will be performing at the Convention. We are so excited about it! Cody then began work on his Christmas record, “O Holy Night” in Nashville. Produced by creative genius, Tommy Cooper, the project features many Christmas classics, both secular and sacred. It contains a wide variety of arrangements, from solo piano selections, such as “Silent Night”, to Big Band/ Swing charts, like “Winter Wonderland”, to fully orchestrated ballads such as “O Holy Night”. The record also features a vocal solo by Cody’s sister Eva Marie. Both the new Christmas project and the debut recording, “Gettin’ Ready” have been selling extremely well. “Gettin’ Ready” sold completely out of the first production, while “O Holy Night” has sold out since its release in early November. (Don’t worry, we have gotten more) Thanks again to everyone who made all this possible. We received a wonderful blessing in October, when Dan Ferguson of Dan Ferguson Music in Huntington, heard Cody play and offered to help him get a Yamaha Grand piano. A piano of this quality is very expensive, and without Mr. Ferguson’s help, Cody would not be able to own this magnificent instrument. Now, our home is filled with the wonderful sound of this awesome piano, being mastered by Cody. Mr. Ferguson is also in the process of submitting Cody to become a Yamaha Artist, which is a very elite group of international artists who endorse and are sponsored by Yamaha pianos. Besides the churches and other places Cody has been playing, he was honored in December to play at the Governor’ s mansion in Charleston, for his Christmas party. He won the Tony Gore Gospel Talent Search, and got to play at the Charleston Municipal Auditorium with some well-known groups on New Year’s Eve. In January we flew to Chicago to do a concert at Judson University, which was great. Cody is still playing for the Greenbrier East Choirs, and has lots of stuff scheduled for solo concerts, even into 2009. The home-schooling is working out very well, and it is the only way Cody could do it with his travel schedule. Since he had a couple of offers for full-time travel with groups, we let him fly to Atlanta to go on the road with Brian Free & Assurance for a few days. Although it was a great experience, he found out he doesn’t want to travel with a group right now. God has a plan, and we feel even more now, it is to continue his solo ministry. The saddest part of our fall was the sudden illness and loss of H.R,’s mother, Jean McVey on Nov. 8. She was one of Cody’s biggest fans and is the one who bought his first used piano and paid for his first lessons. She was so proud of Cody and Eva and we are so glad she got to see and hear both CDs. She was selling his CDs from her hospital bed until the day she died. It has been difficult to lose her, but we have to remember that she is now home with her beloved husband and mother, and is rejoicing in the presence of Jesus. H.R. joked that she probably looked up Anthony Burger in Heaven and told him all about Cody and how much influence he had on him, and tried to sell him a CD! We just have to look forward to the day that we will all be together up there and there won’t be any pain, tears or leaving again! There are so many other things I could tell you about the last few months, but I’ve tried to touch on the most exciting ones without boring you to death. We are working on Cody’s web site and hope to get it up within a few weeks. There just never seems to be enough time to get it all done. I have given up teaching one of my college classes this semester, so that I can more easily travel with Cody and try to be more efficient at doing mailings, bookings, and the other things that his growing ministry requires. He already has another CD, of just piano solo hymns, planned for the spring, and we have a lot of people wanting Eva to do a debut CD on her own, so I can see a lot of time in Nashville coming up. He has also been invited to appear on some TV shows in Nashville and Atlanta, and though that will add to his travel, we are very excited, though he is shy about it. If any of you wish to make a love gift to Cody’s ministry, it is tax deductible, and we will use it to fund all the travel and projects coming up. Please also feel free to contact us about scheduling Cody for your church or event, so we can put it in the schedule. As we look towards spring, we again want to thank all of you who have helped, encouraged and supported us along the way. We hope that each one of you has a wonderful, blessed Easter and a healthy, happy year. May God continue to bless you and yours and may you know the love of Jesus, now and always. Love and Blessings! The McVeys H.R., Detra, Cody and Eva Marie Contact us at 304-445-2495 Cody McVey Ministries To receive other back issues of Cody's newsletter, please use the contact form and we will email or mail them to you. Thank You. |
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and let us know. Thanks!
computer easier. If you would like to receive these by mail, please use the contact page
and let us know. Thanks!
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