Watchhouse – Rituals (Tiptoe Tiger Music/Thirty Tigers, 2025)
Watchhouse (Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz) offer a quiet invocation on their exquisite new album Rituals. This latest chapter feels like a carefully tended altar: a place where memory, myth, and melody converge.
Long celebrated for their telepathic musical connection, the North Carolina duo steps with quiet conviction into deeper territory here. Rituals is their first full-length release of entirely original material since their 2021 self-titled rebirth, and it marks a metamorphosis. Co-produced with trusted collaborator Ryan Gustafson (The Dead Tongues), the eleven-track album is a beauty.
At its heart, Rituals asks the kinds of questions that echo long after the music fades: What does it mean to welcome change with grace? Can endings hold the same holiness as beginnings? And in an unraveling world, might we still find patterns worth trusting?
The lead single, “All Around You,” has already drawn quiet awe. Marlin’s lyrical clarity cuts cleanly, while Frantz’s harmonies shimmer like water under moonlight. The arrangement, as ever, is understated but expansive: elegant strings, percussion that pulses like a second heartbeat, and patience that feels almost radical in today’s musical landscape.
Watchhouse’s origin story, small-town stages, roadside diners, the slow-burning chemistry of two musicians finding a shared language, remains part of their background. But what they’ve built since then defies the usual arc. In an industry drawn to spectacle and visuals, they have chosen subtlety. With sold-out shows at Red Rocks and the Ryman, and millions of streams that speak to a deep, enduring resonance, Marlin and Frantz have quietly ushered Appalachian-rooted folk into a new century, tenderly, deliberately, and without dilution.
The duo’s sound, gorgeous vocals and delicate instrumentation, melancholic, measured, and luminous, finds new elements here, as if they’ve spent the last few years learning to speak in shadows. There’s no rush toward resolution. Instead, they linger in the in-between, honoring liminality as its own form of grace.
Watchhouse is hitting the road in 2025 for an extensive US tour, including shows with The Avett Brothers and festival appearances at MerleFest, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, and more. Their headline dates start on June 14th in St. Paul, MN, and will continue through fall with stops in Chicago, Seattle, NYC, and more.
Musicians: Andrew Marlin on vocals, bouzouki, mandolin, electric tenor guitar, 12-string guitar, harmonium, acoustic guitar, mandola, pump organ, piano; Emily Frantz on vocals, electric guitar, bouzouki, fiddle, acoustic guitar; Josh Oliver on vocals, electric guitar, banjo, 12-string guitar, acoustic guitar; Clint Mullican on bass; Ryan Gustafson on vocals, baritone guitar, bass, 12-string guitar, harmonica, piano; Jamie Dick on drums, percussion; Nat Smith on piano, Mellotron, cello, effects; and Matt Smith on pedal steel.
Watchhouse 2025 Tour Dates
May 31 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap *
June 14 – St. Paul, MN – Palace Theatre
June 15 – Maquoketa, IA – Codfish Hollow Barnstormers
June 17 – Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Eclectic Cafe
June 18 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee
June 19 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
June 20 – Indianapolis, IN – Rock the Ruins
June 22 – Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
July 11 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater *
July 12 – Cheyenne, WY – The Lincoln
July 13 – Salt Lake City, UT – Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
July 14 – Jackson, WY – Center for the Arts
July 16 – Seattle, WA – Pier 62
July 17 – Jacksonville, OR – Britt Festival Pavilion
July 18 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
July 19 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
August 9 – Lyons, CO – Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
August 10 – Colorado Springs, CO – Pikes Peak Center
August 12 – Toronto, ON – The Concert Hall
August 13 – Buffalo, NY – Asbury Hall
August 14 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts of Homer
August 15 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
August 16 – Manchester, VT – Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots
August 18 – Charlton, MA – The Pavilion at Tree House Brewing
August 30 – Wilmington, NC – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater
September 21 – Richmond, VA – Iron Blossom Music Festival
October 15 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
October 16 – Boston, MA – Royale
October 17 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
November 7 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
November 8 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
November 21 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
November 22 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
November 23 – Knoxville, TN – Tennessee Theatre
- supporting The Avett Brothers
Buy Rituals.
Author: Ryan Emmert
