We came close to Branson on our first trip in 2001 and didn't want to miss it.   What a place it is.  We stayed in a beautiful Coast to Coast park - Treasure Lake RV Resort.

There are so many shows to see - choosing just a few is a real chore.  A fairly newcomer to Branson is Delene and we loved her show.  Very seldom do we buy CDs at a show, but we bought 3 of hers, including one of gospel songs that will give a body goose bumps when they listen.  She has a powerful voice and holds her own singing the likes of Patsy Cline, Anne Murray, Brenda Lee, and Connie Frances.  Her rendition of LeeAnn Rymes Blue was suburb.  She also sang a beautiful duet with her 18 year old son.  Guess you might say we really enjoyed her show. 

Lots of people told us to see the Baldknobbers, one of the earliest Branson shows.  They featured some great musicians and singers and their comedians were not too bad either.   The trip to Silver Dollar City was a day well spent.  We enjoyed young dancers and musicians from around the world featured on various stages around the park.  We stayed clear of all the wet, fun stuff.

Another newcomer to Branson, Tim Hadler, is featured in Hank Williams Revisited, but Tim does a great Willie Nelson and George Jones as well.  On the Saturday night before Mother's Day we were in the audience along with Tim's Mom and he sang a special song just for her.   A very different kind of show, but one we also really enjoyed was Frederick Antonio "who plays the world's most beautiful music on two grand pianos at the same time, surrounded by 40,000 gallons of dancing, shimmering water and spectacular lighting!"

The two big shows that we didn't want to miss were Shoji Tabuchi and Yakov Smirnoff and we are glad that we didn't.  Both feature big production numbers with lots of help from musicians and dancers, etc.  But both can hold their own.  Shoji is a violin virtuoso and plays ho-down as well as classical.  Yakov is a talented, quick-witted comedian who gave us some great perspectives on America.

The big surprise for us was to learn that Yakov is also a talented painter.  A banner that he commissioned to drape one of the buildings at ground zero in New York at his own expense features one of his patriotic paintings.  A photo of the banner is included in our section on New York City, but linked again below.