Longbranch Saloon, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, quietly closed its doors for the last time over the weekend, the end to a 26-year run.

"The economy is what really got us," club manager Dan Wood said. "Especially the price of gas. We have a lot of regulars from out of town -- Durham, Oxford, Smithfield, Butner, Fayetteville -- and they just could not afford to drive that far anymore. We hate that."

Ultimately, a combination of factors, including increasing overhead and escalating competition in the local entertainment landscape, doomed the Longbranch as much as high gas prices.

What happens next is up to Raleigh lawyer Holmes P. Harden. He was appointed Monday morning as trustee of the Longbranch at the club's request, said Longbranch's attorney, Bill Janvier.

Owner Fred Wilburn opened Longbranch on Creekside Drive just inside Raleigh's Beltline in 1982. Country music was the bread and butter of the cavernous 30,000-square-foot venue with a capacity of more than 3,000. Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks were just a few of the rising country stars to play the club on their way up.

"Oh yeah, everybody from Garth to Alan [Jackson] to Shania [Twain] played the Longbranch," said Lisa McKay, program director for Raleigh country station WQDR, 94.7-FM. "It was such a good place to see up-and-coming bands, that whole vibe."

Although the Longbranch was identified with country music, it also presented rock, pop and hip-hop in its "Top-40 Room." Rapper Busta Rhymes was to play there late this month.

But diversifying was not enough to preserve the club in the face of emerging competition. In particular, Raleigh's emerging Glenwood South and warehouse districts started drawing crowds downtown and away from Longbranch.

With $40,000-a-month rent, the Longbranch had high overhead. In recent years, the popularity of country music drove that overhead even higher.

"Entertainment just got so much more expensive," office manager Shelle McCollum said. "We'd have to pay $15,000 for someone fresh out of the gate. And someone like Jason Aldean would bring in a huge crowd but might cost $35,000."

Another financial blow hit in 2006, when Longbranch closed for nine weeks to address fire- and building-code violations with $300,000 worth of upgrades. The club fell behind on rent as its crowds dwindled.

"Our crowds were down, very much so," Wood said. "I went back and looked at the books, and it was still halfway decent on weekends. Saturday night was still good. But not the rest of the week."

Longbranch isn't the first local-music institution to fold this year. Schoolkids Records closed its long-running Chapel Hill store in March because of declining CD sales.

There are other record stores in the area, but replacing Longbranch might be more difficult.

"I don't know if there's another place in town that can absorb what they did," WQDR's McKay said. "I'm not sure the metrics work for a place like that anymore. I don't know if you can make a living paying $10,000 to $15,000 for a baby act."

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