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FAIRMONT - They've been performing together nearly four decades; Robin, who had always wanted to make a living as a musician, and Linda, who never saw herself going out on the road as a solo artist.

"When we hooked up in the early '70s, it just seemed the thing to do," Robin said.

Since then, Robin and Linda Williams, also known as Robin and Linda Williams and Their Fine Group, have recorded 20-plus albums. They're touring to promote their newest, "Buena Vista," and will perform at Fairmont Opera House on Feb. 20.

As Robin packed up the van to hit the road, Linda was on the phone discussing the couple's musical roots.

"Robin and I have been playing together since 1973; it will be 36 years in May," she said. "We had been living in Tennessee when we got married, and then moved up to Virginia.

"We started playing a lot of colleges, many that were in the Midwest. That's how we started making connections. We produced our first record in Minneapolis, we met Garrison Keillor and we started on the radio show (A Prairie Home Companion) in 1975. And then we made a bunch of records."

Robin and Linda are almost the exact same age, so their exposure to music was quite similar. Growing up, Linda's parents listened to country, Dixieland and swing. In high school, the music on the radio was rock 'n' roll, but she preferred acoustic folk music, like The Kingston Trio, Joan Baez and later Bob Dylan.

"It was a really exciting time, and I think this is a pretty exciting time as well," Linda said, referring to a renewed passion young people have for folk music.

She saw Joni Mitchell perform live before Mitchell released Circle Game. She learned how to play guitar herself as a 15-year-old.

"I love to play," she said. "I started in college playing in little bars and clubs. I'm not sure I would have gone out on my own, as a solo person. Music was always in my heart and a really big part of my life, but I didn't see myself going on the road and doing it as a living."

Not until she met Robin. He had just been hired out by a national coffee house circuit. When they got married, she thought they would perform for a few years and then settle down.

"It didn't work out that way," she said, laughing. "We got more and more involved in music ... and wanted to get better at our instruments and know more about the roots music of America."

They also were interested in writing their own songs.

"There are songwriters who I think have been very inspirational to us," she said, listing off Townes Van Zandt, Steve Young and Bob Dylan as some of their favorites. "We saw them as being more interesting to us as songwriters than big pop stars."

Their new album, according to Red House Records, is about a colorful cast of characters, from a narrator who loses everything to the homeless to the corrupt businessman.

"I've liked Linda and Robin Williams for years, with their appearances on Prairie Home Companion as regulars," said Tom Dodge, Opera House managing director. "... They have a very mellow sound of course, and it sort of runs the full gamut from folk-bluesy music to pensive bluegrass." The Williamses did appear on the Prairie Home Companion movie, for anyone who wants a sneak preview of their performing style.

For their show in Fairmont, Robin and Linda will be joined on stage by two other musicians, Jim Watson and Chris Brashear.

The group will perform 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at Fairmont Opera House. Tickets are available at the Opera house; $18 for adults and $5 for students.