Branson Visit
September 19-21, 2003

In the afternoon I had a late lunch/early supper at Shorty Small’s, drove past Silver Dollar City (all I could see was parking lots), a hike in a park overlooking the town and a tour of Stone Hill Winery. The winery guide was terrible, constantly complaining that the crowd wasn’t doing its part and threatening us with small samples for not responding well. She got mad when we responded well to another employee, in the bottling room, who spoke normally to us. By the time we got to the tasting room and saw that she would be the one conducting the tasting, I couldn’t stand being around her any more and skipped the tasting. In the store, I discovered I couldn’t remember which Stone Hill wines I have liked before, and didn’t buy any.

My evening show was Glen Campbell & Andy Williams in the Moon River Theater. Most of the theaters in town are rather plain boxes, but this one is quite attractive, with decorations within and a Moon River along the outside of the theater with waterfalls and large koi. My seat was 3rd row center. 

During the preshow period, they showed a video of clips from Andy's old TV show, brief scenes of Andy singing or dancing with Pearl Bailey, Eddie Fisher and others. Very nice!

The show opened with Glen Campbell. His voice is losing some power, but has fine quality. His guitar playing is still great. His daughter Debbie came on to sing two or three songs, ending with A Coal Miner’s Daughter, which shifted into a Rhinestone Cowboy’s Daughter. Glen joined her for the next song (Gentle on my Mind), and after someone called out "happy birthday," everyone sang Happy Birthday to Debbie.
 

During the intermission she came out into the audience selling CDs. I bought one of Glen in concert which had the song with the two of them sang together and was signed by both. I showed her a photo on my digital camera of her dad holding up fingers behind her head, while they sang. She said she would get even by wearing buck teeth at their next show.

Andy had the second half of the show. I was surprised how tiny he is. He appeared rather frail (he is 75), but still has the voice. He seemed to grow stronger through the show. My favorite part of his act was showing a fairly recent UK automoble commercial which uses one of his songs. Then he showed the commercial the way he would have liked it, with his stealing the girl.
 

The show concluded with Glen and Andy singing together and sharing some stories. Glen did a funny Elvis impersonations and flashed his chest.
 
Rumor is that this season will be their last together. I confirmed the rumor with one of the staff during the intermission (he had approached me to make sure I wasn't taking video) but learned that there is no truth to rumors that Andy is close to retiring.

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Copyright 2003 by Keith Stokes