Here I am, kind of stuck in bed, yet at internal existential, Eternal-based peace (vs. peace based on one&#;s environment) amidst the turmoil of the world, having already communed with and worshiped God (on this holy day for many) with many thoughts (not an unusual thing&#;in fact sometimes paralyzing&#;for me [kind of an OCD-thing]) on my mind&#;.
To help dispel a few seeming stubbornly-lingering (I&#;m taking Millenial/Gen-Z-type liberties and making up my own words/phrases, hyphenated words, etc.) and mistaken social-media-fed notions about my brothers and I, I thought I&#;d compose today&#;s blog.
SIX® or The SIX Show is more about honoring the six (oldest of ten) blood-brothers who have sacrificed almost everything pouring their collective hearts, souls and even sanity over a span of four and a half decades, into creating and developing (with the hired and sometimes expensive help [since the early 90s] of accomplished Las Vegas, West Coast and East Coast mentors, producers, choreographers and comedy writers) an uplifting and entertaining experience for as many ages as possible, than it is about an actual number of brothers on stage (though there most-assuredly are a few die-hards who in their minds, will always associate the name SIX with a certain number of brothers required to be onstage in order for &#;The SIX Show&#; [an acceptable nickname it&#;s also come to be known by] to be successful or acceptable).
SIX is what us Knudsen brothers named ourselves when we arrived in Branson, Missouri and began our own daily show on November 2nd, at the old Roy Clark Theatre n/k/a The Hughes Family Theatre on Hwy 76, also known as ‘The Strip’, now 76 Country Blvd. We had just come from Las Vegas, where we had headlined for almost two years, a small variety show, whose producer &#;Johnny&#; John W. Stuart (who created the now-acclaimed, multi-location successful tribute show, Legends In Concert, with whom my brothers and I are now privileged to share the stage with at Dick Clark&#;s American Bandstand Theater) finally had to shut down the show due to a competing variety show&#;s seemingly unethical and predatory practices (What?!.. In Las Vegas?!..🤷🏻♂️ Unethical, predatory people?!.. Perish the very thought!🙄😉). Shortly, thereafter, brother Lynn found us a home in Branson😁
Anyway, in Las Vegas from to &#;06, we went by the name Six Real Brothers (sort of loosely following the rule of threes and also being inspired by the three-word name of the Blue Man Group [and their name&#;s literal description of blue-colored men&#;hence, our decision to come up with the &#;real brothers&#; literal descriptive name for ourselves and simply adding &#;six&#; to it {especially since I had just come back into the group from a three and a third year away, now making it six, again}]).
Before proceeding, I&#;ll add a sort of side-note, here. As with all six brothers, I too, was not always in the group, since our father&#;s inception of it in Being dissatisfied with the group’s continuing barbershop harmony journey and roots and having also other interests, I left in , returned in for six months to give it another try, left again being unable to tolerate no less than before, singing barbershop harmony (its chord structures and progressions [being like fingernails on a chalkboard to my brain], along with the culture its sponsoring men&#;s singing society fostered [which just didn&#;t work with my slightly-autisic-brain]), but, I dysfunctionally and codepentently returned and left again twice more (having nothing better to do, trying to still figure out what I wanted to do with my life) during &#;84 thru &#;86 and again from August to December , due to a falling-out. (As of the date of this writing, I will have been a part of the Knudsen brothers&#; family acappella show band an approximate total of thirty-eight years [between my fading memory and lack of desire to muster the energy to actually discover the exact amount of time, we&#;ll let the approximate number of 38 suffice, for now😉].).
Prior to Las Vegas, when I was out of the group, my five other brothers had been experimenting with having two guitars in the show under the name &#;Real Brothers&#; at the time (without it being a permanent name), since performing as an acappella trio, quartet, quintet and sextet for the previous twenty five years had become a little &#;old&#;, having as I already said, been started by our father singing barbershop harmony in the Summer of &#;75 (because we were too poor to afford instruments and because the ONLY acappella singing our dad was familiar with and enjoyed was barbershop harmony). They even explored delving into the country music market.
Prior to , us five (most of the time) brothers performed under the simple and easy-to-choose name of The Knudsen Bros and had been able to develop quite a following in the previous 25 years. During much of that time, we performed barbershop (not me so much, as I already explained), evolving into doowop (as street performers in Downtown L.A.) and eventually progressing into more contemporary and eclectic styles, trying to figure out mostly on our own, which genres of music when performed in the acappella style, would appeal to the widest possible audience demographic.
In the early 90s, at the advice of a short-lived manager, we even tried touring as a vocal quartet with a backup guitarist, bassist and drummer, under the name The Hollywood Argyles from which the hit Alley Oop came. After a few road dates, we said good-bye to being passed off as a revived version of a thirty-year-old-has-been group, played around with a drum machine/sequencer (which didn&#;t work out, either) and eventually, but with some reservation, returned to being The Knudsen Bros acappella singing group, once again accepting as they came in, invitations to perform around Southern (and occasionally Northern) California.
Having been inspired by a particular trend-sending five-man acappella group named the House Jacks who had a vocal-percussionist, which was something new to us Knudsens, my brothers and I decided for all six of us to come together in the fall of in a last-ditch-do-or-die effort, and begin almost from scratch, retooling the Knudsen brothers&#; acappella show band for the first time as a six-some. We prepared to debut our retooled package at the beginning of , as a new six-man first-of-its-kindACAPPELLA SHOW BAND, with choreography, dialogue, a little dysfunctional family comedy and a substantial repertoire of show material. We gave ourselves another five years and agreed to hang it up, if we were still doing jobs by day and performing cheap-paying gigs by night and weekends, just to make ends meet.
For the twenty years leading up to , all six of us brothers had performed in the Knudsen family singing group, taking turns, coming and going according to brothers&#; individual circumstances and desires to participate, but had never all come together until New Year&#;s Eve of when after several months of preparing for our debut as an official sextet (holding down day jobs while rehearsing nightly several hours at a time, away from our wives and children) we performed our first multi-appearance ‘big gig’ at a corporate event for an enthusiastic audience of about five thousand people.
The Corporate Market then begin to open up for us, from that initial appearance and we would also go on to be the first of its kind, headlining acappella show band on cruise ships in the mid-late 90s (which would actually help carry us, income-wise into the time we came to Branson). We also began to make multiple appearances at State Fairs in the late 90s.
With steady bookings from fairs, corporate functions and cruises, along with a few other miscellaneous gigs throughout any given year, we were able to easily all quit our day jobs in &#;97 and focus solely on earning a living for our young, growing families.
It wouldn&#;t come without a painful cost, though. Marriages would be strained (mine ended up in a separation-of-sorts in &#;04 with an eventual divorce ten years later, while here in Branson).
In an attempt to help further the newly-developing contemporary acappella scene in , we were doing so well financially, that we decided to executive-produce and self-finance while remaining anonymous, a world acappella festival in Hollywood, headlined by The Nylons and featuring Rockapella and The Bobs, along with the Blenders and Spiral Mouth. The event itself was labeled as successful by the two different audiences which attended both matinee and evening shows, yet enough poor decisions were made in the process, especially with regards to hiring the person who was our “face” for the festival, we ended up almost $, in debt. What we had hoped to become an annual festival, ended up being a one-time deal, because we didn&#;t want to lose our shirts, again.
We did however, acquire quite a bit of experience and knowledge from the venture, had some fond memories of being able to associate with our acappella peers and make new friends, so it wasn&#;t a complete loss. During that time, we also became members of and met with the National Academy of Recording Artists (The Grammys) and proposed creating a new category for acappella singing, which they politely turned down at the time.
Being away from home up to days a year, some years, would also have its effect on some of our young children with only one parent at home most of the time, who a few now as adults have their own challenges, as a result. There would also be in-fighting amongst some of our wives (typical in-law difficulties with family-run businesses&#;my ex-wife sadly often being the instigator or behind-the-scenes facilitator with gossip, backbiting and rumor-mongering).
So, here we are, now. There are five brothers performing together on stage, in a combination that hasn&#;t existed before (the 14th iteration of the Knudsen family acappella show band) and seemingly&#;according to both audience-response/feedback and our own new synergy&#;the best SIX show, yet, EVEN with five brothers on stage! Kevin’s departure last August to pursue his lifelong dreams, presented some real challenges!
Us brothers and our families are at a bittersweet crossroads. Over the years and behind the scenes, much has occurred of a destructively-traumatizing nature and has damaged some relationships. Previously limited to only in-laws, i.e., wives and prior to the difficult departure of a still-loved and dearly-missed anchor-brother Kevin, some relationships seem damaged perhaps beyond repair. (With much prayer, love, and forgiveness, hopefully not, though.)
Sadly, the Knudsen Family&#;s situation as a somewhat notable and successful performing family is not that unusual or unique, as performing families go. There are many performing families even here in Branson, a few of which some knowledgeable insiders would confirm the typical challenges such performing families usually face, spending many hours a day together. There were in fact, two megastar performing families in the 70s&#;brother-groups, that come to my mind (who in fact, helped motivate and inspire us) who very much also had their hurdles and challenges!
The NORMAL (or regular) thing for families to do, is to get together for Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe a few other get-together occasions sprinkled throughout the year, for a few hours at a time and then go their separate ways&#;that is it! Coupled with judicious emails, texts, FaceTime calls, social media interactions, that&#;s about typically IT!
With us, add to the mix Bipolar Disorder, Asberger Syndrome (and other Autism Spectrum tendencies), Major Depressive Disorder and OCD and IT IS AN ABSOLUTE MIRACLE that even five Knudsen brothers are still on stage, TOGETHER!!!!!😳😬🧐🤪🤯
So,&#;
What/who is SIX?&#;
Hopefully, the preceding helped make it a little clearer!😁