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Country Store Opry opens 50th year on April 1

PETERSBURG — The Country Store Opry will open its 50th year of providing classic country music throughout the Potomac Highlands Saturday at the Landes Arts Center in Petersburg. The CSO is the third longest running country music show in the state of West Virginia following the Wheeling Jamboree and the Sage Brush Roundup in Fairmont.

The late Ernie Mullenax of Landes established the CSO and held the first show in February 1967 in an old country store/post office building in Landes owned by his father, the late Roland Mullenax.

All shows were held at this location until his death in 2004.

The CSO currently has seven band members: Wendell Nelson, charter member; and Carolyn Simmons of Franklin, Grey Cassell of Brandywine, Danny Kendrick of Buckhannon, Mark and Debbie Phillips and Jeff Broschart of Elkins.

Today the CSO conducts shows on a regular basis in Franklin, Petersburg and Moorefield. A special 50th anniversary celebration show, with special guests, will be held at the Landes Arts Center in Petersburg from 7-9:30 p.m. May 20.

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