Homecoming Concert On Tap For Branson Favorite

Sun City residents who frequent Branson, Mo., certainly know Doug Gabriel. The singer songwriter’s self-titled show is in its 18^th year and is Branson’s eighth-longest running act.

What Sun City residents may not know is Gabriel will be making a homecoming of sorts when he performs at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, in the Drendel Ballroom at the Prairie Lodge in Sun City. Tickets for Sun City residents are $28 in advance, $32 at the door and $33 and $37, respectively, for the general public.

“Illinois is my birth place,” Gabriel said in a phone interview. “Elgin, right there. And I’m looking forward to getting back there. (But) I was just born in Elgin. I think we lived in McHenry, and we lived there until I was about 8 years old, and then we moved to Iowa.”

Even so, it’s in Illinois and not Iowa that Gabriel’s singing career began. When the Gabriel family crossed the Mississippi River and stepped foot into the Hawkeye state, Doug already had been singing for nearly five years.

“I sang or mimicked the records of the people my mom would play,” Gabriel said. “People like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. I actually started singing with a jump rope on the coffee table. The jump rope was the microphone. Later, I sang at weddings and different things like that. Of course, when I reached the age of 10, I started getting serious with it. I think I played my first professional job at age 12.”

All that seriousness paid off years later as Gabriel, who plays guitar and piano, began touring with and/or opening for a host of entertainers including Roy Clark, Tony Orlando, Marie Osmond, Mel Tillis, Tanya Tucker and Bobby Vinton. Gabriel’s time spent with each of the entertainers is reflected in his own show.

“We’re going to be doing a variety of different music for the folks,” said Gabriel, who has won Branson’s Male Vocalist of the Year seven times and earned the city’s Entertainer of the Year and Instrumentalist of the Year awards in 2000.

Joining Gabriel on stage will be his wife, Cheryl, their sons Josh, 24, and Jordan, 19, and their daughter Jasmine, 12. With the exception of one family member, all are singers.

“Jordan is our comedian and he also drums,” he said.

Still, it will be Doug who will be shouldering the heaviest load, literally, as he’ll be playing a few songs on his “mufftar,” an electric guitar crafted from a 1969 Thunderbird muffler.

“My dad invented the guitar when we were in Iowa,” Gabriel said. “He had a Midas Muffler franchise and he wanted to do something to draw attention to our musical abilities. I was around 15 or 16 years old, and he actually invented the guitar for my brother and I. My brother is no longer in the business, but I’m still playing the original one that my dad made.”

Gabriel says the mufftar weighs 40 pounds, is “a little bit bassier sounding,” and, as you can imagine, took some getting used to.

“The first time I went to play it, I was a little worried about getting electrocuted when I plugged it in,” he said.

Gabriel added that it is not just the mufftar that will add some Branson flavor to the show, but rather the whole show itself.

“I’m touring now with my last year’s Branson show,” he said. “I create a new show each and every year, so next year I’ll be touring with the show I’m doing in Branson now. This gives people the opportunity to see a Branson show without having to go all the way to Branson.”

Gabriel, who will sign autographs during the intermission as well as after the show, says he'll be performing Joplin, a song he wrote in response to a deadly tornado that devastated the Missouri town in May.

"I wrote that song for the telethon that Branson did for Joplin, and I'm raising money from it on i-Tunes," he said. "Every dollar I get will also be donated back."