“I’ve seen a lot of shows here, and it’s real nice to finally get to play The Nightlight,” Andrew Marlin said last week. 

The Nightlight, in Chapel Hill, has low ceilings, a few skylights, a bar, and a reading nook in the back corner with a couple of couches, a coffee table, and bookshelves with paperbacks tumbling onto each other. It kind of felt like we were in a ship bottom, so even though I knew the music would be excellent, I was curious if the room would swallow up the sound. It was awesome—as I was walking out, I heard three different people go up to the sound engineer and thank him. Nightlight is one of the few venues I know of still requiring proof of vaccination and masks, and no one grumbled or argued, maybe because doing those things is an expression of community support.

It was all pretty casual. Andrew’s wife and collaborator, Emily Franz, was selling merch with their daughter on her lap. When she had to toddler-chase, and after she took their kiddo home for bed, paying for t-shirts or records was on an honor system. 

The music itself felt this way too–relaxed and together. It’s in how this band listens to each other intently, but never seems to take themselves too seriously. They’re telling inside jokes with looks–a memory about this song or that one, or winking at the fact that, in Andrew’s words, they “get carried away” and speed up a somber tune. Each are world class players: Andrew, of course, on mandolin and octave mandolin, Josh Oliver on guitar, Clint Mullican on bass, and Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle. Before playing “Bending Blades,” a Tim O’Brien cover, Andrew said he’d always admired how casually Tim plays and sings. And this band embodies that idea: they don’t force anything, and what results is beautiful. 

I loved the song, “Too Hot to Move.” Here in North Carolina, it’ll be 101 degrees today, and will be one of those days that Andrew described: where “there’s a glass of ice water just out of reach, and it’s just too far to move to get it.” The song takes that feeling and is an absolutely perfect representation in sound. You can feel the heat and the exhaustion and Christian and Andrew seemed to have a great time drawing out the notes on their solo breaks. One of my favorite medleys of the evening was “Farewell to Holly Bluff / The Watch House.” Andrew talked about the kernel of these songs: remembering family friends who’d been so good to him as a kid, and who are no longer with us. “It comes from a sentimental place, but it’s a party tune,” Andrew said, reminding us that the best music holds a range of emotions. 

There was a show-stopping version of “Wayfaring Stranger,” which they’ve just begun to play recently, and Josh Oliver gained a whole audience of fans when Emily joined on stage at the end of the first set to play his song, “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over.” Emily stayed for another medley, this one exploring the joys of parenthood and trying to get your kid to sleep, “Salter Path / The Throes of Night.” Christian Sedelmyer described his song, “Pushin’ Through” as reflective of the peaks and valleys that are inevitable in life and the experience of being in a valley and working toward the next peak. “It’s an eight minute song,” Andrew said. “Sometimes it takes a while to reach the next peak.” 

Of all the amazing music we heard, “Fable & Fire,” a request from Andrew’s mother in-law, is the one that I’ve had on repeat since the show. It’s a song that Andrew wrote for his mother, and the hymns she would play on the piano. Those hymns, Andrew said, are a major influence on the way he thinks about song structures. The song began with just Andrew playing the melody, joined then by Christian, then Josh, and Clint. And while many songs during the night were joyful or simply amazing, this one reached a different plane that I can only describe as grace.

“It’s good to feel human humidity,” Andrew said about halfway through the show. This show was everything that I missed about live music: an audience leaning in, a band communicating beyond language, and the feeling that this will only happen one time, and we were together for it. 

If you get the chance to see the Andrew Marlin Band, don’t pass it up. In the meantime, they’ve  put out some beautiful records over the past couple of years, and, as the weather gets warmer and it’s too hot to move, I recommend a hammock, a good book, with some beautiful music to keep you company. 

Photo gallery here.