Watchhouse

First meeting on the Inauguration Day of President Obama in 2009, guitarist Andrew Marlin was strumming away at a jam session hosted by friends in a bluegrass band called Big Fat Gap when fiddle player Emily Frantz joined in on the traditional standard "Bury Me Beneath the Willow Tree". After a couple more songs, their natural musical connection was instantly apparent and the pair grew from playing traditional tunes to creating original songs and self-producing debut album Quiet Little Room in their home town of Chapel Hill in 2010. Marlin had originally played guitar in rock bands but, after the death of his mother when he was 18, music became a therapeutic focus for him and upon hearing a collaboration record between Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice, he turned his attention fully to mastering the intricacies of bluegrass. Frantz on the other hand had started out learning classical violin through the Suzuki method as a child, before growing tired of the formality of her lessons and taking to the vibrant exuberance of bluegrass fiddle in her teens, later becoming inspired by Alison Krauss and The Carter Family. As a resurgence in rootsy Americana music began to reach a younger generation, the duo's gentle harmonies and twanging lullabies established them on the US folk scene with the album This Side of Jordan was named as one of the top ten folk records of the 2013 by NPR and was compared to the likes of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Old Crow Medicine Show. The couple later married and toured with The Avett Brothers and their album Blindfaller in 2016 captured both the duo's intimate, evocative, Appalachian sweetness and the melancholy and raw, desperate doom that Marlin's songs often came laced with. They also made their debut at the Newport Folk Festival, had their first daughter before returning in 2019 with their sixth album Tides of Teardrop, on which Marlin tackled his mother's death in his songs for the first time. In April 2021, the duo announced that they would change the group's name from Mandolin Orange to Watchhouse. Under this new name are issued the albums Watchhouse in 2021, Watchhouse (Duo) in 2022, and Austin City Limits Live: At the Moody Theater in 2024.