Published: March 09, 2006 12:17 am      

Family show brings clean, quality entertainment to the Old Town Theatre

Oh, the places a family reunion can lead.

For many, they are simply get-togethers, a chance to catch up with extended family, but for the Ogdens they’re an allout musical concert.

Debbie Ogden Mayes knows good country music, being born and raised in the Ogden family. Today, she continues the tradition started by her elders with the Ogdens Country Jubilee. In March, Ogdens will be back at the Old Town Theatre after a lengthy hiatus. Mayes said she’s ready to bring back her variety/musical/comedy show.

“My show is comprised of people from all over Texas,” Mayes said in a recent interview, freshly coifed from the beauty salon. “My show is the realization of a dream, a vision, that I had to provide good, clean, quality entertainment for families. A place where you could take your grandmother or your children.

“My roots are country music. The Ogden family — Ogden is my maiden name — that family comes out of the hills of Arkansas,” she explained with her trademark Southern twang. “There were 18 children and they all played an instrument. For our family reunions, what we would do is get together and we’d put on a show. We had so many people in our family, we had people in the show and people to watch the show.”

Mayes said between the brothers and sisters, there was a full band.

“And, they’re all hillbillies,” she laughed. “I’m a grandkid from that group. Grandpa was a state champion fiddler back in his day, and he taught all his kids to play.”

Folks not related to the Ogdens started attending the reunions, Mayes said.

“They’d call and ask if we were having our family reunion, and then they’d bring their lawn chairs,” she said. “We had a stage, we had everything before the outside world started coming. We’ve been doing it since ’77.

“I started looking around and I saw there was a need for a place where people could go,” she added. “Ya’ know, not everybody’s family can do this. I started Ogden’s at a little campground in Livingston. Then I took the show on the road some and ended up over here in Huntsville working and came upon the Old Town Theatre. I thought it was a good little hub. So, I started in 2002 over here and we did just fantastic.”

While Ogden’s Country Jubilee tends to be frequented by those over 55, Mayes said it’s a show anyone of any age could enjoy.

“The show is always clean and always different,” she emphasized. “It’s changed some over the years, maybe a musician, but now it’s the original band. My band is all Christian family men, husbands, and also two backup singers. What we do is we all come together and put on this nearly two hour gung-ho variety show, clapping, tapping, singing, laughing.

“It’s good, clean, down-home country comedy. It’s a Branson show on a smaller scale, but just as good,” she boasts. “I love it because it is so rewarding. You’ll have your widows, little groups of ladies who go out to eat and then they come. It’s safe, it’s a clean environment. No smoking, no drinking, no cussing, nothing like that. Then you have your senior citizen couples who have gone out to dinner, who come to the show holding hands.”

Mayes knows her audience, she says, because she interacts with them during each show.

“It’s not an old persons show, it just tends to be something older people like to do,” she explained. “That’s where I’m coming from: to entertain, to bring joy and laughter to an older population who don’t have a lot to do.

“We do classic country, new country and some gospel,” she added. “Sometimes we’ll do an oldies show, where we do everything old rock ‘n’ roll and country from the ’50s and ’60s. Sometimes we’ll do a night at the Grand Ole Opry and we’ll have impersonations of famous country music legends. I have three original comedy characters I do. They’re all three different personalities and they interact with the audience.”

So, how does she and her family keep it all going?

“It’s just in our blood,” she gushed. “There’s a lot of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are musically inclined.”