Carrying on a century-old tradition of group music singing, the Penn-Ohio Singers will present their annual concerts of barbershop music at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday at West Middlesex High School.

Under the direction of Jeff Gehm, the group will perform standard barbershop and patriotic tunes and songs from the '50s and '60s.

The chapter group Sound Advantage also will sing.

The concert will feature two visiting groups, Chordiac Arrest, a comedy quartet from Chicago, and the Steel City Harmonizers of Pittsburgh.

A chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, the Penn-Ohio Singers received its charter in 1981. Starting with 26 members, the chapter has grown to 65.

Drawing from the western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio areas, the group also features a 15-member Hermitage Harmonizers chorus and four quartets, including There Goes the Neighborhood, Common Bond and the Hot Air Buffoons.

In competition, the Penn-Ohio Singers have won Eastern Divisional first-place honors several times, the latest in 2001. They are ranked in the top 2 percent nationally.

Out of the spotlight, the group presents singing valentines and other seasonal greetings, sings in nursing and retirement homes and fills in for vacationing church choirs.

The singers also donate time and money to local school music programs, sponsors clinics at high schools, and have helped raise money for United Way of Northern Mercer County and United Way of Grove City.

The group rehearses at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays at St. Paul's United Church of Christ, Hermitage.

The first Mercer County barbershop chapter started in the 1940s and produced the quartets the Staff Masters, the TransFour and the Lytle Brothers, which won national recognition.

That chapter folded in 1972.

Tickets: from chapter members or at the door.

Information: www.members.tripod.com/pennohiosingers