Djurdjevic - Personal Photos - Missouri, May 2007

23 Jan 2011

Updated May 1, 2007

On to Branson...

"World capital of live country music" (per "60 Minutes")

May 1... "May Day"

BRANSON, May 1, 2007 - When my business meetings ended in St. Louis around lunchtime on May Day 2007, I decided to check out of my hotel and head south. I've heard that the Ozarks and the Springfield area are very pretty, but have never been there before. And since one never knows if and when the next such opportunity would present itself...

A friend had also told me that I "must visit Branson" if I get to Springfield, so I made that southern Missouri town my today's destination (click on the above map to enlarge the area).

As I was approaching Springfield, about 190 miles southwest of St. Louis, about 3.5 hours after leaving my hotel, heavy rain with lightening and thunder replaced the warm mid-80s slightly overcast skies over St. Louis. At one stage, the downpour was so heavy that the visibility was cut to no more than 10 yards. There were both cars and trucks pulling over on I-44, thus causing additional problems and danger to themselves and others.

Anyway, I got through okay. By the time I reached Branson, about 40 miles south of Springfield, just above Arkansas border, light but steady rain was falling. All along the way, I have been perplexed by hundreds of giant billboards along the I-44 interstate offering to sell tickets to various Branson shows. I had no idea what they were about until I started to drive on the town's main street.

Every other building seem to be a theater offering various country music shows and concerts. The Motown Americana theater, for example, is shown above.

The Legends (of country music) show was being performed above. And so on... All told, I learned that there were 32 theater in this little town performing live country music every night. I felt I had entered a whole new world, the world of Johnny Cash and June Carter, as seen in the "Walk the Line" movie.

Some of the places were rather crass and gaudy, like smaller versions of Las Vegas...

There was even a Mississippi Showboat, also just off Main Street, being used as a motel.

But after checking out most of the theaters that were in walking distance from my hotel, I decided to buy a ticket for this show at Presley's.

As it turns out, this is the oldest theater on the "Branson Strip." The first concert there was performed on June 30, 1967 (above). So the place is getting ready to celebrate its 40th birthday.

I don't know much about country music, and have never been to a country music concert.

So this experience was a real novelty. The four generations of Presleys, however, that entertained an almost full theater (even though it was a rainy weeknight!), were outstanding musicians (see three of the four in the right photo, including the founder, the base player, the 82-year old Lloyd Presley - click here for more).

Even though I did not know any of the tunes, one could tell that there were all outstanding musicians. In another life, they could be playing in a symphony orchestra. Some of them were even Grammy winners.

I also learned at the theater that five million country music fans come to Branson every year, an amazing number for a town with only 6,000 residents!

As with most glitzy shows, there were comedians, too. This one joked that the man to the left looked like Al Gore. No kidding...

Here's the 12-year old Presley performer, along with a Dolly Parton younger look-alike.

The full ensemble to the left, and the blonde singing couple who are also married to each other. The young brunette is a 19-year old from Hot Springs, Arkansas.

After the show, I went to dinner at a local restaurant. Since I always go by the motto "when in Rome, do as Romans do," of course I did not go looking for a suchi bar in southern Missouri (though I probably could have found one... they even have Starbucks in Branson). The food at Charlie's steak-and-ale place was both excellent and cheap, as things usually are in the Midwest. What was especially interesting was that the bartender was a Frenchman by the name of Francois. C'est la vie...