front&center Randy Holland

Musical mayor of Mayflower runs city like business

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — Randy Holland, 51, of Mayflower is known among his peers as “The Singing Mayor.”

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to country music legend Conway Twitty, Holland portrayed Twitty in the movie Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young, which was filmed in Little Rock and is about the life of musician Faron Young. Holland said people won’t find the movie at the video store. Although it was filmed in 1998, the movie has yet to be released because of a lawsuit involving Faron Young’s children.

Holland said he is still hopeful the movie will one day be released.

Besides looking like Conway Twitty, Holland also sounds like him.

Holland owns and produces Blast From the Past, which is a Branson-style variety show that has 26 employees including light and sound technicians. The band Midnight Express performs with the show.

“I perform as Conway Twitty. We also have a Roy Orbison and a couple of Elvises,” Holland said.

Besides singing, he can also play drums, guitar, bass, piano and fiddle.

Born to Arnold and Montreal Holland in Heber Springs, Randy had his first taste of the music spotlight when he was 4 and performed on the radio with his father’s group The Variety Band.

“I sang all ‘All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.’ People really loved to hear that little boy singing,” Holland said.

The family would perform at all-day singings at Baptist churches in the area.

“I had a little ukulele and I’d stand by my brother, Larry, who played guitar. My sister, Kathy, played the piano, mom played the upright bass and dad fiddled,” Holland said.

After graduating from Rose Bud High School in 1975 , Holland moved to Little Rock to start perform with the band Western Union has performed with the band Western Union on their album A Message From ...

He has also been on radio and television programssuch as Louisiana Hay Ride, Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree with Roy Acuff in Nashville, Tenn., and with David Faria in the Lost in The ’50s Show in Branson, Mo.

Holland is a two-time winner of the You Can Be A Star! talent show on TNN. He has also recorded a variety of music, including the single “We’ll Talk It Over” on the Hilltop label out of Nashville, Tenn., and the “Razorback Boogie,” which became popular when the University of Arkansas basketball team won the National Championship in 1994.

In 1981, Holland graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from a technical college in Little Rock.

He and one of the instructors at the school, Lee Knuth, became business partners to start Razorback Speaker in Alexander, which installs surround-sound audio systems in homes.

Holland and his wife, Sherilee, moved to Mayflower in 2000 to raise their daughters Sydney, 11, and Savana, 8.

“I love it here. My wife has her business Studio 1 Salon; I’m here at City Hall, the girls are in school just down the road. We’re all right here in a one-mile radius,” Holland said.

To become more involved in the community, Holland joined the town’s Planning Commission. He was appointed by Mayor Franklin Pearce to the steering committee for the city’s efforts to become part of the Arkansas Community of Excellence (ACE) Program in 2005. In 2006, when Pearce died of cancer, Holland won a special election to finish out Pearce’s remaining six months in office. In November 2006, Holland ranfor the office and won.

“Being a musician is almost like being a politician,” Holland said.

With the rising cost of everything from food to fuel, the city has implemented changes such as bulk-fuel purchases and installing a circuit rider at municipal buildings. A circuit rider is a device that regulates electrical spikes in a building’s day-to-day usage. Holland said the device has saved the city 25 percent on electricity costs. City employees have also switched from a traditional eight-hour, five-day-week schedule to a 10-hour, four-dayweek schedule.

“If you want to get involved withyour town, get on the planning commission. You’ll have a head start on what’s going on within the community,” Holland said.

He said the City Council works from the strategic plan created during the ACE program.

“I look at running a city as a business and run it like one. I take it one step at a time; otherwise it could become overwhelming,” Holland said.

Another upcoming project for the city is streamlining the building process. All the forms and information a builder needs will be posted to the city’s Web site and builders will be able to submit paperwork online.

“This should cut down the amount of time a builder has to wait from two months to a couple of weeks. There are retailers and businesses that want to getin here,” Holland said.

Holland said the best thing about Mayflower is because it is small and close to both Conway and Little Rock, but like any municipality, there are challenges to overcome.

“I think communication is our weak point, but that’s going to change. In September, we’re sending out a quarterly newsletter to all our residents. It will have the reports the City Council hears at our meetings from the departments, such as police, fire and water. It will also have information on proposed ordinances, so residents can know what’s going on in their town,” Holland said.

The 2000 Census reported 1,631 residents in the Faulkner County town, but Holland said a survey by Metroplan, which isa planning group of local municipalities, puts the population close to 2,200.

“We’re just trying to make sure the Chamber, the school, the businesses, we’re all on the same page and working together as one,” he said.

For the Hollands, moving to Mayflower was one of those “meant-to-be” things, he said.Holland said he was just weeks from closing on a house in Cabot when something just didn’t feel right. He got on Arkansas 89 and drove west until he arrived in Mayflower. He noticed a bulldozer working on the Ledrick Place subdivision.

“That just felt right, and that’s where we live now,” Holland said.

matter of fact I was born: Sept. 1, 1957. I share the same birthday as Conway Twitty.

My pets are: A basset hound and golden retriever mix named Lucy, and Missy the cat.

One thing not a lot of people know about me is: A lot of the residents of Mayflower don’t know I sing.

If I could meet one world leader it would be: John F. Kennedy. It would be interesting to see his thoughts on today’s issues.

One of my goals for the future is: Learn to play the tenor saxophone.

I cannot live without: Milk.

My biggest fear is: Snakes.

Someday I’ll: Finish my farm at Quitman. I want to build a house on the property.

My hobbies are: Fishing and I love to bush-hog. I have a 1957 Ford tractor I use to bush-hog our farm at Quitman.

I am most comfortable in: My La-Z-Boy recliner watching the Razorbacks.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 149, 150 on 08/24/2008