Elvis is Alive (in Branson!)

Branson was a hit. A Michael Jackson hit. A George Strait hit. A Temptations hit. I saw it all. That just proves Branson isn’t the country music show capital. You can seriously find any kind of music show here.

I totally rocked out in Branson.

The first night we had tickets for Clay Cooper’s Country Music Express. His 22-person ensemble was pretty entertaining. They sang a lot of country and mixed in a variety of other acts including the very funny Buckets N Boards – goofball duo Matt Levingston and Gareth Sever – a couple of guys making their livings at banging each other over the head with drumsticks and playing plastic recorders  through their nostrils. It’d be worth checking out their comedy percussion show, also playing at the Clay Cooper Theatre.

Before the show, a guy at the concession stand pointed out I was one of the youngest people in the building and said he thought everyone else was three times my age. That was hardly the case, but I took it as a compliment because that means he thought I was younger than I am.

That left me wondering. Is Branson an old-person’s paradise or fun for the whole family?

But after a cruise down Branson’s main strip I realized there’s a little something for everyone – the quintessential chicken and steak joint for your down-home southern cookin’ fix and the Hollywood Wax Museum for the kids (or to pretend you’re vacationing in California, not Missouri). And speaking of your summer vacation not reaching as far as the ocean, there’s the huge beached Titanic Museum right off Highway 76 to tide you over.

The next day we hit up this little diner – Jackie B. Goode's Uptown Café. You see the yellow cab out front? In the 1950s you could actually order a car like this out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog. Even during lunch we saw a show – albeit a one-man show, there’s nothing like being serenaded over burgers and root-beer floats.

 Then we were off to Legends in Concert at Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theater for a little Blues Brothers action and appearances by Martina McBride, The Temptations and George Strait. Michael Jackson moonwalked in after the intermission and Elvis crooned his way to the end of the show. If you book tickets for this act, you can start looking forward to his all-leather outfit right now. In true Elvis fashion, he was looking pretty hot (literally, it was around 98 degrees outside!).

Enough about Branson, this afternoon I leave for the Sunshine State!