Opry Night has grown into an annual winter tradition at the Pocahontas County Opera House, a night when the building feels less like a venue and more like a front porch for regional roots music.
On Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at 7 p.m., the Opera House hosts “Opry Night 2026” with a double bill featuring Emily Miller and Val Mindel alongside Becky Hill and Rachel Eddy. Each year, Opry Night brings some of the best traditional musicians from around the region to Marlinton, offering a stage where they can showcase the music they live with every day — not as nostalgia, but as part of their working lives.
Emily Miller is widely known in West Virginia traditional music circles as artistic director of the Augusta Heritage Center and string band director of the Appalachian Ensemble at Davis & Elkins College. A singer and fiddle player with deep roots in classic country and old-time music, Emily Miller has toured and recorded with guitarist and singer Jesse Milnes and serves as a lead singer and twin fiddler in the country band The Sweetback Sisters. Together, Emily Miller and Val Mindel have released two duet albums, “In the Valley” and “Close to Home,” collections of close-harmony country duets in the spirit of early family acts such as the Louvin Brothers and the Stanley Brothers. Emily Miller grew up singing classic country songs with her parents, giving her a natural, conversational way with harmony and story songs.
Val Mindel, her mother and frequent collaborator, has spent decades immersed in old-time and early country music. A longtime musician, teacher and workshop leader, Val Mindel is a founding member of the California-based Any Old Time String Band and has been a key voice in teaching close country harmony at camps and workshops across the United States and the United Kingdom. The duet work of Emily Miller and Val Mindel has helped define a contemporary approach to the tight, “buzzy” blend at the heart of early country duets, while keeping the music firmly rooted in its Appalachian sources. Onstage, Emily Miller and Val Mindel share more than a set list; their intergenerational partnership offers a clear look at how songs move through families as well as through time.
If Emily Miller and Val Mindel embody the vocal and emotional core of old-time music, Becky Hill and Rachel Eddy bring its physical energy into focus. Becky Hill is a percussive dancer, square dance caller, choreographer and educator whose work highlights the rhythmic engine inside traditional tunes. She has performed with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes and Good Foot Dance Company, and appears with groups such as the T-Mart Rounders and Big Family Business, connecting her dancing directly to working string bands on both festival and concert stages. Her feet function as both drum kit and storyteller, turning steps into a visible rhythm section and reminding audiences that this music was always meant to be moved to.
Rachel Eddy, a West Virginian steeped in the state’s fiddle, banjo and dance traditions, is known as both a powerful performer and a thoughtful teacher. In addition to solo work, Rachel Eddy has toured and recorded with groups such as The Early Mays and The Kolodner Quartet, experience that keeps their playing firmly planted in the center of today’s old-time scene. The multi-instrumental skills of Rachel Eddy — including fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin — allow performances to move easily from lonesome ballads to driving dance tunes, bridging older source players and newer generations just finding their way into the music.
Together, Emily Miller, Val Mindel, Becky Hill and Rachel Eddy create the kind of mix Opry Night has become known for: tight harmony singing, powerful instrumental work, percussive dance and the kind of stage presence that makes even unfamiliar songs feel close at hand. The result is less like a packaged concert and more like an evening inside the living tradition of Appalachian music.
This year’s Opry Night will also extend beyond the evening performance. Emily Miller, Val Mindel, Becky Hill and Rachel Eddy will take part in school programs, giving local students a chance to hear the music up close, ask questions and see how traditional arts can fit into a modern life. Those outreach events are a key part of the Opera House’s mission to serve as the cultural heart of the community, enriching the lives of people young and old and making sure the next generation has its own point of entry into the region’s music and stories.
Tickets for Opry Night 2026 are available for a $10 donation, with free admission for those 17 and under. That structure keeps the evening within reach for families and helps introduce younger listeners to a style of music they might not encounter elsewhere. Tickets can be obtained through the Opera House website, at the 4th Avenue Gallery in Marlinton or at the venue on the day of the performance.
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. Additional support comes from Pocahontas County Dramas, Fairs and Festivals and the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, reflecting a shared commitment to preserving and promoting the region’s cultural heritage.
