Railbird veterans outgrow name, return to Bluegrass as Watchhouse

Explore the music of Watchhouse and the term you will see affixed most readily to its songs, performances and overall musical expression is folk.

To be sure, what sits squarely in the middle of the songs fashioned by the Chapel Hill husband/wife duo of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz is a sense of quiet, folkish reflection. But after 16 years of making records (initially under the moniker of Mandolin Orange before changing names in 2021), what was once folk has bloomed into something fuller.

You hear it at once on the duo’s eighth album, “Rituals.” A folk perspective of time and place is certainly represented, but the music has a richer, warmer and more spacious sense of invitation than what one might expect from conventional folk.

Some of that stems from the couple’s musical dexterity. Both are multi-instrumentalists (Marlin alone is credited on the album for playing mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, organ, piano and multiple guitars) that benefit greatly from the support of a full band. Then there is also the narrative perspective, one that reflects the passage of time, be it that of a single day (as in the Frantz-sung “Firelight”) or a period more open-ended (the Marlin-led album opener “Shape.”)

Finally, there is the sound. While folk designs are obvious, the music takes on an almost ambient glow that unfolds in layers that are simultaneously lush and intimate.

Folk? Sorta. But there is today much more to watch for in Watchhouse’s music.

“I can only speak for myself,” Marlin said. “I’m sure Emily would have a whole different take on it, but for me, ‘Rituals’ reflects getting older, but getting comfortable with that and actually starting to find a lot of joy in the way things are settling in my mind and in my heart — just the way I kind of navigate the world and my friendships.

“I think one thing Em and I have always tried to do with a record is to let it just be an honest representation of where we’re at in our lives. That’s the place where I write from. That’s where we end up playing from.”

Veterans of numerous Lexington performances, including the inaugural Railbird festival in 2019 (as Mandolin Orange), Marlin and Frantz also had plenty of personal growth to reflect upon in making “Rituals.” Some of it was joyous, as in the fact the couple now have two children. Some of it less so, like navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and recuperating from injuries after getting hit by a car in an Iowa City crosswalk in 2022.

“I wanted our new songs to also work through some of the things that Emily and I have been through, like getting hit by the car and then coming out of the pandemic. This was the first record we’ve made since then. Just a whole world of good and bad condensed down into these little three-minute songs.”

Okay, so how exactly does one find growth and inspiration in getting slammed into by an automobile when you’re legally crossing the street in a crosswalk?

“In some ways, it’s probably good that it happened,” Marlin said.

Come again?

“In a lot of ways, I learned a lot from the experience. I think I’m just trying to take the Zen approach just because it was kind of a wake-up call. You know, we’re still glad to be here. That alone has led to so much gratefulness in our lives and so much appreciation for what we have and what we want to do.”

A lifelong North Caroliner, Marlin took an initial fascination to music with the purchase of his first guitar at age 14 in his hometown of Warrenton before moving to the artistically fertile Chapel Hill when he turned 20.

“That’s when I got really inspired to dive in and learn the mandolin. There was a bluegrass band that needed a mandolin player, so they handed me one and it was like, ‘Well, okay. I’ll give it a shot.’ I don’t even know if I would have ever played the instrument if it weren’t for that. But there just so much music happening around here during that time. I would stay out almost every single night playing with friends or going to see a show. All of a sudden, there was a whole community of friends I was able to fall into. I’m super grateful for that time.”

Perhaps the most curious turn in the music Marlin and Franz explored together was switching band names after their collaborative career began to gain national attention. While their music didn’t shift dramatically outside of an already evolving sound, a name shift from Mandolin Orange to Watchhouse represented a rebranding of sorts. Subsequent identity issues were anticipated and, in a way, welcomed.

“There were identity problems, but that was kind of the point. We were getting to an age where identity gets to be blurry anyway.

“The answer we kept coming back to when people would ask us ‘Why did you do it?’ was that we wanted to. We kind of internalized it because it’s just Emily and I making music together. We can call it whatever we want. I think at that time in our lives, we needed to take back control and take back a little bit of our own selves, to just kind of start over, even though we had all these records and all these songs. It was a way for both of us to just hit restart. Since then, I feel like it’s made us realize we’re not always in this box and the expectations that are put on us as entertainers don’t always have to be the things that dictate what we do as artists.”

Oddly enough, some of Marlin’s most prominent career recognition has come from working outside the Mandolin Orange/Watchhouse camp. In 2023, he joined members of Punch Brothers, Leftover Salmon and Billy Strings’ band to form Mighty Poplar, a self-described “real deal bluegrass” ensemble fashioned after the all-star Bluegrass Album Band of the 1980s. Mighty Poplar’s self-titled debut album wound up with a 2024 Grammy nomination (it lost to Molly Tuttle.)

“Just getting to play music with those folks, to feel how they hear the groove of the music and how they navigate progressions, was like going to school. I came out of that kind of exhausted, honestly. It was like I had a crash course in how to actually play music. I feel like I’m still picking up the pieces that I’ve got scattered around my mind from such a wonderful experience and putting them all together.”

At heart, however, Marlin, remains a musical family man. Co-leading a band with his wife means balancing numerous artistic highs with basic familial needs and discoveries.

“There has been a lot of personal growth because we can’t just leave home, hop on a plane and totally bury our heads into being artists for weeks at a time. We’ve got kids to feed, entertain and keep safe. We need to explain the world and let them see all these venues we’re going to and all these people. It’s cool to see the country through their eyes and meet all these people through their eyes. There is a fresh perspective every day we wake up.”

Watchhouse/Sarah Kate Morgan and Leo Shannon

When: Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

Where: EKU Center for the Arts, 822 Hall Drive in Richmond

Tickets: $16.42-$87.14

Online: ekucenter.com

This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 4:55 AM.