The advent of autumn means a windfall of sweets: pumpkin pie, candy corn, Halloween candy. Another sweet treat is around the corner, too: a new record from Chapel Hill’s Mandolin Orange. On Saturday, the band celebrates the release of its new double album, at Cat’s Cradle.
Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin met in January of 2009, and performed solely as a pair through the May 2010 release of their debut. Both sing, with Marlin playing guitar and Frantz on fiddle.
It wasn’t until later that summer that the two began to integrate drummer James Wallace and bassist Jeff Crawford into its shows, and eventually onto .
The album would have stopped with the full-band sound of , but Marlin continued to write more duo-appropriate songs that he didn’t want to wait another year to release. Thus, was born, and Mandolin Orange suddenly had a double album on its hands.
The band hasn’t kept its growth to just its tunes. In the years since its inception, Mandolin Orange has gone from meekly playing small rooms to owning the stage while headlining Local 506.
Dan Schram first watched and videotaped Mandolin Orange in November 2009, and has since become its unofficial archivist. He records almost any show he can see, his estimate hovering around 20 shows.
“It seems like the more shows they’ve done, the more confidence both of them have gotten, for sure,” Schram said. “It’s very night and day as far as their initial shows where they were — not skittish, but you could see they were nervous to where they’re somewhat seasoned pros at this point.”
Roots music enthusiast Anson Burtch recently helped the band with its first music video for “Clover Tune.” He first saw the band at Troika Music Festival last November and has kept close.
“The elements you need to really make it — the talent, musicianship, marketability — they have all of those elements. I can really see them doing well down the road,” he said of the band.
