Riders of the Circle B
Cowboy movies and free, fresh popcorn begin your Circle B Supper Show with the Horn Family. The whole Horn clan gets into the act, preparing the meal from scratch, serving it at your table, bringing around seconds, and then – putting on the show! The Riders of the Circle B take the stage for sweet cowboy harmonies, rollicking humor and grand entertainment. The Circle B show is chock-full of cowboy music, classic and modern, as well as sibling rivalry and fun pranks including the whole audience. New for 2011 & 2012: Tribute to Ireland, including Irish step dancing! Supper, Singin’ and Western Wit!
Group Bio:
The Riders of the Circle B serve supper and perform at their own theatre, the Circle B, in Branson, Missouri. But it hasn’t always been like this for the singing Horn Family. In 1995, in the midst of a midlife crisis, Kemp and Michele Horn loaded up their family into a modern day wagon train of vehicles headed West from Baltimore, Maryland. They ended up in the Black Hills of South Dakota at the Circle B Ranch.
Kemp and Michele expected to just purchase and run a tourist ranch business. In April of 1996, the Horn’s put together their own show—but not by choice. The band playing cowboy music at their ranch quit just weeks before the summer tourist season was to begin. The Horn Family had a background in theatre and performing arts, but none of the family had any experience as musicians. Kemp had been a forester (tree-trimmer and inspector) for the City of Baltimore, and Michele had been a practicing attorney. So, Dad, Kemp, bought an upright string bass, salvaged from a public school dumpster and started taking lessons. Michael, who had taken a few months of guitar lessons previously, naturally picked up the guitar. Katie took up the mandolin. Little sisters Megan and Christy did what they could to help out: Irish dancing. After a few tentative seasons, this family seemed to have some spark of natural talent, which grew to a bright fire.
In the mean time, the kids all pursued their educations, with Michael completing law school, Katie and Megan attaining 4-year college degrees, and Christiana pursuing her higher education. All of this activity, and the careers that followed, made their music a very important sideline to the Horn Family’s paying jobs.
The Horns performed their shows to rave reviews in South Dakota for 8 years. After much soul-searching, the Horn’s decided to try “full-time” performance possibilities. At about that same time, a friend of the Horn’s asked them to move to Branson and do their show.
The Horn Family, now known as the Riders of the Circle B, sold homes, quit jobs and, after some musical training in Wichita under the Prairie Rose Wranglers (now known as the Diamond W Wranglers), moved to Branson, Missouri. The Horn family started looking for places to put on their show – just like they had in South Dakota. In November 2004, the family did their first shows in the new theatre they had purchased, the renovated Dinner Bell Restaurant on Wildwood Drive in Branson. The Horn’s recreated the western town they remembered from South Dakota inside their new theatre home.
In 2005, the Circle B Supper Show was honored with the title “Must-See Show”, earning the Editors’ Choice Award from Branson Critic. In 2006, the Riders of the Circle B were blessed to record a new music album at a Grammy Award-winning studio, Family Room Studios, in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2007, a national broadcast of one of their live performances garnered 24 million viewers! 2007 also saw the show named the “Best Show in Branson” by http://lifeofjason.com. In 2008, the show was voted Branson’s “Best Bang for your Buck” by Ozarks Christian News. And in 2009, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote “you’ll love this show.”
Since arriving in Branson, the Riders have changed members a little; sister Katie is on extended maternity leave, caring for two beautiful daughters. The band has also expanded, adding multiple state fiddle champion, and Hollywood film star (Winter’s Bone)Billy Ward. In 2008, the Riders welcomed lead guitarist and vocalist Earl Vaughan, 20-year veteran of the Baldknobber’s Jamboree, to their show.
When you get to Branson, stop in and say, “Howdy!” Still singing and playing, the Horn Family’s Riders of the Circle B will serve up a tasty meal and an exciting, interactive show. Will your family enjoy it? You’re durn tootin’!
e) on “menu” page, could you add some pictures of the food, please.
f) can you point all of the other mirror sites (circleb.org, chuckwagonjamboree.com, etc.) to the circlebchuckwagon page?
2. Please use the kilt pictures as much as you need throughout the website, but our FB landing page should feature several good kilt shots, because the FB ad will be titled “Cowboys in Kilts?”
Here is the text that should go with it:
COWBOYS IN KILTS?
Did you know that the word “cowboy” originated in Ireland about 1,000 A.D.?
Did you know that the kilt is an ancient symbol of status among the Celtic tribes of Scotland and Ireland, and that it pre-dates the formation of those countries?
Did you know that the Riders of the Circle B pay tribute to Scotland and Ireland every night as part of their cowboy music show?
The Riders feature traditional Irish and Scottish tunes, as well as IRISH STEP DANCING by Megan McCullough Horn!
Click here to buy tickets to see the Circle B with their expanded tribute to Scotland and Ireland!
