Doors open at 8pm
50’s At The Hop Show Starts at 9pm
Intermission will include:
Heavy Hors d’ oeuvres, Scrumptious Desserts, Plenty of Party Favors, Noisemakers, Confetti, and Balloons.
The Best of the 50’s At The Hop Show Continues and at Midnight Experience a 10,000 Balloon Drop and Encore Performance.

Great Family Fun!!!!

Call for Reservations 417-335-5300.

Great New Years Packages Available for Show & Rooms.

8pm Shows December 26th thru January 3rd
CHECK OUT OUR SCHEDULE FOR 2009!!!

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — Talk about family bonding. For 25 years, the Lowe family from Missouri has been touring the world, performing a music and dance act.
“I really don’t know anything different,” said Kayli Lowe, 20, the youngest member of the family.

Kayli considers herself lucky because she had plenty of musical role models growing up. She performs with her four sisters, one brother and parents in a variety show.
Almost no style of performance is off limits. The Lowes’ repertoire ranges from bluegrass songs to swing dancing to “a little bit of clogging,” Kayli said.

Their Christmas spectacular comes to the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek Tuesday.

Kayli hopes the show will be an opportunity for audiences to “have one night when they can forget about life and forget about the real world and just enjoy themselves.”

Originally from outside Salt Lake City, Utah, the Lowes are devoted to their instruments. Kayli plays violin, piano, several types of banjo, the Irish pennywhistle and an Irish drum called the bodhran.

It all started with the Lowe parents. LeeAndra sang to military troups with a vocal trio, while Robert Lowe was part of a band with his seven brothers. When their children were young, Robert held a job as a real estate broker to pay for their music lessons. The children often got up at 4:30 a.m. to practice their instruments, according to the family’s biography.

“The oldest kids started playing in quartets together because they were all violinists, and people would hire them for little odd end jobs,” Kayli said. “It started from ‘Oh, could you play for this church function?’ or ‘Hey can you play for this wedding?’ to ‘Hey, do you think you could make it out to the Utah fair?’”

By now, the Lowe family has taken their act all over the world. They spend plenty of quality time together at home, too. Kayli lives with three of her siblings and her parents. The other siblings are married and have their own homes, she said.

Presently in holiday mode, the Lowe family will wrap up its two-week Christmas tour in Beaver Creek. Expect to hear Christmas songs like “Coming Home,” a ballad Kayli wrote. The rest is a mix of gospel medleys, classical tunes, Irish dancing and all kinds of other entertainment. Two of the Lowe grandchildren will even make appearances.

“It’s just fun. It really is,” Kayli said. “I’ve had a bunch of friends that come that you would never think they would enjoy anything but a rock concert or a rap concert or a pop concert and they come and they’re like, ‘wow, this is great.’ So it’s surprising because people may think ‘Oh they’re from Branson or they’ve been performing in Branson so this is just for senior citizens only, but really all ages seem to enjoy it.”

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Louise Harrison has this vivid memory of her late brother, George — the “Quiet Beatle.”

It stems from a birthday party, “back when we were kids.”

Her mum was pouring from a teapot.

“George looks, and he says, ‘Oh wow, silver tea!’ ” Harrison recalled in a recent phone interview.

George — who was probably around 6 or 7 years old at the time — wasn’t actually witnessing something wondrous.

“It was just plain water coming out,” said Harrison, noting that her mother simply forgot to add tea leaves.

Harrison and her famous sibling had fondly recounted the humorous episode at a time when the end was approaching for George, who died in 2001 following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Seven years after George’s death, his older sister is using her sway to carry on the spirit of the Fab Four.

Harrison’s familial link to the Beatles helps lend distinction and credibility to Liverpool Legends, a tribute band that salutes the look, attitude and music of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

At 77, Harrison is a spokeswoman and promoter for Liverpool Legends, which performs regularly in the entertainment mecca of Branson, Mo.

The mop-tops are, however, trekking to Merrillville for a groovy Saturday concert at the Star Plaza Theatre.

There are numerous Beatle-impersonator bands in America, but Harrison thinks her boys have some separation from the pack.

“They really can portray the magic — that kind of excitement the Beatles produced,” said the mother of two and grandmother of two. “The very fact that the four of them onstage are enjoying what they are doing kind of pulls the audience in.”

A hit at the Starlite Theatre in Branson, Liverpool Legends re-create –in sound and costuming — the different eras of the Beatles, traipsing from the Beatlemania years of “She Loves You” to the trippy feel of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

There is likewise a nod to the “Abbey Road” days that gives fans one last whiff of the quartet’s latter works, before the group’s breakup in 1970.

Raised in the Beatles’ hometown of Liverpool, England, Harrison is a part of the performances given by her band.

She typically has an intermission chat with the audience, fielding questions and dishing anecdotes about life as the sister of a pop icon.

She stressed there is one overriding message to the public:?”I’m really happy to be keeping alive the idea of love and peace.”

Although still boasting a crisp British accent, Harrison has lived in the United States since 1963.

Her husband’s job as a mining-equipment engineer brought her here.

No longer married, Harrison resided in southern Illinois before moving to Branson, which also is now home to Marty Scott and Kevin Mantegna, who portray George and John Lennon, respectively, in Liverpool Legends.

Both hail from Schaumburg, Ill.

Scott, who started the group, said he and his mates are not interested in ad-libbing their way through Beatles classics.

“We don’t really mess around with the music too much,” the singer/guitarist said. “We do it note for note.”

Although he’s been cranking out Beatles tunes professionally for years, Scott never really tires of the material, alluding to the massive catalog of recognizable Fab Four fare.

“The Beatles have more hit songs than anyone else in the world to choose from,” he said. “They’re kind of the best songs ever written anyway.”

While Scott and company lovingly masquerade as British treasures, Louise Harrison has helped her boys look their Beatle best.

The Beatle sister managed details by “sewing buttons on our jackets,” Scott said.

“She’s kind of more like our mother than our manager,” Scott said.

Harrison has endorsed Liverpools Legends because they meet her criteria for tribute artists.

“I want them always to represent the Beatles in the most respectful way and loving way,” she said. “I’m very proud of being able to do this.”

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A year ago, Shepherd of the Hills fish hatchery took on a new look with the addition of a state-of-the-art brown trout rearing facility.

The operation now allows the Missouri Department of Conservation to raise thousands of brown trout annually. But in the first year of operation, the facility hit a few bumps in the road.

Coldwater Hatcheries Supervisor James Civiello said high water in the spring and elevated water temperatures caused some problems.

“This year, water temperatures got up to 66 degrees and that increases the number of parasites in the water. That, in turn, causes fish loss,” Civiello said.

About eight thousand gallons of water a minute comes into the new facility from Shepherd of the Hills rainbow trout hatchery via Table Rock Lake.

“We had a bit of a struggle dealing with the warm water but we got around it,” he said.

Civiello said the new facility is a step up in the department’s effort to grow more quality trout, not only for Lake Taneycomo but the region’s other cold water fisheries.

“The design is great. We put in 12 new rearing raceways and several intermediate raceways as fish get larger,” he said.

A big addition to the new rearing facility is a fish ladder — a concrete stair-step from the river to the hatchery — and big browns are finding their way home.

Civiello said it is natural for brown trout to return to where they were hatched and the ladder makes it easier for them to get back.

“Over the years, I’ve found that a fish ladder is very important to good production,” Civiello said.

“We got a very good return of 3-year-old broodstock. In three egg-takes, we got 300,000 eggs. It worked just the way we designed it,” he said.

The early life-stage of a brown trout can be touch and go. At a critical time, fish need to be protected from disease.

Civiello said incubation goes well, but when the fish hatch, they go through a life-stage called the sack fry.

“That’s when they have the embryonic sack they absorb. In that life-stage we cannot treat for parasites because you kill the production,” he said.

Civiello said they lucked out and had more fish available during this past year’s spawn.

“We took another spawn and moved those eggs to another building, which is protected from high concentrations of parasites,” he said.

Systemwide, the conservation department wants to increase brown trout volume by 20 percent.

Approximately 700,000 rainbow trout are released into Lake Taneycomo each year. The number of brown trout is around 10,000.

Other hatcheries in the state are being renovated to increase production capabilities, as well.

Renovations include the addition of liquid oxygen to help trout grow faster.

The new Branson facility has allowed Civiello to spread out production and create better fish quality. Other state hatcheries will also benefit during times of drought and poor water quality.

Shepherd of the Hills will be able to provide fish to keep their production numbers up.

The last renovation at Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery was back in the 1970s.

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