Chapel Hill’s Mandolin Orange Will Play the Grand Ole Opry

Mandolin Orange, one of Chapel Hill’s most beloved local bands, will be making their debut on a historic American stage on Friday.

The famous Americana/folk duo consisting of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz started playing together in Chapel Hill in 2009.  Friday, April 19, Mandolin Orange will be taking the stage in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, alongside Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Terri Clark and more musical guests.

Mandolin Orange has a talent for harmonies, and their voices are backed by signature instrumentation sourced in Marlin’s gift for strings — which manifests through mandolin, guitar and banjo — as well as Frantz’s soaring violin and grounded guitar.

Signed to Yep Roc Records in 2013 after two initial independent albums, Mandolin Orange’s appearance at the Opry will likely include tunes from their sixth album ,”Tides of a Teardrop,” which was released on February 1, 2019, and hit #13 on Billboard’s US Country chart.

The Grand Ole Opry is styled as “the show that made country music famous,” and as a weekly show with deep roots in Nashville – since 1925, to be exact – that statement isn’t too much of an exaggeration. Especially considering some of the Opry’s earliest acts include names like Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce.

You can listen to the show – which starts at 7:00 p.m. Friday – here.