Branson Entertainment: A hot afternoon at the Hot Winter Fun Big Show

The Hughes Brothers Theatre was the place to be on Saturday afternoon, February 28. With a large crowd on hand, thirteen acts brought their best onstage for this 32nd annual showcase.

Hosted by radio personality Joshua Clark, host of The Up Side on KRZK 106.3, the afternoon kicked off at 3 p.m. with a couple of classic cowboy tunes. Opening the show were the Old Trail Wranglers from the Great American Chuckwagon Dinner Show at the Shepherd of the Hills. Their arrangement of "El Paso" was a great way to start the show, and they saluted Marty Robbins well, featuring the entire four and a half minutes of the Grammy Award winning song. John Fullerton stated after the song that the afternoon would not include anything AI at all, but rather NI, as he pointed out, stands for “Natural Intelligence!”

Jerry Presley (Photo by Luanna Fullerton)

Keeping the classic theme up for a moment, Paula Williamson from the Hot Hits Theatre performed her arrangements of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams," and "Walking After Midnight." Paula's show is Patsy to Patsy where she highlights the music of two legendary ladies, Patsy Montana and Patsy Cline.

Next, everything turned magical with Brett Daniels Pure Magic, and all of a sudden, a couple of exotic birds flew over the audience, including 40-year-old Oswald, who has been seen in Brett's performances for some time. Brett has done a limited winter engagement at the Reza Live Theater which is about to wrap up.

For a moment things got fancy with the Best of Dean Martin. Performed by John Shaw at the Hot Hits Theatre, he shared a few Dean Martin stories with the audience, and his performance of "Amore" was outstanding. 

My favorite moment of the afternoon was seeing Jerry Presley of Elvis Live and his performance with his full band of "My Way" and "How Great Thou Art." He is performing this season at his new home, Nashville Roadhouse Live on Shepherd of the Hills Expressway. 

Stevie Lee Woods and Nashville Roadhouse Live finished out the first half. After intermission, Josh Clark welcomed everyone back kicking off the second half with ReVibe, seen regularly at the Hughes Brothers Theatre. This is the second generation of the Hughes Family, and not only is their singing well done, their choreography is also something to see.

The Hot Winter Fun excitement continued with the World Famous Platters, an appearance from the Branson Comedy Bash, Tyler Knudsen, and the Hughes Brothers. All of a sudden it was nearly 5:30. It was a great afternoon. 

I had a chance to visit with Sue Braun, Executive Director of the Branson Show League, who has produced this event since 1993. Sue stated, "Our event is the best homecoming of anything you could ever hope to come to. I see all these entertainers that never see each other all year long, everyone is friends, it's just the best time, it's such a great way to start the year."

Visit the Branson Show League website; there's a lot to look into. Go to www.showsinbranson.com .