SUN CITY – Has the heat got you feeling the blues? Well, prepare to turn that frown upside down, and mark your calendars. At 7 p.m. on September 8 in Drendel Ballroom, prepare to have your funny bone strummed and your ears tickled by the Doug Gabriel & Family show. Doug Gabriel has won Male Vocalist of the Year seven times, and his show was awarded Branson Missouri’s best morning show six years in a row.
Doug Gabriel (middle, white tie) started performing and singing at three years old. Today, his show is a family affair, as his wife and three children perform with him. (Photo provided)
Doug Gabriel has spent his entire life immersed in music.
“[I] started singing at age three …. [I’ve] been playing guitar and piano since I was ten years old,” said Gabriel. “My mom was a good piano player, and my Dad worked in the muffler business. [He ended up] inventing the muffler guitar in the 70’s. [He created the guitar out of a] 1969 Thunderbird muffler. It’s the only one in the world. I play it in the show.”
When Gabriel first started performing, he was basically a one man show, but that changed in 1994 when his wife, Cheyrl, started singing with him full time, though she recently went back to being a registered nurse part time.
“[Now] the whole family is in on [the show], even our little dog, Tara,” said Gabriel.
When the children were too young to perform, Gabriel would bring his mother along to watch the kids. This didn’t last too long, because, “all the kids started [performing] really young.”
His oldest son, Josh, went on stage at age five. He is now 24. Jordan, now 19, didn’t start performing in the show until the last couple of years.
“He was very shy, but now he is the most outgoing,” said Gabriel. Gabriel’s daughter, Jasmine, is 12.
“We have two different shows,” said Gabriel, “[one] on the road, and [a different one] in Branson.”
Josh is the technical person on the road and is the percussionist in Branson. Jordan is also a percussionist in Branson, and he is the comedian on the road. He has been nominated for Percussionist of the Year. Jasmine is the singer and dancer both on the road and in Branson. She has been nominated for Young Entertainer of the Year. Tara, Gabriel’s dog, wears a 1950’s poodle skirt in both shows.
“We do 25 to 30 shows a year. Our goal is to reach 60,” said Gabriel.
When spending that much time on the road, it is inevitable that tensions arise. When asked how his family deals with the stress, Gabriel said, “We have designated jobs for each person, and we have sort of learned how to do it over the years . . . work as a family, [that is].
“Surprisingly, we haven’t had any problems at all throughout all these years of doing this together. So we count that as a blessing,” said Gabriel. “[In fact], we love being together as a family,” said Gabriel.
If you’d like to join in the family fun that the Gabriels bring to the stage, then head on down to Drendel Ballroom on September 8. The show will be from 7-8:30 p.m. Tickets will be $28 if you pre-register, and they will be $33 the day of the show at the door. The venue can only hold up to 380 people, so be sure to get your tickets early.
“This is a way for them [Sun City residents] to experience Branson and what we do. There is going to be something in it for young and old alike. It’s a show for the entire family,” said Gabriel.
