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Natural Heritage |  |
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Branson
• Profiles |
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| • Branson History • Branson Profiles • Branson News ____ Profiles Index • Pure Heart • The Horse Creek Band (an interview) • Going the Distance: Wayne Horsburgh • Cajun Passion: Cedric Benoit • A Deputy with Heart: Terry Wayne Sanders • Branson's Santa Claus: Greg Winters • A Jim-Dandy of a Gentleman: Jamie Haage |
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These Ozark hills seem to have a way of drawing folks to them. In the case of Wayne Horsburgh, that draw must be curiously strong, seeing how he comes 9,000 miles each year.
Horsburgh, of Sydney, Australia, travels to Branson every summer.
"I just fell in love with the place," he explains. "The thing was it was still like a country town. You go one mile from downtown and you're in the bushland — the woods, as you'd say.
"That ties back to my farm upbringing in Australia. I love the fact that we have the lakes, the trees. And they've actually done quite well in mixing the old with the new."
Mixing the old with the new is something Wayne knows quite a bit about. Growing up at a time when many young musicians were inspired by Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, Horsburgh instead fell in love with the Nashville sounds of Marty Robbins and Slim Whitman.
"Eventually I got to see both live when they each toured Australia. It was a thrill to see them 'wow' the audience and I was sitting there thinking, 'I could do that if I were given the opportunity.'"
Given the opportunity he was. Barely out of his teens, Horsburgh was invited on a nation-wide tour with Australian country music legend, Buddy Williams. Shortly thereafter, Horsburgh packed his bags for a permanent move to Sydney, leaving his rural ties behind.
It was in the Sydney clubs that Wayne honed his craft, becoming not only an award-winning yodeler and vocalist, but a showman as well. In 1989, he was invited to the Hodag Country Festival in northern Wisconsin.
Hodag averages 45,000 country music fans each year, and most were in the audience that day. "It was really an incredible experience to sing to such a huge crowd and be on the bill with so many of the US country acts and legends."
(continued above right)
In fact, it was the Hodag experience that led Wayne to Branson. "I was back in 1990," Horsburgh relates, "and met Mickey Gilley and the band as they were on the same show. And they told me about this little place called Branson in Missouri.
"So, in 1991, I came over for two days — I was basing myself in Nashville at that time.
"It wasn't Las Vegas," he continues, "but the venues were — and are — just great. Very similar to the auditoriums and showrooms that I work in back home in Sydney."
"People are always interested in Australia so it's good to be able to talk about my home country here in the USA. And besides that, we're good allies."
Nevertheless, there are a few questions he'd just as soon never answer again. Does the water go down the toilet the opposite way? Do kangaroos jump around the streets of Sydney? And Does the Sydney Harbour Bridge connect Australia and New Zealand." The answer to all is No!
Wherever Wayne Horsburgh goes in the States, he finds appreciative country music fans, ready to hear his brand of traditional country western music and learn more about the Land Down Under.
December 21, 2007