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Opry Night at the Pocahontas County Opera House has come to showcase some of the best musical talent from Pocahontas County and the surrounding region. On Saturday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m., musicians from Pocahontas County and Southwestern Virginia share the Opry Night bill: The Elk River Ramblers and The Black Twig Pickers.
The Elk River Ramblers are the house band at the Elk River Inn and Restaurant at Slaty Fork, where they can be heard most Thursday nights.
The Elk River Ramblers are Terry Richardson on guitar, Paul Marganian on fiddle, guitar and vocals, and Galen Watts on bass and vocals. With a foundation in old-time and celtic music, The Elk River Ramblers also branch out into bluegrass, klezmer and surprising renditions of contemporary pop music.
The Black Twig Pickers are defined by a forward-thinking approach to a musical tradition too often associated only with times gone by. Both scholars of the regional sounds around them and advocates of an ecstatic, highly personal performance style, Mike Gangloff, Sally Anne Morgan, Isak Howell and Nathan Bowles have established themselves as dedicated practitioners of old-time music re-cast and shaped by their appreciation of modern improvisation, drone and punk. Not at odds with the experimental scene that fostered them or the old-time circles they travel in, The Black Twig Pickers thrive in the in-between-ness of those two worlds, proving that the exploration of the outmost bounds of sound and the exploration of decades-old tradition and community aren’t as different as one might think.
Opera House doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 and available in advance at pocahontasoperahouse.org and at the Fourth Avenue Gallery in Marlinton. Youth 17 and younger are admitted free of charge.
The Pocahontas County Opera House is located at 818 Third Avenue in Marlinton. Performances at the Opera House are informal, family-friendly and open to all. The entrance and main seating are accessible to persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to attend; special accommodations can be arranged upon request by calling 304-799-6645.
The Opera House Performance Series is presented with financial assistance through a grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts. Support is also provided by Pocahontas County Dramas, Fairs and Festivals, the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, NRAO, Pendleton Community Bank, the Law Office of Roger D. Forman, Allegheny Mountain Radio, Stephen and Cynthia Olson, Sam and Dru Kusic, David and Carole Cobb, Doug Bernier, New Hope Lutheran Church, Kim Dilts and J.T. Arbogast.
