Music of Branson
Branson, Missouri is a tourist area, especially associated with mainstream country music. The town's popularity grew in the 1980s when a number of prominent country stars moved to the area, including Boxcar Willie, Sons of the Pioneers and Roy Clark. Two major attractions had roots in the 1950s, the Shepherd of the Hills Theatre and Park and Silver Dollar City. Modern music festivals in Branson include the Old-Time Fiddle Festival, Branson Jam and the State of the Ozarks Fiddlers Convention. The largest music venue in Branson is the Grand Palace, which seats upwards of 4,000 people.
Prominent local attractions in Branson include the entrepreneur and performer Jennifer Wilson, a regional celebrity known for her show the Americana Theatre, the Mabe family's Baldknobbers, which has been running for three generations, and Jim Owen, of the Jim Owen Morning Show.
The area's country music broadcasting history, however, can be traced to Springfield in the mid-1930s, when Ralph D. Foster's KWTO-AM began carrying live performances and syndicating them to other stations across the country. The station's most famous program was Ozark Jubilee, which starting in 1955 was carried live on ABC-TV across the country. Foster became a major figure in the region's music history; there is a museum named after him on the campus of the College of the Ozarks.
Other national country music TV programs originating from Springfield included Five Star Jubilee and Talent Varieties.
Read more about this topic: Music Of Missouri
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