For the love of Branson: The Branson family shows

BY MARSHALL HOWDEN

     A family that sings together, clings together. At least that was true for my family. I was born in November of 1991 to Connie Lynn Tillis, the second born daughter of the late great Country Music Hall of Famer, Mel Tillis. And while I was born in Nashville, Tennessee, it was a matter of a few months before my family would move to Branson TOGETHER. And our exodus from Nashville was no accident. It was a planned move that my grandpa had been orchestrating for years. In the mid 1980s granddaddy first started performing in Branson at Bob-O-Links Country Hoedown. The “Bob” in Bob-O-Links of course being Bob Mabe whose family started the Baldknobbers, Branson’s founding show.

You see, this entire town was built on the family show. Whether it was the Presleys, the Plummers, the Lowes, the Braschlers, or the Wilkinsons, families performing TOGETHER on a Branson stage was a staple of these Ozark hills long before the stars set up shop on the famous Highway 76 Strip. And when those stars did come, they brought their families with them.

Shoji Tabuchi wasn’t just the King of Branson, he brought out his little princess Christina at every performance. Jim Stafford and Boxcar Willie didn’t hog the spotlight all by themselves, they both featured their children for years in their performances. And as mentioned, Mel Tillis didn’t stutter on a stage alone, he had his kids (and grandkids) right beside him as the crowds of thousands laughed all their cares away. 

See, the family show became a formula that was almost necessary to success in Branson. When Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson stopped in for a few seasons, they were seen as people performing temporary residencies as opposed to becoming locals like Mel, Shoji, Mickey and Roy did. And when those stars rode off into the sunset, it was the family shows that remained in Branson. The Hughes Brothers set up shop in Roy Clark’s Celebrity Theatre and the Duttons made Boxcar Willie’s old venue all their own. That trend continued as the Bretts, the Petersens and the Haygoods all became the next generation after that ‘90s boom in Branson. And the new stars like Clay Cooper and Doug Gabriel trained up their children from the time they could walk, to be integral parts of their productions.

So what makes these family shows so special? Well, I can tell you that one trip to a Hughes Family Christmas performance will answer that question while bringing tears to your eyes. And that old formula that somebody like Clay Cooper knows all too well, is incomplete unless you have the next generation of Coopers bringing up the rear. But that’s what has made our audiences resonate with Branson stars for as long as they have. Branson performers are real, down to earth, God-fearing people who want to raise their children the right way – all while putting fiddles and guitars in their hands from infancy.

Has Branson changed from what it was in the ‘90s? I think that’s incontrovertibly true. However, something deep down within us hasn’t changed. And that’s the Faith, Family and Flag ideals that are presented on our front porch every evening – the Branson stage. And the Branson stage is just as much a hearth where a family can grow together than it is a simple music venue. I got to spend nearly every day of my childhood on stage with my granddaddy, and when you talk about priceless…all the money in the world couldn’t make up for that experience.

And I’ll end with a song my mom wrote when I was just a kid about my experience learning from my legendary grandfather. “Standing on the stage watching you, watching me…that’s who I am, and who I wanna be.”