Watchhouse (Mandolin Orange) Such Jubilee LP (Opaque Deep Purple Vinyl)

"All of these songs are definitely a product of being on the road," says multi-instrumentalist/singer Emily Frantz of Watchhouse's gorgeous album, Such Jubilee, "but they're not about the road." "They're about home," explains songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/singer Andrew Marlin. "Not because we were missing it, but because when you're gone so much, you start realizing what you have and what's waiting for you. You realize there's this place to come back to at the end of the journey, and that's where a lot of these songs come from."

Such Jubilee is a record about home, both the place and the idea. Some days it's a safe, warm, loving refuge from the world outside. Other days it's cold and empty and too quiet. Either way, it's always waiting for you at the end of the road.

Such Jubilee, the fourth studio long-player from Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, finds the North Carolina duo tilling familiar ground, offering up another timeless-sounding set of unapologetically homespun American Roots music built around the age-old foundation of heartfelt lyrics, sweet harmonies, and gentle strumming and picking....Marlin and Frantz craft songs with one foot in the now and the other in the hereafter, and while their particular blend of neo-Appalachian folk and road-weary Americana is hardly a revelation, it's certainly of a quality that deserves the pricing of a fine vintage.