The Haygoods!
“The ‘Acrobats of China‘ and ‘Legends of Kung Fu, Chun Yi‘ playing in Branson not only expands the great breadth of exciting live entertainment Branson offers its visitors, but gives them an opportunity to experience not only the amazing, talent, skill and excitement of their entertainers, but a little of the culture, history and tradition of China,” said Tammy Johnson, the Director of Operations for the Branson Tourism Center. “Now those living in China will get the opportunity to experience a little bit of Americana and what Branson entertainment is all about as the Haygoods take their unique and exciting musical and entertainment style to China for an extended tour during January of 2011.”
In an interview conducted on December 16 for the Branson Tourism Center, Tim Haygood said the tour will cover 18 performances in 18 different cities in China during the period January 3 through 30 in venues of from two to five thousand people including the Beijing Exhibition Center. He said the trip was made possible through the efforts of Mr. Lizhi Zhao, director and producer of the Acrobats of China show.
Haygood said, “The trip to china takes about 30 hours. After our New Years Eve show in Branson on December 31st we will get on a bus at 1:00 a.m., travel to St. Louis and fly out of there for China at 7:00 a.m.” Their first performance of the tour starts the day after they arrive in China.
He said, “It’s very rare for an American act to have an extended tour and even more so because we are a large family.” He said that in a family of eight, especially with one girl in the family, is so unique in China that it will be something a lot of the people they will be entertaining in China have never actually seen. He went on to explain that most of the Haygoods have never been out of the country, have no clue what to expect and have an “overwhelming sense of adventure and fun in their hearts about the trip.”
All eight of the Haygoods siblings Timothy, Patrick, Dominic, Shawn, Michael, Matthew, Catherine and Aaron; Daniel Dossey, drummer; Josh Cortz, soundman, and Adam Bowman, lightingman will be making the trip. He said that their mom and dad were not going on the tour saying, “This is the first time we have been on any sort of large tour without mom or dad along.”
Haygood said they have been working nonstop on creating an entirely new show for the trip. He said each performance will go for an hour and a half nonstop during which they will be presenting a variety of material in the show including some of their original music from their new album that will be released in the very near future such as “Country Boy,” “Rocking in the Sun” and “Run Like Hell.” They will also have a rock instrumental segment of Michael Jackson music including “Smooth Criminal; a Beatle segment including “Yesterday” and “Let It Be;” a Chinese love song by David Tao; the Beijing Olympics Song along with many others and, of course, a couple of the Haygood’s “patented,” exciting and action filled tap dancing routines.
He said that they are excited about the opportunity to share Branson with China as well as meet the Chinese people and experience firsthand all that it has to offer. Branson Tourism Center’s Johnson said, “It is an exciting opportunity for the Haygoods as well as Branson and the Chinese audiences attending their shows will experience some of the best of what Branson has to offer. We wish them ‘God Speed’ on their adventure.