Email this page  Print this page

All in the Family

Branson’s entertainment scene was built on the concept of family, and it all starts onstage.

Courtesy The Haygoods

Click here to purchase tickets to see the Haygoods!

It is certain that families were playing music in and around Branson prior to 1959. But that was the year the Baldknobbers—made up of members of the Mabe family—changed everything and, on the shores of Lake Taneycomo, started Branson’s music-as-business tradition that continues today.

The Presleys soon followed with the first theater on the historic Highway 76 Strip. In recent years, Shoji Tabuchi, Jim Stafford, The Duttons, the Hughes Brothers, SIX (originally called SIX Brothers) and many others have taken their family acts onstage. And despite the old adage that you should never mix business and family, the ones who perform in Branson seem to do so in harmony, with a spirit tailor-made for the family-friendly atmosphere the city seeks to set for its audiences.

These days, no family is more prominent on the Branson scene than the Haygoods. Tim (33), Patrick (30), Dominic (28), Shawn (26), Michael (24), Matthew (22) Katherine (19) and Aaron (17) have been performing their entire lives under the eye of parents Jim and Marie. Tim and Patrick started playing instruments when the family lived in a single trailer in Boerne, Texas. The family played odd gigs all over Texas before Jim saw a report about Branson on 60 Minutes in 1993. He drove up to Missouri and—seemingly by providence—landed the family (Aaron had just been born) a show at Silver Dollar City, where they stayed for nine years before going out on their own in 2002.
To the Haygood children, it was a dream come true; spending their days in a theme park, riding all the rides they wanted and getting to know which vendors were suckers for kids. Of course there was school, which came in the form of a tutor who taught lessons among the woods of Silver Dollar City. Only Tim and Patrick went to public high school.

The real education, they all agree, was learning the music business from day one. Today, each member of the family has a role in the upkeep of their own theater (the New Americana Theatre) and in the business, whether that means being the technical and lighting guru (Michael) or keeping the books (Patrick). What the Haygood kids missed out on in terms of proms and school sports, they say they gained tenfold in career and life experience. “I get to dress up [like I’m going to] prom every night!” says Katherine.

Another example of a Branson showbiz family is the Gabriels. Patriarch Doug performs the morning show at The Jim Stafford Theater. Doug, his wife, Cheryl, and children Josh, Jordan and Jasmine play nine months a year in Branson.

But unlike the Haygoods, Josh, Jordan and Jasmine went to Branson Public Schools, and Doug says he couldn’t be more pleased with the experience. “They’re real supportive, and I always admired how the teachers will come out and see the kids once a year. They support them, and what they do.”

Josh (23) is a drummer and coproduces the show; Jordan (18) is the resident comedian and percussionist; Jasmine (11) sings and dances. They’re all now huge parts of what Doug says is the eighth-longest running show in Branson history. But it’s not a mandatory gig; each child has had an option, Doug says, and he sees them all having long careers, possibly even outside the family show (Josh in particular is working his Nashville contacts).

So how can a family that plays together truly stay together, given the stress of business, the economy, and the day-to-day disagreements that happen in workplaces? You could do worse than to seek the answer in the small recording studio behind the Haygoods’ theater, where they stay up to all ends of the night recording and hanging out. To a person they insist there’s no pressure on anyone to stay in the show; everyone just seems to find their way back, even if they take a hiatus (which Shawn was doing with youth ministry as of this writing). Matt says he twice left the show while he was growing up. (“But it was really boring,” he says.)

Adds Tim: “We’ve been a group since 1988. We never stopped to think ‘This is weird’ even though it’s the most bizarre lifestyle a person could [imagine].” Not that they don’t think about the future. With a TV show in the works as well as an exciting new album, the Haygoods are always thinking about what comes next. They’re just doing it together.