Songs We Love: Mandolin Orange, 'Old Ties And Companions'

After quietly releasing three albums on their own in 2010 and 2011, the North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange (Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin) broke quickly onto the folk and Americana scene with their acclaimed album This Side of Jordan, released by YepRoc in 2013. Since then, it's been constant touring and life on the road, but they've been able to let the experience soak in enough to inform a new collection of songs. Their follow-up album, Such Jubilee, is due out on May 5, and to be clear, Emily Frantz says, this is not an album "about the road," but rather one that follows the thread of things waiting for you when you're finally home.

The album opener, "Old Ties and Companions," is an old-timey, guitar/mandolin ballad written by Andrew Marlin, full of graceful ease that subtlely pulls you in. "Old man give me endless time / Never let these ties sever / Cause heaven knows in all this foolin' round / these times won't last forever," he sings. It's a reminder not to take special times and moments with people in our life for granted because they don't last forever.