MARLINTON, W.Va. (WVDN) — On winter nights in Marlinton, the lights inside the Pocahontas County Opera House glow a little warmer.
Opry Night has become an annual cold-weather tradition at the Opera House — a gathering that feels as much like a community front porch as a concert hall. This year’s edition takes place Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at 7 p.m., bringing four respected tradition-bearers to town for an evening rooted in harmony, rhythm and Appalachian song.
“Opry Night 2026” features Emily Miller and Val Mindel alongside Becky Hill and Rachel Eddy — artists who carry old-time and classic country music not as museum pieces, but as living, working traditions.
Miller, artistic director of the Augusta Heritage Center and string band director at Davis & Elkins College, is known for her clear, steady voice and fiddle playing grounded in classic country and old-time styles. She has toured and recorded with Jesse Milnes and performs as a lead singer and twin fiddler with The Sweetback Sisters.
With her mother and longtime collaborator Mindel, Miller has released two duet albums, “In the Valley” and “Close to Home,” inspired by close-harmony country duos such as The Louvin Brothers and The Stanley Brothers. Their intergenerational partnership offers audiences a rare chance to hear how songs travel through families as well as through time.
Mindel, a founding member of the California-based Any Old Time String Band, has spent decades teaching and performing old-time and early country music across the United States and the United Kingdom. Onstage with her daughter, she helps shape the tight, expressive harmonies that defined early country music and still resonate today.
If Miller and Mindel anchor the evening in vocal tradition, Hill and Eddy bring its physical energy to life.
Hill is a percussive dancer, square dance caller and choreographer who treats the stage like a rhythm instrument. She has performed with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes and Good Foot Dance Company, and frequently collaborates with groups including T-Mart Rounders and Big Family Business. Her dancing highlights the driving pulse that once filled community halls and kitchen floors across the region.
Eddy, a West Virginian steeped in fiddle, banjo and dance traditions, is known for both her musicianship and teaching. She has toured and recorded with The Early Mays and The Kolodner Quartet. A multi-instrumentalist on fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin, she moves easily from lonesome ballads to high-spirited dance tunes, connecting earlier generations of players with today’s audiences.
In addition to the evening performance, the artists will visit local schools, allowing students to experience traditional music up close and ask questions about how these art forms fit into modern life. Organizers say those outreach programs are central to the Opera House’s mission to serve as a cultural gathering place for Pocahontas County.
Tickets are available for a $10 donation, with free admission for those 17 and younger. Tickets can be purchased online at pocahontasoperahouse.org, at 4th Avenue Gallery in Marlinton, or at the door, space permitting.
The Opera House Performance Series is supported by grants from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, with additional support from Pocahontas County Dramas, Fairs and Festivals and the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
