Branson Country USA - Guest Larry Turner (10/3/14)

 By Daniel Eslinger

Pink was the color of the night at Branson Country USA at the Grand Country Music Hall. 

The entire cast and band were adorned in the official color of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to show their solidarity in the fight against breast cancer.

Host Mike Patrick credited Grand Country's Deb Rainwater for the pink look, telling me later, “Deb fought a hard battle against cancer and this is our way of paying tribute to her and raising awareness.”

As usual the night's fun started backstage. Everyone was laughing, telling stories and getting ready for the show. The green room was covered with so many pink shirts, jackets and pieces of pink jewelry that it looked like Barbie's Dream House blew up in there!

New South talking prior to showtime

New South was going over their song lineup, making sure that they were all on the same page. 

I found this a little amusing because of course, they were so in sync that they seemed as much like a championship ball team as they did an award winning quartet.

Meanwhile at the big mirror, RobBlackburn decided to go "hair down". If you watch the show, you know that Rob's choice of wearing his hair up or down is a running conversational topic. Later, he proceeded to wow the audience with a knockout vocal solo.

To fill the vacancy Rob had left on the drummer's perch, Garrett Massengale (son of Melody Hart and WayneMassengale) filled in doing more than a fine job. This young man has a terrific future in the music business if he chooses to follow this path.

Larry Turner (The Legends In Concert) was the special guest on the show and is as nice of a guy as he is talented. 

During the show, he told of how a chance meeting with George Strait's father led him to a career as a tribute artist. 


Larry sang two of George Strait's most popular songs - The Fireman and Cross My Heart and proved why that chance meeting was indeed destiny rather than chance.

Jackie L. Brown beautifully sang her own rendition of a Jo Dee Messina song.

She was then joined by Melody Hart and Kari Garrison to perform Strong Enough To Bend, a song made famous by Tanya Tucker.

Another highlight of the evening was Jim Dandy (Jamie Haage) fiddle in hand, doing an old Ricky Skaggs number. 

“That's a song Rickie did back when he sang country music before going totally into Bluegrass music,” mentioned Jamie.

Part of the fun in being in the studio audience vs. watching/listening at home is that attendees get to see what happens during the commercial breaks. In one way or another, attention often centers around crowd favorite, singer/musician LarryAllred. This night was no different. Larry sang Merle Haggard's Fugitive to a lot applause and of course laughter.

The Branson Country USA show is truly one of the best and most action packed shows in Branson. If you want to be in the studio audience, give them a call at 1-888-514-1088 or visit them online at www.GrandCountry.com