Watchhouse

Watchhouse represents the collaborative effort of North Carolina musicians Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, whose measured compositions draw on multiple strands of Americana while mirroring the couple’s personal circumstances. The Chapel Hill-based pair, previously recording as Mandolin Orange, reached a career peak with the widely praised 2019 release Tides of a Teardrop, their final project under the earlier moniker; that album topped the Heatseeker chart, rose to number two on the folk chart, and entered the Billboard 200. In 2021 they adopted the Watchhouse name for their sixth studio album, a self-titled set issued on Yep Roc, followed the next year by a leaner acoustic edition titled Duo and, in early 2024, by Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater, a recording of their 2020 appearance at the Texas venue that had earlier circulated online under the Mandolin Orange name.

Marlin and Frantz first performed together as Mandolin Orange in 2009, blending bluegrass, gospel, folk, country, and pop elements in the manner of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the Civil Wars, and Nickel Creek. Their close vocal harmonies and agile playing on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle defined a pair of self-released efforts in 2010 and 2011 that led to a contract with Yep Roc for the 2013 album This Side of Jordan. Steady road work, prominent festival slots, and further recordings such as Such Jubilee in 2015 and Blindfaller in 2016—captured with a six-piece band and appearing on three separate Billboard charts—raised their visibility throughout the decade. After marking ten years of activity with Tides of a Teardrop, the musicians stepped back at the close of 2019 to devote time to their expanding family.

When they resurfaced in 2021, the duo retired the Mandolin Orange identity in favor of Watchhouse, a designation better suited to the optimistic tone of the new songs. Yep Roc later issued the 2024 live album documenting the 2020 Austin City Limits performance, previously offered directly through the band’s site as Mandolin Orange.